John 19:1-27

1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped.

2 The soldiers made a crown out of thorny branches and put it on his head; then they put a purple robe on him

3 and came to him and said, "Long live the King of the Jews!" And they went up and slapped him.

4 Pilate went back out once more and said to the crowd, "Look, I will bring him out here to you to let you see that I cannot find any reason to condemn him."

5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Look! Here is the man!"

6 When the chief priests and the Temple guards saw him, they shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "You take him, then, and crucify him. I find no reason to condemn him."

7 The crowd answered back, "We have a law that says he ought to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God."

8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid.

9 He went back into the palace and asked Jesus, "Where do you come from?" But Jesus did not answer.

10 Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Remember, I have the authority to set you free and also to have you crucified."

11 Jesus answered, "You have authority over me only because it was given to you by God. So the man who handed me over to you is guilty of a worse sin." ¹

12 When Pilate heard this, he tried to find a way to set Jesus free. But the crowd shouted back, "If you set him free, that means that you are not the Emperor's friend! Anyone who claims to be a king is a rebel against the Emperor!"

13 When Pilate heard these words, he took Jesus outside and sat down on the judge's seat in the place called "The Stone Pavement." (In Hebrew the name is "Gabbatha.")

14 It was then almost noon of the day before the Passover. Pilate said to the people, "Here is your king!"

15 They shouted back, "Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!" Pilate asked them, "Do you want me to crucify your king?" The chief priests answered, "The only king we have is the Emperor!"

16 Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took charge of Jesus.

17 He went out, carrying his cross, and came to "The Place of the Skull," as it is called. (In Hebrew it is called "Golgotha.")

18 There they crucified him; and they also crucified two other men, one on each side, with Jesus between them.

19 Pilate wrote a notice and had it put on the cross. "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," is what he wrote.

20 Many people read it, because the place where Jesus was crucified was not far from the city. The notice was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

21 The chief priests said to Pilate, "Do not write "The King of the Jews,' but rather, "This man said, I am the King of the Jews.' "

22 Pilate answered, "What I have written stays written."

23 After the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. They also took the robe, which was made of one piece of woven cloth without any seams in it.

24 The soldiers said to one another, "Let's not tear it; let's throw dice to see who will get it." This happened in order to make the scripture come true: ² "They divided my clothes among themselves and gambled for my robe." And this is what the soldiers did.

25 Standing close to Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

26 Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, "He is your son."

27 Then he said to the disciple, "She is your mother." From that time the disciple took her to live in his home.

Cross References

• 1. +219.11Wisdom 6.3.
• 2. 19.24Psalms 22.18.