<p>15:26 <i>And the inscription of the charge against him read: The King of the Jews</i>- It was also written in Hebrew (Jn.), and putting together the gospel records, it said &quot;This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews&quot;. Did Pilate write it in his own handwriting? Did they use the same ladder to place the inscription which Joseph later used to retrieve the body? Why do the records suggest that the inscription was placed after the stake had been erected? Was there initial resistance from the Jews? Was He impaled with the placard around His neck, and then the ladder was put up, and a soldier lifted it off and nailed it above His head? &quot;Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews&quot; written in Hebrew would have used words whose first letters created the sacred Name: YHWH. Perhaps this was why there was such opposition to it. &quot;King of the Jews&quot; would have been understood as a Messianic title. Either Pilate was sarcastic, or really believed it, or just wanted to provoke the Jews. In any case, somehow the Yahweh Name was linked with the Messiah: King of the Jews. The Name was declared in the Lord&rsquo;s death, as He had foretold (Jn. 17:26). Forgiveness of sins is through baptism into the Name (Acts 2:38), as even in OT times forgiveness was for the sake of the Name (Ps. 79:9). And yet through the cross and blood of Christ is forgiveness made possible. His blood and death therefore was the supreme declaration of God&rsquo;s Name; through His cross the grace and forgiveness, love, salvation and judgment implicit in the Name was all enabled and revealed in practice. Ps. 22:22 prophesied that &ldquo;I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation <i>ekklesia</i>, LXX&quot;. It was to us His brethren that the Name was declared; in the eyes of an unbelieving world, this was just another crucified man, a failure, a wannabe who never made it. But to us, it is the declaration of the Name. It was and is done in the midst of the ecclesia, as if the whole church from that day to this beholds it all at first hand. And our response is to in turn &ldquo;Declare his righteousness&quot; (Ps. 22:31), in response to seeing the Name declared, we declare to Him&hellip; in lives of love for the brethren. For the Name was declared, that the love that was between the Father and Son might be in us.&nbsp;</p><p>It is possible to argue that &quot;Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews&quot; written in Hebrew would require the use of words, the first letters of which created the word YHWH:</p><p>y Jesus- Yeshua<br />h The Nazarene- Ha&rsquo;Natzri cp. &ldquo;the sect of &lsquo;The Nazarene(s)&rsquo;, Acts 24:5<br />v and King- u&rsquo;Melek<br />h of the Jews- Ha&rsquo;Yehudim<br />giving the Yahweh Name:<br />hvhy</p><p>This is why the Jews minded it so strongly when the title was put up. Pilate&rsquo;s retort &ldquo;What I have written I have written&quot; may well have been an oblique reference to &lsquo;I am that I am&rsquo;. It was his attempt to have the last laugh with the Jews who had manipulated him into crucifying a man against whom there was no real charge. It was as if the Lord suffered as He did with a placard above Him which effectively said: 'This is Yahweh'. The Name was declared there, as the Lord had foreseen (Jn. 17:26). The declaration of Yahweh&rsquo;s Name to Moses in Ex. 34:6 thus becomes a foretaste of the Lord&rsquo;s crucifixion. Some LXX versions render Ex. 34:6 as &lsquo;Yahweh, Yahweh, <i>a man</i> full of mercy....&rsquo;. In the crucifixion of the man Christ Jesus the essence of Yahweh was declared. And we, John says with reference to the cross, saw that glory, as it were cowering in the rock like Moses, <i>full</i> of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14 cp. Ex. 34:6 RV).</p><p>There are other reasons for thinking that there was the supreme manifestation of Yahweh in the cross of His Son:<br />&middot;&nbsp;It has been observed that the blood of the Passover Lamb on the lintels of the doors at the Exodus, three sides of a square, would have recalled the two repeated letters of &lsquo;Yahweh&rsquo; (see above panel), as if His Name was manifested in the blood of the slain lamb. <br />&middot;&nbsp;Yahweh laid on the Lord the iniquity of us all, as if He was present there when the soldiers laid the cross upon the Lord's shoulders (Is. 53:6). <br />&middot;&nbsp;Yahweh had prophesied of what He would achieve through the crucified Christ: &ldquo;I am, I am: He that blots out thy transgressions&quot; (Is. 43:25 LXX). He declares His Name as being supremely demonstrated in His forgiveness of our sins through and in the Lord&rsquo;s cross. <br />&middot;&nbsp;Jehovah-Jireh can mean &ldquo;Yahweh will show Yah&quot; (Gen. 22:14), in eloquent prophecy of the crucifixion. There Yahweh was to be manifested supremely. <br />&middot;&nbsp;Paul speaks of how the cross of Christ should humble us, so that no flesh should glory in God&rsquo;s presence (1 Cor. 1:29); as if God&rsquo;s presence is found in the cross, before which we cannot have any form of pride.