John 18:28–38

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.