1 These things having said, Jesus left with his disciples and went to the other side of the stream that flows in winter through the Kidron Valley. On that side of the stream there was an olive grove, and Jesus entered it with his disciples.

2 Now Judas, his betrayer, was also familiar with the place, because Jesus had met there many times with his disciples. 3 Judas, therefore, came to the grove, bringing with him a company of Roman soldiers and some Sanhedrin officers provided by the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying lanterns and torches and weapons.

4 Jesus, therefore, fully aware of everything that was about to happen to him, stepped forward. “Who are ᵖyou looking for?” he asked them.

5 “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.

“I AM,”+ Jesus said to them. (Judas, his betrayer, was standing there with them.)6 When he said, “I AM,” then, they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 So he asked them once again, “Who are ᵖyou looking for?”

“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.

8 “I told ᵖyou that I AM,”+ replied Jesus. “If I’m the one ᵖyou’re looking for, then, let these others go their way.” 9 (This happened so that what he had said would be fulfilled: “Of those whom you have entrusted to my care I have lost not one.”+)

10 Simon Peter, then, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his right ear. (The slave’s name was Malchus.)

11 “Put your sword into its sheath,” Jesus said to Peter. “The cup of suffering that the Father has appointed to me, am I not to drink it?”

12 The company of Roman soldiers and their commanding officer and the Sanhedrin officers provided by the Jewish authorities, therefore, arrested Jesus and tied him up 13 and led him to Annas first, since he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year. 14 (Caiaphas was the one who had advised the other Jewish leaders that it was better to have one man die for the people.)

15 Simon Peter and another disciple, meanwhile, were following Jesus. That other disciple knew the high priest personally, and so he was allowed to accompany Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard. 16 Peter, though, had to wait outside at the gate. So the other disciple, the one who knew the high priest personally, went back and spoke to the servant girl on duty at the gate and was allowed to bring Peter in.

17 Now then, the girl on duty at the gate said to Peter, “ˢYou yourself aren’t one of this man’s disciples, too, are you?”

“I am not,” Peter replied.

18 Now the servants and the Sanhedrin officers had built a charcoal fire, because it was very cold, and were standing around it warming themselves. And Peter also was standing there with them, warming himself.

19 The high priest, meanwhile, questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.

20 “I have declared my message to the world very boldly and openly,” answered Jesus. “I taught in synagogues and in the temple courts on every occasion, where indeed all the Jewish people come together, and haven’t taught anything where it was that the people couldn’t hear. 21 Why is it me whom ˢyou are questioning? Ask those who have heard my teaching. Look, these people themselves know what I taught.”

22 At these words, one of the Sanhedrin officers standing nearby struck Jesus on the face and said, “How dare you answer the high priest like that?”

23 “If there is in what I’ve said anything false,” replied Jesus, “ˢyou must give evidence of it. If I have spoken the truth, however, why is it that ˢyou strike me?”

24 So Annas sent him, still tied up, to Caiaphas the high priest.

25 Meanwhile, Simon Peter was standing by the fire warming himself. So they said to him, “You yourself aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”

Peter denied it. “I am not,” he said.

26 One of the high priest’s slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “I saw you in the olive grove with Jesus, didn’t I?”

27 Peter denied it yet again, and at that moment a rooster crowed.

28 Jesus was led from Caiaphas’ house to the Roman governor’s headquarters. (It was early morning.) The Jewish authorities refused to go inside the governor’s headquarters, because they didn’t want to risk becoming ceremonially defiled; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover meal. 29 Pilate went outside, therefore, to them. “What charges do ᵖyou bring against this man?” he asked.

30 “If this man had done nothing wrong,” they replied, “we wouldn’t have handed him over to ˢyou.”

31 “ᵖYou take him yourselves and try him according to ᵖyour own law,” answered Pilate.

“We are not allowed by Rome to order the death penalty,” replied the Jewish authorities.32 (This happened so that what Jesus had said would be fulfilled—when he had hinted at the kind of death he was destined to suffer.)

33 At that, Pilate went back into the governor’s residence and had Jesus brought to him. “Are you the King of the Jews?” Pilate asked him.

34 Jesus answered, “Is it of your own accord that you are asking me this, or was it others who told you about me?”

35 “I’m not a Jew, am I?” replied Pilate. “It was your own people and the chief priests who handed you over to me. What have you done?”

36 “My Kingdom,” answered Jesus, “does not belong to this world. If it were this world to which my Kingdom belonged, my servants would have taken up arms to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. As it is, my Kingdom is not from here.”

37 “So you are a king?” said Pilate.

“The words have come from your own mouth,” Jesus answered, “that I am a king. I, for this purpose, was born, and for this purpose have come into the world, to bear solemn witness to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth hears my summons.”

38 “What is truth?” asked Pilate. And this having said, he went out to the Jewish authorities once again and told them, “I can find nothing in this man to warrant punishment. 39 However, it is ᵖyour custom for me to release to you at the Passover one prisoner. So then, do ᵖyou want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”

40 “Not this man, but Barabbas!” they shouted back. (Barabbas was an insurrectionist.)