John 19

19 ¹ Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ² And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head, and they draped a purple robe around him. ³ They kept coming up to him and saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face.

⁴ Pilate went outside again and said to them, "Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know I find no guilt in him." ⁵ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"

⁶ When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him."

⁷ The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he made himself out to be the Son of our Father."

⁸ When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. ⁹ He went back into the headquarters and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ So Pilate said to him, "You refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?"

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

¹² From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews shouted, "If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king sets himself against Caesar."

¹³ So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, which in Aramaic is Gabbatha. ¹⁴ Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover, about noon. And he said to the Jews, "Here is your King!"

¹⁵ They shouted, "Away 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."

Handed Over

¹⁶ So then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, ¹⁷ and carrying his own cross, he went out to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. ¹⁸ There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle. ¹⁹ Pilate also had an inscription written and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. ²⁰ Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. ²¹ So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man said, 'I am King of the Jews.'"

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

²³ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier, and they took the tunic as well. Now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. ²⁴ So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be." This was to fulfill the Scripture that says, "They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." So this is what the soldiers did.

²⁵ Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." ²⁷ Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from then on the disciple took her into his own home.

It Is Finished

²⁸ After this, knowing that everything was now finished, Jesus said — fulfilling the Scripture — "I am thirsty." ²⁹ A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge soaked in the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to his mouth. ³⁰ When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished." And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

³¹ Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the Sabbath—for that Sabbath was a high day—so they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. ³² So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and then of the other who had been crucified with him. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water flowed out. ³⁵ The one who saw it has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he tells the truth, so that you also may believe. ³⁶ For these things happened to fulfill the Scripture: "Not one of his bones will be broken." ³⁷ And again another Scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."

Joseph and Nicodemus

³⁸ After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate for permission to take the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission, so he came and took the body away. ³⁹ Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus at night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. ⁴⁰ So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, following the burial custom of the Jews. ⁴¹ Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. ⁴² So because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.