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Posted on 4/24/2011, 6:57:01 PM by marshmallow
Video: The "Titulus Crucis" sign of I.N.R.I, a true relic of Rome
April 22, 2011. (Romereports.com) Rome's Basilica of Saint Croce of Gerusalemme hosts the "Titulus Crucis," the sign that Pontius Pilate placed on Jesus' Cross labeled "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews."
Maria Luisa Rigato Biblical scholar and author "I.N.R.I. Il titolo della Croce "
“INRI is an acronym, the Latin abbreviation of "Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judaeorum.” "The inscription was done in Hebrew, Latin and Greek by Pilate. Perhaps not personally by him, but by a scribe who could write well in those three languages."
According to tradition, Empress St. Helena, mother of Constantine, found the "Titulus Crucis" in the year 325. It was found on the tomb along with pieces of the Cross and the Shroud. The trail disappeared for centuries, until the documents “Titulus Crucis” were found again during the pontificate of Gregory the Great. He eventually brought the relic to Rome. In the year 1124, it was hidden at the top of the triumphal arch of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.
In the year 1492 the relic was discovered, by chance, while work was being done on the Basilica.
Maria Luisa Rigato Biblical scholar and author "I.N.R.I. Il titolo della Croce"
"The workers were painting the ceiling. When they tapped it with a hammer, they noticed a hallow sound. They opened a small window and found a box of led with the titulus on it. On the back of the box, there was a brick, just like the one behind us. The workers took it down, and began to decipher what was written. The titulus found in 1492 is exactly what we see in the reliquary.”
For the biblical scholar, it's a genuine relic, since it coincides with what's narrated in the Gospel of St. John. It probably suffered the same fate as the Shroud.
Maria Luisa Rigato Biblical scholar and author "I.N.R.I. Il titolo della Croce "
"I am convinced it's the sign of Pilate. Until there's evidence that the Shroud is fake, I believe the titulus is completely authentic. I think it was was close to the body because it would have been absurd to leave it at Calvary since that was the cause of condemnation. They placed it beside the tomb, and it had the same fate as the Shroud. Again, the writing follows the original version of the Gospel.”
Just like the Shroud, the "Titulus Crucis" was also tested by carbon-14, but it did not provide definitive results.
With the possibility of it being an authentic recording of the Cross, this relic is venerated in Rome. It reminds Christians of why Jesus died for all men.
I never heard of this. It’s fascinating, thanks for posting.
I’ll be you guys have even got a barrel of wine that used to be water...
I’ll bet you guys have “even got” a barrel of snideness you just can’t help spewing everywhere you show up.
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Incidentally, even as a copy it would appear to provide a bit of extra corroborating evidence of the historic nature of the Crucifixion.
This page, in Spanish, claims that the specific textual style of the letters fairly well puts the writing in the first century. Apparently several scholars looked at the writing itself and found that consistent with this date.
Rigato apparently speculates that the carbon-14 dating result might have been thrown off by something like somebody adding a pigment to the wood (presumably in medieval times) in order to facilitate the reading of the text. Or, the abovementioned theory that it could be an exact copy of the original, which might have been in very bad shape after 1,000 years.
Yes. of course. Unless you become washed in His blood you will never taste it.
Why would there be an “I” for Jesus? His name was Yeshua, Joshua in the anglicized form. So is the I in place of the Y?
Right, but in Latin and Greek, there’s (originally supposed to be) no “J”. Yeshua in Hebrew becomes Iesous in Greek, and Iesus in Latin. The full inscription is Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum.
Because Latin did not have the letter “J.”
I=Jesus
N=Nazorean
R=Rex (Latin for King)
I=Jews
God Bless you both and Happy Easter!
and Happy Easter everyone!
Wow..You made this Special Day even more Special. Thank you.
Yes, but in the link provided by Jeff, the Greek looks like:
IECUC NAZARENUC BACILEUC IUDEUN
— with a Cyrillic S (resembling a Roman C) rather than a Greek sigma. My weak knowledge of Greek has sigma being a round character in the middle of a word and then something looking like a Roman s at the end of a word. See http://www.greek-language.com/Alphabet.html (3rd row, 8th and 9th characters from the left).
— the Z is backwards (I am assuming the TV camera inverted the entire image, but this one letter obviously started out backwards)
— NAZARENUC ends with an upsilon-Cyrillic s, and it also has an epsilon in the middle rather than an iota. (NAZARENUS, not NAZARINUS). Although I’ve checked two Greek versions of John 19:19 and they both have NAZWRAIOS (W = omega, O = omicron).
— But Mark 16:6 has NAZARENON (which in the nominative would be NAZARENOS (omicron, not upsilon).
— For what it’s worth, they also have IOUDAIWN rather than IUDEYN.
The Latin looks OK though. It’s IUDEORUM while we might expect IUDAEORUM.
The Gospels say Pilate wrote it himself.
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