Inscription on the cross

"I am curious as to why the inscription is written in all caps in our English bible."

I suspect it is a typgraphic convention; the original manuscripts would have contained only "capital letters" throughout, not just in those places.

Several modern Bibles, such as the ESV and NET, have dispensed with the capital letters.

 

The ancient manuscripts would have been written in uncial or majuscule letters (equivalent to our capital letters.) Miniscule script, which developed into our "lower case" and cursive writing, did not appear in literary works until the 10th century or so. The uncial texts also contained no spaces and probably little or no punctuation.

Here is a link to a photo of a papyrus Gospel of John in uncials (it does take a bit of time to download.)

PAPYRUS 75

 

I don't think there IS any more, except to explain it as a modern typographical device to make it stand out from the rest of the text. Tyndale didn't do it; it apparently began with the Geneva.

The Holman explains its formatting option:

"A written inscription that was posted for people to read, such as the sign above Jesus on the cross (Mt. 27:37), is placed inside a box and centered in the text."

Again, it is a typographical convention provided by the translators that is not found in the text.

[ February 16, 2005, 07:42 PM: Message edited by: rsr ]