The Sentence
1Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and set it on his head, and they threw a purple robe around him. 3They kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” — and striking him in the face. 4Pilate went outside once more and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so you will know that I find no case against him.” 5So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” 6When the chief priests and the guards saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no case against him.” 7The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law he must die, because he made himself the Son of God.” 8When Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. 9He went back into the residence and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10So Pilate said to him, “You won’t speak to me? Don’t you know I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you?” 11Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over me at all if it had not been given to you from above. That is why the one who handed me over to you bears the greater sin.” 12From then on Pilate kept trying to release him. But the Jews shouted, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar! Anyone who makes himself a king is defying Caesar!” 13When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s bench, at the place called the Stone Pavement — in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14It was the day of Preparation for the Passover, about the sixth hour. Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your king!” 15But they shouted, “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.” 16Then at last he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took charge of Jesus.
The Crucifixion
17Carrying his own cross, he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull — in Hebrew, Golgotha. 18There they crucified him, and two others with him, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle. 19Pilate also had a notice written and posted on the cross. It read: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20Many of the Jews read this notice, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 21The chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews.’ Write that this man said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’” 22Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” 23When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, one for each soldier. There was also the tunic; it was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 24So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it. Let’s cast lots for it, to see whose it will be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture that says, “They divided my clothes among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So that is what the soldiers did. 25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother, and beside her the disciple he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” 27Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. 28After this, knowing that everything had now been accomplished, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29A jar of sour wine was standing there. So they soaked a sponge in the wine, set it on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted it to his mouth. 30When Jesus had taken the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
The Burial
31Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross over the Sabbath — for that Sabbath was a great day — so they asked Pilate to have the men’s legs broken and the bodies taken away. 32So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and then of the other who had been crucified with him. 33But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water flowed out. 35The one who saw it has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. 36These things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37And again another Scripture says, “They will look on the one they pierced.” 38After this, Joseph of Arimathea — a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one, for fear of the Jews — asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave permission. So he came and took the body away. 39Nicodemus, the man who had first come to Jesus by night, came too, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about a hundred pounds. 40They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, according to the Jewish custom of burial. 41In the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. 42Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was close by, they laid Jesus there.
