John 19:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But the Jews neither followed the star nor acknowledged the inscription. This was a foreshadowing of what the Lord Himself later said: “Many will come from east and west and recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness” (Mt 8:11-12).

Thus the Magi came from the east, and Pilate from the west. The Magi testified to the rising of the King of the Jews, that is, His Nativity. Pilate testified to the setting of the King of the Jews, that is, His death.

This was so that they might recline in the Kingdom of Heaven with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from whom the Jews take their origin. Though according to the flesh they do not descend from them, by faith they were grafted into them. Thus was already foreshadowed that wild branch which, according to the Apostle, was to be grafted into the olive tree (cf. Mt 2:1-12; Rom 11:17-21).

The leaders of the Jews urged Pilate not to write that He was King of the Jews, since He Himself claimed to be King of the Jews. Pilate answered: “What I have written, I have written.” Thus Pilate symbolized that very wild olive tree which would be grafted in, while the leaders of the Jews embodied the broken branches.

He was a man from the Gentiles, and for the Gentiles he made the inscription concerning their faith. For the Lord rightly said: “The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruits” (Mt 21:43).

Pilate wrote “The King of the Jews,” not “King of the Greeks or Latins,” although Jesus was to reign over all nations. What he wrote, he wrote, changing nothing at the demand of the unbelieving. This had long ago been foretold in the psalm: “Do not destroy the inscription” (cf. headings of Ps 57 and Ps 58).

All nations believe in the King of the Jews. He reigns over all nations, but He reigns as King of the Jews. So strong was that root that it could change the grafted branch of the wild olive, although that branch could not change its own name.

O inexpressible power of divine activity even in the hearts of the ignorant! Did some hidden voice not sound within Pilate, in a kind of, if one may say so, crying silence? For this had so long before been foretold in the Psalms: “Do not alter what is written in the inscription” (cf. Ps 57:1).

So he did not alter what had been written in the inscription. What he wrote, he wrote. But what did the chief priests, who wanted to alter it, say? “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that He said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’” (Jn 19:21).

What are you saying, madmen? Why do you oppose what you cannot in any way change? Does it cease to be true because Jesus said, “I am the King of the Jews”? If what Pilate wrote cannot be changed, can what the Truth said be changed?

But is Christ only King of the Jews, or also of the Gentiles? Certainly He is also King of the Gentiles. For when He said in prophecy, “I have been established by Him as King over Zion, His holy mountain, proclaiming the commandment of the Lord,” He immediately added something so that no one, because of Mount Zion, would say that He was established as King only for the Jews.

“The Lord said to Me: Thou art My Son. Today I have begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession” (Ps 2:6-8). Therefore He Himself said with His own mouth among the Jews: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. Them also I must bring. They will hear My voice, and there will be one flock and one Shepherd” (Jn 10:16).

Why, then, do we wish a great mystery to be understood in this inscription, where “The King of the Jews” was written, if Christ is also King of the Gentiles? Because the wild olive was grafted into the richness of the olive tree, and the olive tree was not grafted into the bitterness of the wild olive (cf. Rom 11:17).

Since “The King of the Jews” was truthfully written about Christ in the inscription, what Jews should be understood except the seed of Abraham, the children of the promise, who are also children of God? For the Apostle said: “It is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as seed” (Rom 9:8).

Those to whom he said this were Gentiles: “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:29). Therefore Christ is King of the Jews, but of Jews by circumcision of the heart, in the Spirit and not in the letter. Their praise is not from men but from God (cf. Rom 2:29).

They are Jews belonging to the free Jerusalem, our eternal mother in the heavens, the spiritual Sarah, who cast the bondwoman and her children out of the house of freedom (cf. Gal 4:22-31). Therefore Pilate wrote what he wrote (Jn 19:22), because the Lord said what He said.

Contrary to custom, the inscription was made in three languages: Hebrew, the national and local tongue; Greek, the widely used tongue; and Roman, the language of the victors. Pilate's purpose may have been that every foreigner also could read this inscription, since Hebrew was little known to outsiders.

Yet in this, without doubt, a higher purpose was fulfilled. In the moments of His uttermost humiliation, the Lord was proclaimed to the whole world as King in three languages, two of which were the most widespread in the world.

"Pilate placed on the cross, as upon a monument of victory, an inscription that sends forth a bright voice, proclaims His victory, and announces the Kingdom" (Chrysostom).

The Lord's accusers took this inscription as a malicious mockery of them by Pilate. They came to him asking that it be changed in a sense more favorable to them. But from the proud and offended Roman they received a decisive refusal, sharply expressed. By it the Sanhedrin was again made to feel its dependence on a foreign pagan power.