John 19

1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown out of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple garment around him, 3 and they were coming up to him and saying, “Greetings, king of the Jews!” And they were giving him slaps. [a]

4 And Pilate went outside again and says to them, “Look — I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no ground for a charge in him.” 5 So Jesus came outside, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. And he says to them, “Look — the man.” [b] 6 So when the chief priests and the attendants saw him they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate says to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; for I find no ground for a charge in him.” 7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to the law he ought to die, because he made himself God’s Son.” [c]

8 So when Pilate heard this word he was the more afraid, 9 and he went into the praetorium again and says to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 So Pilate says 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 him, “You would have no authority over me at all if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” [d] 12 From this Pilate was seeking to release him; but the Jews shouted, saying, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.”

13 So Pilate, hearing these words, brought Jesus outside and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called Stone Pavement, and in Hebrew Gabbatha. [e] 14 Now it was the Preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he says to the Jews, “Look — your king.” [f] † 15 So they shouted, “Away, away — crucify him!” Pilate says to them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 So then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus;

17 and carrying the cross for himself he went out to what is called the Place of a Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha, [g] 18 where they crucified him, and with him two others, one on this side and one on that, and Jesus in the middle.

19 And Pilate also wrote a notice and put it on the cross. And it was written: “Jesus the Nazorean, the king of the Jews.” [h] 20 So many of the Jews read this notice, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The king of the Jews,’ but that that man said, ‘I am king of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

23 So the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his clothes and made four parts, a part for each soldier, and the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven from the top through the whole. 24 So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but let us cast lots for it, whose it will be” — so that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: “They divided my clothes among themselves and cast lots for my clothing.” So the soldiers did these things. [i]

25 Now standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. [j] 26 So Jesus, seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, says to his mother, “Woman, look — your son.” 27 Then he says to the disciple, “Look — your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. [k]

28 After this Jesus, knowing that everything had already been finished, so that the Scripture might be completed, says, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar full of vinegar was standing there; so putting a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop they brought it to his mouth. [l] 30 So when Jesus had taken the vinegar he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head he handed over the spirit. [m]

31 So the Jews, since it was the Preparation — so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath day was a great one — asked Pilate that their legs be broken and that they be taken away. [n] 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him; 33 but coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, 34 but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. †

35 And the one who has seen it has testified, and his testimony is true, and that one knows that he tells the truth, so that you also may trust. [o] 36 For these things happened so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not a bone of his will be broken.” [p] 37 And again another Scripture says: “They will look on the one they pierced.” [q] †

38 And after these things Joseph from Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus but a hidden one because of the fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate allowed it. So he came and took away his body. 39 And Nicodemus also came, the one who had come to him by night at the first, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy pounds. [r] 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen strips with the spices, as is the custom among the Jews to bury. 41 Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever yet been laid. 42 So there, because of the Preparation of the Jews, since the tomb was near, they laid Jesus.