1 Immediately morning came, the high priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and all the Sanhedrin, and after binding Jesus they led him off and handed him over to Pilate.
3 Then the high priest brought many accusations against him,
4 and once more Pilate asked him, "Have you no reply to make? Look at all their charges against you."
5 But, to the astonishment of Pilate, Jesus answered no more.
6 Now at festival time he used to release for them some prisoner whom they begged from him.
7 (There was a man called Bar-Abbas in prison, among the rioters who had committed murder during the insurrection.)
8 So the crowd pressed up and started to ask him for his usual boon.
9 Pilate replied, "Would you like me to release the king of the Jews for you?"
10 (For he knew the high priests had handed him over out of envy.)
11 But the high priests stirred up the crowd to get him to release Bar-Abbas for them instead.
14 "Why," said Pilate, "what has he done wrong?" But they shouted more fiercely than ever, "Crucify him!"
15 So, as Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, he released Bar-Abbas for them; Jesus he handed over to be crucified, after he had scourged him.
16 The soldiers took him inside the courtyard (that is, the praetorium) and got all the regiment together;
17 then they dressed him in purple, put on his head a crown of thorns which they had plaited,
18 and began to salute him with, "Hail, O king of the Jews!"
19 They struck him on the head with a stick and spat upon him and bent their knees to him in homage.
20 Then, after making fun of him, they stripped off the purple, put on his own clothes, and took him away to crucify him.
21 They forced Simon a Cyrenian who was passing on his way from the country (the father of Alexander and Rufus) to carry his cross,
22 and they led him to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull).
23 They offered him wine flavoured with myrrh, but he would not take it.
24 Then they crucified him and distributed his clothes among themselves, drawing lots for them to decide each man's share.
25 It was nine in the morning when they crucified him.
26 The inscription bearing his charge was: THE KING OF THE JEWS.
27 They also crucified two robbers along with him, one at his right and one at his left.
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29 Those who passed by scoffed at him, nodding at him in derision and calling, "Ha! You were to destroy the temple and build it in three days!
30 Come down from the cross and save yourself!"
31 So, too, the high priests made fun of him to themselves with the scribes; "he saved others," they said, "but he cannot save himself!
32 Let 'the Christ,' 'the king of Israel' come down now from the cross! Let us see that and we will believe!" Those who were crucified with him also denounced him.
33 When twelve o'clock came, darkness covered the whole land till three o'clock,
34 and at three o'clock Jesus gave a loud cry, "El?i, El?i, lema sabachthanei" (which means, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?)
35 On hearing this some of the bystanders said, "Look, he is calling for Elijah."
36 One man ran off, soaked a sponge in vinegar, and put it on the end of a stick to give him a drink, saying, "Come on, let us see if Elijah does come to take him down!"
37 But Jesus gave a loud cry and expired.
38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
39 Now when the army-captain who stood facing him saw that he expired in this way, he said, "This man was certainly a son of God."
40 There were some women also watching at a distance, among them Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome,
41 women who had followed him when he was in Galilee and waited on him, besides a number of other women who had accompanied him to Jerusalem.
42 By this time it was evening, and as it was the day of Preparation (that is, the day before the sabbath)
43 Joseph of Arimathaea, a councillor of good position who himself was on the outlook for the Reign of God, ventured to go to Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus.
44 Pilate was surprised that he was dead already; he summoned the captain and asked if he had been dead some time,
45 and on ascertaining this from the captain he bestowed the corpse on Joseph.
46 He, after buying a linen sheet, took him down and swathed him in the linen, laying him in a tomb which had been cut out of the rock and rolling a boulder up against the opening of the tomb.
47 Now Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of Joses noted where he was laid.