19
“Here Is the Man!”
1 So then, Pilate had+ Jesus taken away and flogged.
2 The soldiers made a victor’s crown out of branches with thorns+ and put it on his head, and placed this+ around him: A reddish-purple military cloak.+
3 They kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him over and over again on the face.
4 Pilate went outside again and said to the crowd,+ “Look, I am bringing him out to ᵖyou to let you know that I can find nothing in him to warrant punishment.”
5 So Jesus came outside, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
6 When the chief priests and the Sanhedrin officers saw him, therefore, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
“ᵖYou take him and crucify him yourselves
+!” Pilate said to them. “As for me, I find no reason to condemn him.”
+
7 “We have a law,+” replied the Jewish authorities,+ “and according to that law he must be put to death,+ because he claimed to be the Son of God.+”
8 When Pilate heard this statement, therefore, he became even more afraid
9 and went back+ into the governor’s headquarters and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus, however, gave him no+ answer.
10 “Do you refuse to speak+ to me?” Pilate said to him. “Surely you realize, don’t you, that I have the authority to order+ you released and the authority to order you crucified?”
11 “You would have no authority over me at all+ unless it had been given to you from above,” replied Jesus. “That is why the one who handed me over to you is guilty of an even+ worse sin.”+
12 From this point on+ Pilate made every effort to release him. The Jewish authorities,+ however, shouted, “If you release this man, you are no ‘Friend of the Emperor.’+ Anyone who claims to be a king+ is rebelling against the Emperor!”
13 Pilate, therefore, when he heard these words, brought Jesus outside and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement (in Aramaic,+ Gabbatha).
14 (It was the day of preparation for the Passover, about noon.+) Pilate+ said to the Jewish authorities,+ “Here is your king!”
15 Away with him!” they shouted. “Away with him! Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify ᵖyour
king+?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but the Emperor
+!” the chief priests answered.
16 So then, Pilate handed Jesus over to the soldiers for them to crucify him.+
“There They Crucified Him”
So the soldiers
+ took charge of Jesus.
17 Carrying his own cross, Jesus+ went out to the place called “ Skull+ Place” (which in Aramaic+ is called Golgotha).
18 There they crucified+ him, and along with him two others, one on each side, and in the middle, Jesus.
19 Pilate also had an inscription written and placed on the cross. It read,+ “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
20 This inscription, therefore, was read by a very+ large number of the Jewish people,+ because the place where Jesus was crucified was near+ the city; it was written in Aramaic,+ Latin, and Greek.
21 So the Jewish chief priests+ said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, “I am the King+ of the Jews.” ’ ”
22 “What I have had written,” replied Pilate, “I have written.”
23 Now then, the soldiers, after they had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier+; they also took+ his long inner garment.+ Now this garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 So the soldiers+ said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots to see who will get it.” This happened+ so that the Scripture would be fulfilled:
“They divided my garments among themselves,
and cast lots for my clothing.+”+
While
+ these things were done, therefore,
+ by the soldiers,
25 standing near Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 Jesus, therefore, when he saw his mother and the disciple whom he particularly loved standing there, said to his mother, “Dear+ woman, here is your son.”
27 Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that time on+ the disciple took her into his own home.
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that everything was now accomplished,+ so that the Scripture would be fulfilled said, “I’m thirsty.”+
29 Sitting there was a jar+ full of sour wine.+ Placing a sponge soaked with the wine, therefore,+ on a branch of hyssop,+ the soldiers+ held it up to Jesus’+ mouth.
30 When Jesus, then, had swallowed+ the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.
31 Now then, it was Preparation+ Day, and because the Jewish authorities+ didn’t want the bodies to remain on the crosses on the Sabbath (that Sabbath, you see, was a particularly special one, because that year the Passover fell on it),+ they asked Pilate to have the men’s legs broken and the bodies taken down.+
32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men who had been crucified with Jesus, first the one and then the other.+
33 When they came, however,+ to Jesus, and saw that he was already dead, they didn’t break his legs.
34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced, with a spear,+ Jesus’+ side, bringing an immediate flow of blood and water.+
35 (The one who saw this happen has given a solemn eyewitness account,+ so that ᵖyou, too, may yourselves+ believe. Indeed, his+ report is completely+ reliable,+ and he knows that he is telling the truth.+)+
36 These things happened, you see, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “Not+ one bone of his will be broken.”+
37 And again,+ as it says in another+ Scripture+: “They will look on the one whom they pierced.”+
“Joseph from Arimathea Asked Pilate If He Could Have Care of Jesus’ Body”
38 After this, Joseph from Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus (secretly, though, because he was afraid of the Jewish authorities+), asked Pilate if he could have care of Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission, and so he came and took the body away.
39 Nicodemus, the man who had previously come to Jesus+ at night, accompanied Joseph,+ taking with him a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about seventy-five pounds.+
40 The two men+ took Jesus’ body and wrapped it in linen cloth along with the fragrant spices, in keeping with Jewish burial customs.+
41 Now there was near the place where Jesus+ had been crucified a garden, and in the garden a new tomb that had never been used before.+
42 In that place, therefore, because it was the Jewish Preparation Day, and since the tomb was nearby,+ they placed Jesus’ body.+