John 18:28–19:16

Jesus Is Brought Before Pilate

²⁸Early in the morning they led Jesus from Caiaphas’s house to the Roman governor’s palace. They would not go inside the palace, because they did not want to make themselves unclean; ⁿ they wanted to eat the Passover meal. ²⁹So Pilate went outside to them and asked, “What charges do you bring against this man?”

³⁰They answered, “If he were not a criminal, we wouldn’t have brought him to you.”

³¹Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”

“But we are not allowed to put anyone to death,” the Jews answered. ³²(This happened so that what Jesus said about how he would die would come true.)

³³Then Pilate went back inside the palace and called Jesus to him and asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

³⁴Jesus said, “Is that your own question, or did others tell you about me?”

³⁵Pilate answered, “I am not one of you. It was your own people and their leading priests who handed you over to me. What have you done wrong?”

³⁶Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If it belonged to this world, my servants would have fought to keep me from being given over to the Jewish leaders. But my kingdom is from another place.”

³⁷Pilate said, “So you are a king!”

Jesus answered, “You are the one saying I am a king. This is why I was born and came into the world: to tell people the truth. And everyone who belongs to the truth listens to me.”

³⁸Pilate said, “What is truth?” After he said this, he went out to the crowd again and said to them, “I find nothing against this man. ³⁹But it is your custom that I free one prisoner to you at Passover time. Do you want me to free the ‘king of the Jews’?”

⁴⁰They shouted back, “No, not him! Let Barabbas go free!” (Barabbas was a robber.)

19Then Pilate ordered that Jesus be taken away and whipped. ²The soldiers made a crown from some thorny branches and put it on Jesus’ head and put a purple robe around him. ³Then they came to him many times and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and hit him in the face.

⁴Again Pilate came out and said to them, “Look, I am bringing Jesus out to you. I want you to know that I find nothing against him.” ⁵So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

⁶When the leading priests and the guards saw Jesus, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

But Pilate answered, “Crucify him yourselves, because I find nothing against him.”

⁷The leaders answered, “We have a law that says he should die, because he said he is the Son of God.”

⁸When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. ⁹He went back inside the palace and asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?” But Jesus did not answer him. ¹⁰Pilate said, “You refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know I have power to set you free and power to have you crucified?”

¹¹Jesus answered, “The only power you have over me is the power given to you by God. The man who turned me in to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

¹²After this, Pilate tried to let Jesus go. But some in the crowd cried out, “Anyone who makes himself king is against Caesar. If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar.”

¹³When Pilate heard what they were saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at the place called The Stone Pavement. (In the Hebrew language ⁿ the name is Gabbatha.) ¹⁴It was about noon on Preparation Day of Passover week. Pilate said to the crowd, “Here is your king!”

¹⁵They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

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

The leading priests answered, “The only king we have is Caesar.”

¹⁶So Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.

Jesus Is Crucified

The soldiers took charge of Jesus.