John 18:28–19:16

Jesus Is Brought Before Pilate

²⁸Early in the morning Jesus was taken from Caiaphas’ house to the governor’s palace. The Jewish authorities did not go inside the palace, for they wanted to keep themselves ritually clean, in order to be able to eat the Passover meal. ²⁹So Pilate went outside to them and asked, “What do you accuse this man of?”

³⁰Their answer was, “We would not have brought him to you if he had not committed a crime.”

³¹Pilate said to them, “Then you yourselves take him and try him according to your own law.”

They replied, “We are not allowed to put anyone to death.” ^32*(This happened in order to make the words of Jesus come true, the words he used when he indicated the kind of death he would die.)

³³Pilate went back into the palace and called Jesus. “Are you the King of the Jews?” he asked him.

³⁴Jesus answered, “Does this question come from you or have others told you about me?”

³⁵Pilate replied, “Do you think I am a Jew? It was your own people and the chief priests who handed you over to me. What have you done?”

³⁶Jesus said, “My kingdom does not belong to this world; if my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. No, my kingdom does not belong here!”

³⁷So Pilate asked him, “Are you a king, then?”

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this one purpose, to speak about the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth listens to me.”

³⁸“And what is truth?” Pilate asked.

Jesus Is Sentenced to Death

Then Pilate went back outside to the people and said to them, “I cannot find any reason to condemn him. ³⁹But according to the custom you have, I always set free a prisoner for you during the Passover. Do you want me to set free for you the King of the Jews?”

⁴⁰They answered him with a shout, “No, not him! We want Barabbas!” (Barabbas was a bandit.)

19Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped. ²The soldiers made a crown out of thorny branches and put it on his head; then they put a purple robe on him ³and came to him and said, “Long live the King of the Jews!” And they went up and slapped him.

⁴Pilate went out once more and said to the crowd, “Look, I will bring him out here to you to let you see that I cannot find any reason to condemn him.” ⁵So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Look! Here is the man!”

⁶When the chief priests and the temple guards saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

Pilate said to them, “You take him, then, and crucify him. I find no reason to condemn him.”

⁷The crowd answered back, “We have a law that says he ought to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

⁸When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. ⁹He went back into the palace and asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?”

But Jesus did not answer. ¹⁰Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Remember, I have the authority to set you free and also to have you crucified.”

¹¹Jesus answered, “You have authority over me only because it was given to you by God. So the man who handed me over to you is guilty of a worse sin.”

¹²When Pilate heard this, he tried to find a way to set Jesus free. But the crowd shouted back, “If you set him free, that means that you are not the Emperor’s friend! Anyone who claims to be a king is a rebel against the Emperor!”

¹³When Pilate heard these words, he took Jesus outside and sat down on the judge’s seat in the place called “The Stone Pavement”. (In Hebrew the name is “Gabbatha”.) ¹⁴It was then almost noon of the day before the Passover. Pilate said to the people, “Here is your king!”

¹⁵They shouted back, “Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!”

Pilate asked them, “Do you want me to crucify your king?”

The chief priests answered, “The only king we have is the Emperor!” ¹⁶Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.

Jesus Is Crucified

So they took charge of Jesus.