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¹ As soon as it was morning, the high priests convened a meeting with the elders and scribes and the whole Council.[fn] They bound Jesus with chains, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.[xr] ² Pilate asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus[fn] answered him, "You say so."[xr] ³ The high priests kept accusing him of many things. ⁴ So Pilate asked him again, "Don't you have any answer? Look how many accusations they're bringing against you!"[xr] ⁵ But Jesus no longer answered anything, so that Pilate was astonished.[xr] ⁶ At every festival[fn] Pilate[fn] would release any one prisoner whom the people[fn] requested.[xr] ⁷ Now there was a man in prison named Barabbas. He was with the insurgents who had committed murder during the rebellion. ⁸ So the crowd came and began to request that he[fn] do for them what he always did. ⁹ Pilate answered them, "Do you want me to release the king of the Jews for you?" ¹⁰ For he knew that the high priests had handed him[fn] over because of jealousy. ¹¹ But the high priests stirred up the crowd to get him to release Barabbas for them instead.[xr] ¹² So Pilate said to them again, "Then what should I do with the man you call[fn] the king of the Jews?" ¹³ They shouted back, "Crucify him!" ¹⁴ Pilate asked them, "Why? What has he done wrong?" But they shouted even louder, "Crucify him!"

¹⁵ So Pilate, wanting to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them, but he had Jesus whipped and handed over to be crucified.[xr] ¹⁶ The soldiers led Jesus[fn] into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters)[fn] and called out the whole guard.[xr] ¹⁷ They dressed him in a purple robe, twisted some thorns into a victor's crown, and placed it on his head.[fn] ¹⁸ They began to greet him, "Long live the king of the Jews!" ¹⁹ They kept hitting him on the head with a stick, spitting on him, kneeling in front of him, and worshiping him. ²⁰ When they had finished making fun of him, they stripped him of the purple robe, put his own clothes back on him, and led him away to crucify him. ²¹ They forced a certain passer-by who was coming in from the country to carry Jesus'[fn] cross. He was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.[xr]

²² They took Jesus[fn] to a place called Golgotha, which means Skull Place.[xr] ²³ They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he wouldn't take it.[xr] ²⁴ Then they crucified him. They divided his clothes among themselves by throwing dice to see what each one would get.[xr] ²⁵ It was nine in the morning[fn] when they crucified him.[xr] ²⁶ The written notice of the charge against him read, "The king of the Jews."[xr] ²⁷ They crucified two bandits[fn] with him, one on his right and the other on his left.[fn] ²⁸ Then the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "He was counted with criminals.",[xr] ²⁹ Those who passed by kept insulting[fn] him, shaking their heads, and saying, "Ha! You who were going to destroy the sanctuary and rebuild it in three days[xr] - ³⁰ save yourself and come down from the cross!" ³¹ In the same way the high priests, along with the scribes, were also making fun of him among themselves. They kept saying, "He saved others but can't save himself! ³² Let the Christ,[fn] the king of Israel, come down from the cross now so that we may see it and believe." Even the men who were crucified with him kept insulting him.[xr]

³³ At twelve noon,[fn] darkness came over the whole land[fn] until three in the afternoon.[fn][xr] ³⁴ At three o'clock[fn] Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, eloi, lema sabachthani?", which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"[fn][xr] ³⁵ When some of the people standing there heard this, they said, "Listen! He's calling for Elijah!"[fn] ³⁶ So someone ran and soaked a sponge in some sour wine. Then he put it on a stick and offered Jesus[fn] a drink, saying, "Wait! Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down!"[xr] ³⁷ Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.[xr] ³⁸ The curtain[fn] in the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.[xr] ³⁹ When the centurion[fn] who stood facing Jesus[fn] saw how he had cried out and breathed his last,[fn] he said, "This man certainly was the Son of God!"[xr] ⁴⁰ Now there were women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of young James and Joseph, and Salome.[xr] ⁴¹ They used to accompany him and care for him while he was in Galilee. Many other women who had come up to Jerusalem with him were there, too.[xr]

⁴² It was the Day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath. Since it was already evening,[xr] ⁴³ Joseph of Arimathea, a highly respected member of the Council,[fn] who was waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.[xr] ⁴⁴ Pilate wondered if Jesus[fn] had already died, so he summoned the centurion to ask him if he was in fact dead. ⁴⁵ When he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he let Joseph have the corpse. ⁴⁶ Joseph[fn] bought some linen cloth, took the body[fn] down, and wrapped it in the cloth. Then he laid it in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.[xr] ⁴⁷ Now Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid.