And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he is Christ, the chosen of God.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
The superscription is written and placed above, not below the cross, because the government is upon his shoulders. What is this government if not his eternal power and Godhead? When asked, “Who are you?” he replied, “The beginning, who also speaks to you.” Let us read this superscription. “Jesus of Nazareth,” it says, “The King of the Jews.” The superscription is fittingly above the cross because Christ’s kingdom does not belong to his human body but to his divine authority. The superscription is fittingly above the cross, because although the Lord Jesus was on the cross, he shines above the cross with the majesty of a king. –.
When the Word said, “I am a worm, and no man; the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people,” he foretold what would clearly happen to him. He is everywhere a reproach to us who believe in him, and he is the outcast of the people, for he was thrown out in disgrace by your people, and he endured all the indignities which you directed toward him…. Those who saw him on the cross wagged their heads, curled their lips in scorn, turned up their noses, and sarcastically uttered the words which are recorded in the memoirs of the apostles. “He called himself the Son of God; let him come down from the cross and walk! Let God save him!” Dialogue with Trypho
