John 19:1-22

The Crown of Thorns

1 Pilate then took Jesus and ¹scourged Him.

2 ²And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him;

3 and they began to come up to Him and say, "³Hail, King of the Jews!" and to ⁴give Him slaps in the face.

4 Pilate ⁵came out again and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that ⁶I find no guilt in Him."

5 Jesus then came out, ⁷wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold, the Man!"

6 So when the chief priests and the ⁸officers saw Him, they cried out saying, "Crucify, crucify!" Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for ⁹I find no guilt in Him."

7 The Jews answered him, "¹⁰We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He ¹¹made Himself out to be the Son of God."

8 Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid;

9 and he ¹²entered into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But ¹³Jesus gave him no answer.

10 So Pilate said to Him, "You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?"

11 Jesus answered, "¹⁴You would have no * authority over Me, unless * it had been given you from above; for this reason ¹⁵he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."

12 As a result of this Pilate made efforts to release Him, but the Jews cried out saying, "¹⁶If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar."

13 Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and ¹⁷sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but ¹⁸in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

14 Now it was ¹⁹the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the ²⁰sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold, ²¹your King!"

15 So they cried out, "²²Away 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."

The Crucifixion

16 So he then ²³handed Him over to them to be crucified.

17 ²⁴They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, ²⁵bearing His own cross, to the place called ²⁶the Place of a Skull, which is called ²⁷in Hebrew, Golgotha.

18 There they crucified Him, and with Him ²⁸two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between.

19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, "²⁹JESUS THE NAZARENE, ³⁰THE KING OF THE JEWS."

20 Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written ³¹in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek.