INRI - CRUCIFIX

QUESTION: "On most crosses there are four letters. These are: 'INRI'. What do they stand for? My adult daughter is about to enter the Church through the RCIA program. She asked me, and I could not answer."

ANSWER:

"INRI" are the initials of the phrase Pontius Pilate ordered to be inscribed as a "titulus" and nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ. A "titulus" is an inscription or title. The "titulus crucis" INRI refers to:         

                     IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM

The Latin "I" in the inscription is our English "J". The Latin "V" is our English "U". By anglicizing the inscription, the phrase becomes more familiar:

                    JESUS NAZARENUS, REX JUDÆORUM = Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews

"NAZARENUS" means "Nazareth" (Jesus' boyhood home). "REX" means "king". "JUDÆORUM" means "Jews".
 
The titulus attached to the top of a cross identified the condemned man's name and crime. Jesus of Nazareth was accused of proclaiming himself "King of the Jews", thus provoking both Romans and Jewish authorities. Romans ruthlessly suppressed rebellions and their ringleaders. The Jewish leadership ruthlessly suppressed blasphemy and its perpetrators.
 
Sacred Scripture records that Pontius Pilate ordered the titulus for Jesus' cross to be displayed in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. The Sacred Tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, however, emphasizes the Latin "INRI" with respect to crucixes.
 
Here are the relevant verses of John's gospel which refer most clearly to the INRI titulus:

John.19

[1] Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. 
[2] And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe; 
[3] they came up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and struck him with their hands. 
[4] Pilate went out again, and said to them, "See, I am bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no crime in him." 
[5] So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold the man!" 
[6] When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him." 
[7] The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God." 
[8] When Pilate heard these words, he was the more afraid; 
[9] he entered the praetorium again and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave no answer. 
[10] Pilate therefore said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?" 
[11] Jesus answered him, "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore he who delivered me to you has the greater sin." 
[12] Upon this Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, "If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend; every one who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar." 
[13] When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, and in Hebrew, Gab'batha. 
[14] Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" 
[15] They cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." 
[16] Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. 
[17] So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Gol'gotha. 
[18] There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 
[19] Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." 
[20] Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 
[21] The chief priests of the Jews then said to Pilate, "Do not write, `The King of the Jews,' but, `This man said, I am King of the Jews.'" 
[22] Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written."