Matthew 27

1At daybreak all the chief priests and the people’s elders reached a decision against Jesus, to have him put to death.

2They tied him up, took him away, and turned him over to Pilate the governor.

3When Judas, the one who betrayed him, saw that Jesus had been sentenced, he regretted it and took the thirty pieces of silver back to the chief priests and elders.

4“I have sinned,” he said, “by handing over innocent blood.” But they said, “What does that matter to us? You deal with it.”

5He flung the silver into the temple and withdrew, and then he went off and hanged himself.

6The chief priests picked up the silver and said, “We are not permitted to put this into the temple treasury, because it is the price of blood.”

7After discussing it, they bought the potter’s field with the money, to be a graveyard for strangers.

8This is the reason that field is still called the Field of Blood today.

9In this way the word spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the man on whom some of the people of Israel had put a price,

10and they paid them out for the potter’s field, just as the Lord had instructed me.”

11Jesus stood in front of the governor, who questioned him: “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “It is you who say it.”

12Yet while the chief priests and elders were bringing charges against him, he made no reply.

13Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how much evidence they are bringing against you?”

14But he gave him no reply to even one accusation, and the governor was utterly astonished.

15At each festival the governor had a custom of setting free for the crowd one prisoner of their choosing.

16They were holding at that time a notorious prisoner named Jesus Barabbas.

17So when they had assembled, Pilate asked them, “Which one would you like me to set free for you—Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus, the one called the Messiah?”

18For he was aware that they had handed him over because of envy.

19As he sat on the judge’s bench, his wife sent him a message: “Do not get involved with that righteous man, because today I have gone through much suffering in a dream on his account.”

20Meanwhile the chief priests and elders talked the crowds into asking for Barabbas and having Jesus killed.

21The governor responded, “Which of the two do you wish me to set free for you?” “Barabbas,” they said.

22Pilate asked them, “What then should I do with Jesus, the one called the Messiah?” Every one of them said, “Have him crucified!”

23He said, “Why? What wrong has he done?” But they kept crying out even more loudly, “Have him crucified!”

24Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, and that an uproar was breaking out instead. So he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am not guilty of this blood. You deal with it yourselves.”

25The people all answered, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”

26Then he set Barabbas free for them, but Jesus he had whipped and then handed over for crucifixion.

27The governor’s soldiers then brought Jesus into the Praetorium and assembled the entire cohort around him.

28They took off his clothes and draped a scarlet cloak around him.

29They wove a crown out of thorns, placed it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand. Then they went down on their knees in front of him and ridiculed him: “Hail, King of the Jews!”

30They spat on him, took the reed, and beat him over the head with it again and again.

31When they were done ridiculing him, they stripped the cloak off him and dressed him in his own clothes. Then they took him away for crucifixion.

32On their way out they came across a man from Cyrene called Simon, and they pressed him into service to carry his cross.

33When they arrived at a place called Golgotha, a name that means Place of a Skull,

34they gave him wine mixed with gall to drink, but once he tasted it, he refused to drink it.

35After crucifying him, they shared out his clothes among themselves by casting lots,

36and they sat down there and guarded him.

37Over his head they fixed the charge against him, written out: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

38Then two bandits were crucified along with him, one at his right and one at his left.

39Those going past kept reviling him, shaking their heads

40and saying, “You who tear down the temple and build it again in three days—save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”

41Likewise the chief priests joined the scribes and elders in making fun of him. They said,

42“Others he saved, but himself he cannot save! He is Israel’s King—let him come down off the cross right now, and we will believe in him.

43He has put his trust in God; let God rescue him now, if he delights in him. For he said, ‘I am God’s Son.’”

44Even the bandits who had been crucified with him taunted him in the same way.

45From the sixth hour, darkness covered the whole land until the ninth hour.

46Around the ninth hour Jesus shouted in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

47Some of the bystanders heard it and said, “The man is calling for Elijah.”

48Right away one of them ran off, got a sponge, soaked it in sour wine, stuck it on a reed, and held it up to him to drink.

49But the rest said, “Wait! Let us see if Elijah is coming to save him.”

50Then Jesus cried out once more with a loud voice and let his spirit go.

51Just then the curtain of the temple was split in two from top to bottom, the ground quaked, and the rocks broke apart.

52The tombs came open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

53After his resurrection they came out of the tombs, went into the holy city, and showed themselves to many.

54The centurion and the men with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and everything that took place, and they were filled with fear. They said, “This man really was God’s Son!”

55A number of women were also there, looking on from far away. They had followed Jesus from Galilee, serving him.

56They included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

57Toward evening a wealthy man came from Arimathea. His name was Joseph, and he too had become a disciple of Jesus.

58He approached Pilate and requested Jesus’ body, and Pilate gave orders for it to be released to him.

59So Joseph took the body and wound a clean linen sheet around it

60and put it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. After rolling a large stone over the doorway of the tomb, he left.

61Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting facing the tomb.

62On the following day, which comes after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together before Pilate

63and said, “Sir, we recall that when that impostor was still living he said, ‘After three days I am going to rise.’

64Give orders, then, for the tomb to be kept secure until the third day, so that his disciples do not come and steal him away and say to the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead.’ Then the last deception will be worse than the first.”

65Pilate told them, “You have a guard. Go and secure it the best way you know.”

66So they went off and secured the tomb, sealing the stone and setting the guard there.