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Commentaries
English
John
  
21The chief priests of the Jews then said to Pilate, "Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’, but, ‘This man said, "I am King of the Jews." ’ "22Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."


The chief priests understood the meaning of Pilate’s scorn and threat, veiled as it was. They had rejected their King and saw in his weakness the contrary of what Pilate claimed. They hated the Crucified even more.
Pilate felt sure that the title was in accord with Caesar’s wishes, so that he wrote it in three languages for all literate folk, citizens and visitors to read and understand that any rebel against Rome would share a like fate. When in 70 AD Jews rebelled against Roman rule, thousands were hanged on crosses round the wall of Jerusalem.