In this work Laura J. Hunt looks at Latin use in Ephesus Antioch and Alexandria. The
evidence of intersections between Roman and Greek languages in those cities suggests that the
Roman cultural encyclopaedia could shed light on the Gospel of John particularly the trial
narrative. Words that intersect with important Roman concepts include pi ni beta s th and s
. The phrase d nith pi in John 19:5 approximates hic vir hic est from Vergil's Aeneid (6.791)
marking it as a literary allusion. A semiotic analysis of John 18:28-19:22 reveals a Jesus
depicted with the words and images of a Caesar. The Roman Pilate tests the loyalty of both
Jesus and 'the Jews' to Caesar emerging as weak only in relation to Caesar. Although other
scholars have looked at empire in the Gospel of John this study offers a sustained Roman
reading of the Johannine trial narrative.
