What Does INRI Mean?

And Pilate posted a sign on the cross that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”  The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it. -- John 19:19-20 (NLT)

The letters INRI that appear on many crosses form an acronym for the Latin words from Pilate's sign:

Iēsus = Jesus

Nazarēnus = of Nazareth

Rēx = King

Iūdaeōrum = of the Jews

The photo here follows the account from John 19 by also including the Greek and Hebrew inscriptions. In Greek the spelling is INBI, with the word for "king" requiring a different letter:

 Ἰησοῦς = Jesus

Ναζωραῖος = of Nazareth

Bασιλεὺς = King

Ἰουδαίων = of the Jews

The letters that you see displayed in a given painting or statue will often depend on which branch of Christianity the representation is for. The western branch, which includes the Roman Catholic Church, has traditionally been Latin-speaking and therefore uses INRI. (Sometimes this sign is referred to as a titulus, which means "title" in Latin.) The eastern branch of Orthodox churches uses Greek as their primary language, so their artwork usually contains the letters INBI.

It seems odd that Pontus Pilate, the representative of the Roman Emperor who was in league with the puppet-king Herod, would make this claim about Jesus of Nazareth. It would be easy to think that Pilate was being ironic -- only intending to heap more scorn on a despised criminal. But the Roman governor appears to be wavering: the gospels describe some scenes in which he seems ambiguously curious and/or afraid of Jesus' divinity (or at least the crowd's ability to riot and wreck his political career). It is as if Pilate is not quite so sure about the status of this man whom he nonetheless condemned to death. Indeed, if Pilate were purely arbitrary or cruel, it would be easy to blame Jesus' death solely on him. But the writers of the four gospels are careful not to blame this injustice on any one person. Pilate, Herod, Judas, and the leaders of the council are all implicated in this unjust killing. Moreover, the drama of Jesus' last days contains enough characters that each one of us can find ourselves written into the story at some point -- the timid disciple who denies his affiliation with Jesus, the curious onlooker who is forced to carry his cross, the Roman soldier who marvels at the way he dies, or the criminals hanging with him. This tableau shows us that Jesus died not just for our own individual sins, but he also stands against the insidious power that these sins take on when mixed up together in our cultures and societies. By not pointing fingers at one single person, the gospels show us a deeper truth -- that we were all there "when they crucified my Lord."