Why were the chief priests of the Jews so upset about the superscription that Pontius Pilate had affixed to the cross of Jesus, insisting it be taken down? (John Chapter 19)

I’ve rendered the writing in English script instead of the original Hebrew characters so that you can see what the Pharisees saw and which upset them to no end.

Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews in Hebrew is Yeshua (Jesus) HaNazarei (of Nazareth) Vemelech (the king) HaYhudim (of the Jews). Right above Jesus’ head is YHVH, the name of God.

When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus Chapter 3) He reveals His name as ‘I AM THAT I AM’ or YHVH, pronounced Yahweh. When the Bible uses the term God (as in: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth [Genesis 1:1]) in the original Hebrew it is written as Elohim. Elohim means creator. God is His job description. It’s what He does. Yahweh is His name.

In the Old Testament whenever you see the word LORD, all in capitals, in the original Hebrew it is YHVH or Yahweh. When you see LORD God that is Yahweh Elohim. Later on, to avoid taking the name of the LORD in vain, the Jews wouldn’t say His name at all, instead calling Him Adonai or Lord GOD. Yahweh is the original ‘He who shall not be named.’

Did you know that the Hebrew alphabet also doubles as numbers? For example, the first letter Aleph is One, Bet is Two, etc. Did you also know that each letter also has a pictogram associated with it? For example Aleph is an ox, Bet is a house. So what are the pictograms for the letters YHVH (Yud Hey Vav Hey)? Yud is a picture of a hand. Hey is a picture of a man with his arms outstretched. Vav is a picture of a nail. And then Hey is another picture of a man with his arms outstretched. So in the name YHVH there is a hand and a nail and a picture of a man with his arms outstretched like Jesus on the cross. The two Heys obviously refer to Jesus’ two comings, one that came two thousand years ago and the second yet to come. How do the Jews fail to see that? It’s supernatural.

Now, there is no way Pontius Pilate, a pagan, knew what he was doing in writing what he did. Pilate didn’t believe in YHVH, nor did he know that he was fulfilling Biblical prophecy. There is no way this took place by chance. It came about because of Yahweh Elohim, the author and finisher of all things.