¹Early in the morning the chief priests immediately came to a decision with the leaders and the experts in Moses’ Teachings. The whole Jewish council decided to tie Jesus up, lead him away, and hand him over to Pilate.

²Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“Yes, I am,” Jesus answered him.

³The chief priests were accusing him of many things.

⁴So Pilate asked him again, “Don’t you have any answer? Look how many accusations they’re bringing against you!”

⁵But Jesus no longer answered anything, so Pilate was surprised.

The Crowd Rejects Jesus—Matthew 27:15–26; Luke 23:18–25; John 18:39–40

⁶At every Passover festival, Pilate would free one prisoner whom the people asked for. ⁷There was a man named Barabbas in prison. He was with some rebels who had committed murder during a riot. ⁸The crowd asked Pilate to do for them what he always did. ⁹Pilate answered them, “Do you want me to free the king of the Jews for you?” ¹⁰Pilate knew that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him because they were jealous.

¹¹The chief priests stirred up the crowd so that Pilate would free Barabbas for them instead.

¹²So Pilate again asked them, “Then what should I do with the king of the Jews?”

¹³“Crucify him!” they shouted back.

¹⁴Pilate said to them, “Why? What has he done wrong?”

But they shouted even louder, “Crucify him!”

¹⁵Pilate wanted to satisfy the people, so he freed Barabbas for them. But he had Jesus whipped and handed over to be crucified.

Read in Logos

Mark 15:2: And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.”