Mark 15:1–21

Jesus Before Pilate

15:2–15pp—Mt 27:11–26; Lk 23:2,3,18–25; Jn 18:29–19:16

15Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law^d and the whole Sanhedrin,^e made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.^f

²“Are you the king of the Jews?”^g asked Pilate.

“You have said so,” Jesus replied.

³The chief priests accused him of many things. ⁴So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”

⁵But Jesus still made no reply,^h and Pilate was amazed.

⁶Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. ⁷A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. ⁸The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

⁹“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?”ⁱ asked Pilate, ¹⁰knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. ¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas^j instead.

¹²“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

¹³“Crucify him!” they shouted.

¹⁴“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

¹⁵Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged,^k and handed him over to be crucified.

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

15:16–20pp—Mt 27:27–31

¹⁶The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace^l (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. ¹⁷They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. ¹⁸And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!”^{m 19}Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. ²⁰And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him outⁿ to crucify him.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

15:22–32pp—Mt 27:33–44; Lk 23:33–43; Jn 19:17–24

²¹A certain man from Cyrene,^o Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus,^p was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.^q