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Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The
soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on
his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to
him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And
they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews,
“Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I
find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came
out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate
said to them, “Here is the man!”
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw
him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered,
“You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis
for a charge against him.”
7 The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to
that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of
God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9
and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come
from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do
you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize
I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if
it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who
handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but
the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no
friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes
Caesar.”
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and
sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone
Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day
of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is
your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away!
Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We
have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be
crucified.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own
cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in
Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and
with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the
middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the
cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. 20
Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus
was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in
Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews
protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’
but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have
written.”
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his
clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of
them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was
seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another.
“Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that
the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my
garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his
mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary
Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the
disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her,
“Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is
your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into
his home.
The Death of Jesus
28 Later, knowing that everything had now been
finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus
said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so
they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the
hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had
received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that,
he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day
was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did
not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath,
they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies
taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the
legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and
then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and
found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a
spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man
who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.
He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that
you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the
scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be
broken,” 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look
on the one they have pierced.”
The Burial of Jesus
38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the
body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but
secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s
permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was
accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited
Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and
aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus’ body, the
two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen.
This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At the
place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in
the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.
42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since
the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
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Cults 
Why Did God Permit Sin?
