Pulled this. The example does not explain how "King of the Jews" is a Stealth Insult. I understand it as Pilate willfully offending the Jews, not Jesus in particular. Seems to me the priests in John 19:21 are interpreting the insult exactly as intended.
- Stealth Insult: "King of the Jews" was the most insulting (to Roman sensibilities thing Pilate could have called Jesus. Per John 19:21, the insult was completely lost on the Jewish chief priests.
To the Romans, "Rex" (King) was a huge insult, because they had an ugly history with kings (e.g. Tarquinius Superbus). This is why, even after the Republic became an Empire, the emperor never called himself Rex, even though he was Rex in all but name.
So to Pilate (a Roman), "Rex Iudaeorum" was the biggest insult he could throw at a Jew. And because kings did not have such severe connotations among the Jews as among the Romans (as shown when the chief priests objected to Pilate actually calling Jesus their king rather than merely a man who claimed to be their king), it qualifies as a Stealth Insult by way of Values Dissonance.
Edited by Anorgil
Can you give any source for this interpretation? It sounds like a case of "reading too much into it".
The purpose of the signs on the crosses was to inform passers-by of the crime for which the doomed man was being executed. Jesus was crucified because he was accused of calling himself King of the Jews, a seeming proof that he was stirring up rebellion. It makes sense to inscribe the sign of a man executed for insurgency with the (now ironic) title he had dared to claim for himself. No other reason is needed to explain the words of the inscription.
That the Romans did not use the title of king does not mean that it was a "huge insult". It wasn't. There were many kings in the Roman Empire acting as sub-regents to the Roman Emperor.
Let's just say and leave it at that.
"Since the seven kings of earliest Rome, the term rex had been despised to such an extent that even such an unabashed monarchist as Caligula did not use the term." (Wilkinson, Sam. Republicanism during the Early Roman Empire, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012. p. 26)
So yes, it was an insult, at least until Seneca started using it as a term of approbation rather than insult, and that was several decades after Jesus' time.
Edited by Anorgil
Spoilering his resurrection is a running joke on these pages.
That was the amazing part. Things just keep going.
Yes; it's not done seriously.
That was the amazing part. Things just keep going.
In cleaning bad Example Indentation and Natter, I removed this bit from Jumped at the Call:
- Justified: At the time, the Rabbi would choose their successor this way between their pupils, all of which should know the full Law by then (becoming a Rabbi being the dream job back then). The apostles weren't educated from their childhood but instead had become workers, so it was kind of a really unexpected honor for them.
Removing the following Zero Context Examples (rather than leaving them alone):
- Depending on the Writer: Because Jesus was a real person and the Gospels are historical documents, and the different Gospel accounts are focusing on different scenes. John's gospel is overall more mystical so it makes sense that Jesus is depicted more mystically, for example. Jesus isn't a fictional character with different characterizations.
- Journey to Find Oneself: The 40 days in the desert were not to find himself.
- The Paragon: Jesus doesn't try to make people into heroes. He tries to make them into virtuous people. There's a difference.
- Villain with Good Publicity: These were real people and not all of them hated Jesus. Besides that, they were respected for the wisdom and feared for their insistence on following Mosaic Law. They were not "more popular." When Jesus comes into Jerusalem the people obviously are in love with him, but during the condemnation in the Passion, the crowd was composed mainly of Pharisees and their followers.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Obviously this is not talking about zombies as we imagine them in popular culture today. Lazarus wasn't a zombie upon rising from the dead, after all, but rather fully healed from death.
Look at all that shiny stuff ain't they pretty