John 18:39–19:6

³⁹But it is your custom that I release for you one prisoner^* at the Passover. So do you want me^* to release for you the king of the Jews?” ⁴⁰Then they shouted again, saying, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” (Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.)^c

Pilate Attempts to Release Jesus

19So then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.^{* 2}And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and placed it^* on his head, and put a purple robe on him, ³and were coming up to him and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” and were giving him slaps in the face.

⁴And Pilate came outside again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing him outside to you, so that you will know that I find no basis for an accusation against him.” ⁵Then Jesus came outside wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and he said to them, “Behold the man!” ⁶So when they saw him, the chief priests and the officers shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate said to them, “You take him and crucify him!^* For I do not find a basis for an accusation against him.”