Mark 15

1As soon as it was morning, the chief priests, with the elders and the scribes and the whole council, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

2Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.”

3The chief priests were accusing him of many things.

4So Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they are bringing against you.”

5But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

6Now at the festival he used to release for them one prisoner, whomever they asked for.

7A man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder in the uprising.

8The crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do for them as he usually did.

9Pilate answered them, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?”

10For he knew that it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed him over.

11But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead.

12Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you want me to do with the one you call the King of the Jews?”

13They shouted again, “Crucify him!”

14Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!”

15So Pilate, wanting to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them. And after having Jesus flogged, he handed him over to be crucified.

16The soldiers led him away into the courtyard, that is, the Praetorium, and they called together the whole cohort.

17They dressed him in purple, twisted together a crown of thorns, and put it on him.

18Then they began to salute him: “Hail, King of the Jews!”

19They kept striking his head with a reed and spitting on him, and kneeling down, they paid homage to him.

20When they had finished mocking him, they stripped him of the purple and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

21They forced a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross.

22They brought him to the place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull.

23They offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.

24Then they crucified him and divided his clothes among them, casting lots for them to decide what each would take.

25It was the third hour when they crucified him.

26The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”

27With him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.

28[And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “He was counted among the lawless.”]

29Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “Ha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days,

30save yourself and come down from the cross!”

31In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.

32Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.

33When the sixth hour came, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.

34At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

35When some of those standing nearby heard this, they said, “Listen, he is calling Elijah.”

36Someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah comes to take him down.”

37But Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last.

38And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

39When the centurion, who stood facing him, saw how he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

40There were also women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.

41When he was in Galilee, these women used to follow him and serve him. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were there as well.

42When evening had already come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath,

43Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, came and boldly went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

44Pilate was surprised that he was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him whether he had been dead for some time.

45When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he granted the body to Joseph.

46Joseph bought a linen cloth, took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were watching where he was laid.