</p><p>&middot;&nbsp;The LXX uses the word translated &ldquo;propitiation&quot; in the NT with reference to how God forgave / propitiated for Israel&rsquo;s sins for His Name&rsquo;s sake (Ex. 32:14; Ps. 79:9). That propitiation was only for the sake of the Lord&rsquo;s future death, which would be the propitiation God ultimately accepted. Having no past or future with Him, Yahweh could act as if His Son&rsquo;s death had already occurred. But that death and forgiveness for &ldquo;His name&rsquo;s sake&quot; were one and the same thing. The Son&rsquo;s death was the expression of the Father&rsquo;s Name. <br />&middot;&nbsp;There was a Jewish tradition that the only time when the Yahweh Name could be pronounced was by the High Priest, when he sprinkled the blood of Israel's atonement on the altar. The Name was expressed in that blood. <br />&middot;&nbsp;Zech. 11:13 speaks of Yahweh being priced at thirty shekels of silver by Israel. But these words are appropriated to the Lord in His time of betrayal. What men did to Him, they did to the Father. <br />-The Red Heifer was to be slain before the face of the priest, &quot;as he watches&quot; (Num. 19:3-5 NIV), pointing forward to the Lord's slaughter in the personal presence of the Father.</p><p>- The blood of the sin offering was to be sprinkled &ldquo;before the LORD, before the veil&quot; (Lev. 4:6,17). Yet the veil was a symbol of the flesh of the Lord Jesus at the time of His dying. At the time of the sprinkling of blood when the sin offering was made, the veil the flesh of the Lord Jesus was identifiable with Yahweh Himself. The blood of the offerings was poured out &ldquo;before Yahweh&quot; (Lev. 4:15 etc.), pointing forward to how God Himself, from so physically far away, &ldquo;came down&quot; so that the blood shedding of His Son was done as it were in His presence. And who is to say that the theophany that afternoon, of earthquake and thick darkness, was not the personal presence of Yahweh, hovering above crucifixion hill? Over the mercy seat (a symbol of the Lord Jesus in Hebrews), between the cherubim where the blood was sprinkled, &ldquo;there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee&quot; (Ex. 25:22). There we see the essence of God, and there in the cross we hear the essential word and message of God made flesh. <br />&middot; The smitten rock was an evident type of the Lord&rsquo;s smiting on the cross. And yet in Deuteronomy especially it is made clear that Israel were to understand Yahweh as their rock. And yet &ldquo;that rock was Christ&quot;. God Himself said that he would stand upon the rock as it was smitten- presumably fulfilled by the Angel standing or hovering above / upon the rock, while Moses smote it. And yet again it is Yahweh who is described as smiting the rock in Ps. 78 and Is. 48:21. He was with Christ, directly identified with Him, at the very same time as He &lsquo;smote&rsquo; Him.</p><p>Significantly, very few actual details are given by the Gospel writers of both the scourging and the crucifixion. It could be that they felt it impossible to dwell upon these things; or it could be that they and their readers knew what was involved in these practices, and we are left to dwell upon them in our own imagination. We are intended to reconstruct in our own minds what may have happened&hellip; We have a solemn duty towards Him to do this. This is perhaps why the tenses change so dramatically in the records. Take just Mk. 15:23-26: &ldquo;They offered&hellip; they crucify&hellip; and part&hellip; casting lots&hellip; crucified&hellip; was written&quot;. These arresting changes are surely to encourage us to re-live it all. Mark speaks of &ldquo;they crucify him&quot;, going on to say that &ldquo;then are there two crucified with him&quot; (Mk. 15:38 RV), whereas Luke records the act in the past tense. Mark&rsquo;s present tenses are arresting: &ldquo;plaiting&hellip; they clothe him&hellip; they smote&hellip;&quot; (:17,19 RV). Perhaps Mark is seeking consciously to make us imagine it all as going on before our eyes. Mt. 27:38 RV has a similar dramatic change: &ldquo;Then are there crucified with him&hellip;&quot;.</p>