13
Pilate summoned the head cohanim, the leaders and the people,
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and said to them, "You brought this man before me on a charge of subverting the people. I examined him in your presence and did not find the man guilty of the crime you are accusing him of
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And neither did Herod, because he sent him back to us. Clearly, he has not done anything that merits the death penalty.
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Therefore, what I will do is have him flogged and release him."
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Some manuscripts have verse 17: For he was required to release one man to them at the festival.
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But with one voice they shouted, "Away with this man! Give us Bar-Abba!"
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(He was a man who had been thrown in prison for causing a riot in the city and for murder.) Pilat
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appealed to them again, because he wanted to release Yeshua.
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But they yelled, "Put him to death on the stake! Put him to death on the stake!
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A third time he asked them, "But what has this man done wrong? I haven't found any reason to put him to death. So I'm going to have him flogged and set free."
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But they went on yelling insistently, demanding that he be executed on the stake; and their shouting prevailed.