John 19

19 ¹Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ²The soldiers wove a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and wrapped a purple robe around him. ³They kept coming to him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and slapped his face.

⁴Pilate went out again and said to them, "Look, I'm bringing him out to you, so you'll know I find no fault in him." ⁵So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate told them, "Here is the man!"

⁶When the chief priests and guards saw him, they shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Pilate told them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him, since I find no guilt in him."

⁷The Jews answered him, "We have a law; by that law he must die, because he made himself the Son of God."

⁸When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. ⁹He went into headquarters again and asked Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰So Pilate said to him, "You won't speak to me? Don't you know I have authority to release you, and authority to crucify you?"

¹¹Jesus answered him, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. That is why the one who handed me over to you bears the greater sin."

¹²From then on, Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, "If you release him, you're no friend of Caesar. Anyone who makes himself king opposes Caesar."

¹³Hearing these words, Pilate brought Jesus out and sat on the judgment seat at a place called Stone Pavement—Gabbatha in Aramaic. ¹⁴It was Passover Preparation Day, about noon. He told the Jews, "Here is your King!"

¹⁵They yelled, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!" Pilate asked them, "Crucify your king?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar."

Handed Over

¹⁶So then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, ¹⁷carrying his own cross, he went out to the place called The Place of a Skull, called Golgotha in Aramaic. ¹⁸There they crucified him, with two others, one on each side, Jesus in the middle. ¹⁹Pilate also wrote a sign and put it on the cross: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. ²⁰Many Jews read this sign, since the place Jesus was crucified was near the city; it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. ²¹So the Jewish chief priests said to Pilate, "Don't write 'The King of the Jews,' but 'This man said, I am King of the Jews.'"

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

²³After crucifying Jesus, the soldiers took his clothes and split them into four shares, one per soldier, and took the tunic too. The tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. ²⁴So they said to each other, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for who gets it." This was to fulfill the Scripture that says, "They divided my clothes among themselves, and cast lots for my garment." So the soldiers did this.

²⁵His mother, his mother's sister, Mary wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene stood near Jesus' cross.

²⁶Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing there, Jesus told her, "Woman, here is your son." ²⁷Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that hour, the disciple took her into his home.

It Is Finished

²⁸After this, knowing all was now finished, Jesus said, to fulfill Scripture, "I am thirsty."

²⁹A jar full of sour wine sat there; they soaked a sponge in it, fixed it on a hyssop stalk, and lifted it to his mouth.

³⁰Jesus took the sour wine and said, "It is finished." He bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

³¹Since it was Preparation Day, and they didn't want the bodies remaining on the cross during the Sabbath—that Sabbath was a special day—the Jews asked Pilate to break their legs and remove the bodies. ³²So soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, then the other crucified with him. ³³But coming to Jesus, seeing he was already dead, they didn't break his legs. ³⁴But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water immediately came out. ^a a v34 John is telling us he saw this himself, and he offers it as evidence that Jesus had truly died. ³⁵The eyewitness has testified—his testimony is true, and he knows he speaks the truth—so you also may believe. ³⁶For these things happened to fulfill the Scripture: "Not one of his bones will be broken." ³⁷And again another Scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."

Joseph and Nicodemus

³⁸Afterward, Joseph of Arimathea—a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews—asked Pilate to let him remove Jesus' body. Pilate agreed, so he came and removed it. ³⁹Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus at night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. ⁴⁰They took Jesus's body and wrapped it in linen cloths with spices, as is Jewish burial custom. ⁴¹Where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had yet been laid. ⁴²Because it was the Jewish Preparation day, and the tomb was near, they laid Jesus there.