"What I Have Written, I Have Written"

Please excuse my silence of the last couple of days.  I just can't think of anything to say about our current subjects of discussion that I haven't already said.  My esteemed colleagues might be interested, however, in the origin of the out of context Biblical quote that I used for the title of this post.

Pontius Pilate was the Roman official who reluctantly condemned Jesus to death on the cross.  He didn't really want to do it, but he was under a lot of pressure from the Sanhedrin, the Jewish puppet governing body whose members felt threatened by the popularity that Jesus had with the people.  After unsuccessfully trying to pass the buck to his boss King Herod, Pilate finally issued the order, but he wasn't happy about it.  Although popular folklore paints Pilate as a bad guy, some Biblical historians believe that he was just a weak willed politician who was trying to avoid conflict and hang onto his job.  Did you ever notice that the artistic renderings of the crucifixion feature a sign above Jesus' head that says "INRI".  Those initials stand for "Jesus Christ King of the Jews" in Latin.  Pilate ordered that sign to be placed there, which upset some of the Sanhedrin guys who told him that it would have been more appropriate for the sign to have read "This Man Said He Was King of the Jews".  To this Pilate sardonically replied, "What I have written, I have written."....Hey, I said that I quoted it out of context!