The Preacher's Bible

So Pilate then took Jesus and flogged him. ²The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment. ³They kept saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and they kept slapping him.

⁴Then Pilate went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him.”

⁵Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the man!”

⁶When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him.”

⁸When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid. ⁹He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰Pilate therefore said to him, “Aren’t you speaking to me? Don’t you know that I have power to release you and have power to crucify you?”

¹¹Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin.”

¹²At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you release this man, you aren’t Caesar’s friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!”

¹³When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called “The Pavement”, but in Hebrew, “Gabbatha.” ¹⁴Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!”

¹⁵They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”

²²Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

²³Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top throughout.

²⁴Then they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says, “They parted my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing.” Therefore the soldiers did these things. ²⁵But standing by Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” ²⁷Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

²⁸After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty!” ²⁹Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth. ³⁰When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

³¹Therefore the Jews, because it was the Preparation Day, so that the bodies wouldn’t remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special one), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. ³²Therefore the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him; ³³but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they didn’t break his legs. ³⁴However, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. ³⁵He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, that you may believe. ³⁶For these things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “A bone of him will not be broken.” ³⁷Again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they pierced.”

³⁸After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore and took away his body. ³⁹Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred Roman pounds. ⁴⁰So they took Jesus’ body, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. ⁴¹Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb in which no man had ever yet been laid. ⁴²Then, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day (for the tomb was near at hand), they laid Jesus there.