19:15 Then they 1 shouted out, “Away with him! Away with him! 2 Crucify 3 him!” Pilate asked, 4 “Shall I crucify your king?” The high priests replied, “We have no king except Caesar!” 19:16 Then Pilate 5 handed him over 6 to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus, 19:17 and carrying his own cross 7 he went out to the place called “The Place of the Skull” 8 (called in Aramaic 9 Golgotha). 10 19:18 There they 11 crucified 12 him along with two others, 13 one on each side, with Jesus in the middle. 19:19 Pilate also had a notice 14 written and fastened to the cross, 15 which read: 16 “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews.” 19:20 Thus many of the Jewish residents of Jerusalem 17 read this notice, 18 because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the notice was written in Aramaic, 19 Latin, and Greek. 19:21 Then the chief priests of the Jews 20 said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The king of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am king of the Jews.’” 19:22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
1 tn Grk “Then these.”
2 tn The words “with him” (twice) are not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
3 sn See the note on Crucify in 19:6.
4 tn Grk “Pilate said to them.” The words “to them” are not translated because it is clear in English who Pilate is addressing.
5 tn Grk “Then he”; the referent (Pilate) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Or “delivered him over.”
9 tn Or “carrying the cross by himself.”
10 sn Jesus was led out to the place called “The Place of the Skull” where he was to be crucified. It is clear from v. 20 that this was outside the city. The Latin word for the Greek κρανίον (kranion) is calvaria. Thus the English word “Calvary” is a transliteration of the Latin rather than a NT place name (cf. Luke 23:33 in the KJV).
11 tn Grk “in Hebrew.”
12 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.
13 tn Grk “where they.” This is a continuation of the previous verse in Greek, but contemporary English style tends toward shorter sentences. A literal translation would result in a lengthy and awkward English sentence.
14 sn See the note on Crucify in 19:6.
15 tn Grk “and with him two others.”
17 tn Or “an inscription.”
18 tn Grk “Pilate also wrote a notice and placed it on the cross.” The two verbs should be read as causatives, since it is highly unlikely that the Roman governor would perform either of these actions himself. He ordered them to be done.
19 tn Grk “Now it was written.”
21 tn Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the residents of Jerusalem in general. See also the note on the phrase Jewish religious leaders” in v. 7.
22 tn Or “this inscription.”
23 tn Grk “in Hebrew.”
25 tn Or “the Jewish chief priests.” Nowhere else in the Fourth Gospel are the two expressions οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων (Joi arcierei" twn Ioudaiwn) combined. Earlier in 19:15 the chief priests were simply referred to as οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς. It seems likely that this is another example of Johannine irony, to be seen in contrast to the inscription on the cross which read ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν ᾿Ιουδαίων (Jo basileu" twn Ioudaiwn). For this reason the phrase has been translated “the chief priests of the Jews” (which preserves in the translation the connection with “King of the Jews”) rather than “the Jewish chief priests.”