Then the whole assembly rose up and led him to Pilate. 2 They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man twisting our nation around — telling people not to pay taxes to Caesar, and claiming he himself is the Anointed One, a king.”[1]
3 Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
He answered, “You say so.”
4 Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no crime in this man.”
5 But they kept insisting, “He stirs up the people, teaching all through Judea — he started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”
6 When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. 7 And when he learned that he was under Herod’s authority, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem during those days.[2]
8 When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad. He had wanted to see him for a long time, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign performed by him. 9 He questioned him at length, but Jesus gave him no answer at all. 10 The chief priests and the scribes stood there, accusing him fiercely.
11 Then Herod, along with his soldiers, treated him with contempt. They mocked him, threw a shining robe around him, and sent him back to Pilate.[3] 12 That very day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other — before this they had been enemies.
• • •
13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought this man to me as someone who was leading the people astray. Look — I have examined him before you and found no crime in this man regarding the things you charge against him. 15 Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look — he has done nothing worthy of death. 16 So I will have him flogged and then release him.”
18 But they shouted out all together, “Take this man away! Release Barabbas to us!” 19 (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for a revolt that had happened in the city, and for murder.)
20 Pilate addressed them again, wanting to release Jesus. 21 But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
22 A third time he said to them, “Why? What evil has this man done? I have found no reason for death in him. So I will have him flogged and then release him.”
23 But they pressed on with loud shouts, demanding that he be crucified. And their shouts won out. 24 Pilate decided to grant their demand. 25 He released the man they asked for — the one thrown into prison for revolt and murder — and handed Jesus over to their will.
• • •
26 As they led him away, they grabbed a man named Simon, from Cyrene, who was coming in from the country. They laid the cross on him to carry behind Jesus.[4]
27 A large crowd of people followed him, including women who were beating their chests and wailing for him. 28 Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not cry for me. Cry for yourselves and for your children. 29 Look — the days are coming when they will say, ‘Fortunate are the barren women, the wombs that never gave birth, and the breasts that never nursed.’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’[5] 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
32 Two others, criminals, were also led away with him to be executed.
• • •
33 When they came to the place called The Skull, they crucified him there — and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.[6]
35 The people stood watching. The rulers sneered at him, saying, “He saved others — let him save himself, if he is the Anointed One of God, the Chosen One.”
36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
38 There was also an inscription above him: “This is the King of the Jews.”
39 One of the criminals hanging there kept hurling insults at him: “Aren’t you the Anointed One? Save yourself — and us!”
40 But the other one rebuked him, saying, “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are here justly — we’re getting what our actions deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.”
43 Jesus answered him, “Amen, I tell you — today you will be with me in paradise.”
• • •
44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 45 The sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn down the middle.
46 Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, “Father, into your hands I place my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last.
47 When the officer saw what had happened, he praised God and said, “Surely this man was upright.”
48 All the crowds who had gathered for this spectacle, when they saw what had happened, went home beating their chests. 49 All his acquaintances stood at a distance, along with the women who had followed him from Galilee — watching these things.
• • •
50 Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the council, a good and upright man — 51 he had not agreed with their plan and action. He was from Arimathea, a town of the Jews, and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. 52 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 He took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever been placed.
54 It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
55 The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. 56 Then they went back and prepared spices and perfumes.
And on the Sabbath they rested, according to the commandment.
Notes
Note 1. Jesus’ answer on paying taxes to Caesar is at Luke 20:22–25. ↩
Note 2. Luke 3:1 names Herod tetrarch of Galilee; Josephus adds that his territory also included Perea, east of the Jordan (Antiquities 17.8.1). ↩
Note 3. Luke’s word (lampran) means “bright” or “gleaming” and does not name a color. Mark and Matthew describe the mock-royal garment as purple and scarlet respectively. ↩
Note 4. Cyrene was a Greek-founded city in what is now Libya, on the North African coast, with a large and long-established Jewish community. Acts 2:10 lists Jews from the parts of Libya near Cyrene among those in Jerusalem at Pentecost. ↩
Note 5. These words echo the Greek Old Testament of Hosea 10:8. ↩
Note 6. Jesus’ words here — “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” — are absent from P75, Codex Vaticanus, and the original hand of Codex Bezae; Codex Sinaiticus has them, though a corrector removed them and a later one restored them. Westcott and Hort (1881) double-bracketed them; SBLGNT prints them. ↩