John 19

1Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.

2The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe.

3They kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and they struck him in the face.

4Pilate went out again and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him.”

5So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

6When 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 basis for a charge against him.”

7The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”

8When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.

9He went back into the headquarters and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.

10So Pilate said to him, “Will you not speak to me? Do you not know that 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 to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

12From 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 opposes Caesar.”

13When 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.

14It was the day of preparation for the Passover, about the sixth hour. Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your king!”

15They shouted, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Am I to crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”

16Then Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus,

17and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

18There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle.

19Pilate also wrote a notice and had it put on the cross. It read: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

20Many of the Jews read this notice, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.

21So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not 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.”

23When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. They also took his tunic. The tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

24So 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 themselves, and over my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things.

25Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

26When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”

27Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

28After this, Jesus, knowing that everything was now finished, said, to fulfill the Scripture, “I am thirsty.”

29A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

30So when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

31Since it was the day of preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross during the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was an especially important day), the Jews asked Pilate to have the men’s legs broken and the bodies taken away.

32So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and then of the other one who had been crucified with him.

33But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

34Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.

35The one who saw it has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.

36For these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”

37And again another Scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

38After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because he feared the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission, so he came and took his body away.

39Nicodemus, who had first come to Jesus at night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.

40So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in strips of linen cloth with the spices, according to the burial custom of the Jews.

41Now 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.

42So because it was the Jewish day of preparation, and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.