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!”
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 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.”