¹³Pilate called the people together with the leading priests and the rulers. ¹⁴He said to them, “You brought this man to me, saying he makes trouble among the people. But I have questioned him before you all, and I have not found him guilty of what you say. ¹⁵Also, Herod found nothing wrong with him; he sent him back to us. Look, he has done nothing for which he should die. ¹⁶So, after I punish him, I will let him go free.” ¹⁷Every year at the Passover Feast, Pilate had to release one prisoner to the people. ⁿ

¹⁸But the people shouted together, “Take this man away! Let Barabbas go free!” ¹⁹(Barabbas was a man who was in prison for his part in a riot in the city and for murder.)

²⁰Pilate wanted to let Jesus go free and told this to the crowd. ²¹But they shouted again, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

²²A third time Pilate said to them, “Why? What wrong has he done? I can find no reason to kill him. So I will have him punished and set him free.”

²³But they continued to shout, demanding that Jesus be crucified. Their yelling became so loud that ²⁴Pilate decided to give them what they wanted. ²⁵He set free the man who was in jail for rioting and murder, and he handed Jesus over to them to do with him as they wished.

Jesus Is Crucified

²⁶As they led Jesus away, Simon, a man from Cyrene, was coming in from the fields. They forced him to carry Jesus’ cross and to walk behind him.

²⁷A large crowd of people was following Jesus, including some women who were sad and crying for him. ²⁸But Jesus turned and said to them, “Women of Jerusalem, don’t cry for me. Cry for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹The time is coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the women who cannot have children and who have no babies to nurse.’ ³⁰Then people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ And they will say to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ ³¹If they act like this now when life is good, what will happen when bad times come?” ⁿ

³²There were also two criminals led out with Jesus to be put to death. ³³When they came to a place called the Skull, the soldiers crucified Jesus and the criminals—one on his right and the other on his left. ³⁴Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing.” ⁿ

The soldiers threw lots to decide who would get his clothes.

Read in Logos

Luke 23:26: And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus.

Footnotes

nEvery … people. Some Greek copies do not contain the bracketed text.
nIf … come? Literally, “If they do these things in the green tree, what will happen in the dry?”
nJesus … doing.” Some Greek copies do not have this first part of verse 34.