Jesus
went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley
to
where there was a garden,
into which he and his disciples
entered.
Judas his betrayer also knew the place,
because
Jesus had often met there with his disciples.
So Judas got a band
of soldiers and guards
from the chief priests and the
Pharisees
and went there with lanterns, torches, and
weapons.
Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to
him,
went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking
for?”
They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.”
He said
to them, “I AM.”
Judas his betrayer was also with them.
When
he said to them, “I AM, “
they turned away and fell to
the ground.
So he again asked them,
“Whom are you looking
for?”
They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.”
Jesus
answered,
“I told you that I AM.
So if you are looking for
me, let these men go.”
This was to fulfill what he had
said,
“I have not lost any of those you gave me.”
Then
Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it,
struck the high
priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear.
The slave’s name
was Malchus.
Jesus said to Peter,
“Put your sword into its
scabbard.
Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?”
So
the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized
Jesus,
bound him, and brought him to Annas first.
He was the
father-in-law of Caiaphas,
who was high priest that
year.
It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews
that it
was better that one man should die rather than the people.
Simon
Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.
Now the other disciple
was known to the high priest,
and he entered the courtyard
of the high priest with Jesus.
But Peter stood at the gate
outside.
So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high
priest,
went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought
Peter in.
Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to
Peter,
“You are not one of this man’s disciples, are
you?”
He said, “I am not.”
Now the slaves and the guards
were standing around a charcoal fire
that they had made, because
it was cold,
and were warming themselves.
Peter was also
standing there keeping warm.
The high priest questioned
Jesus
about his disciples and about his doctrine.
Jesus
answered him,
“I have spoken publicly to the world.
I have
always taught in a synagogue
or in the temple area where
all the Jews gather,
and in secret I have said nothing. Why
ask me?
Ask those who heard me what I said to them.
They know
what I said.”
When he had said this,
one of the temple
guards standing there struck Jesus and said,
“Is this the
way you answer the high priest?”
Jesus answered him,
“If I
have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong;
but if I have
spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”
Then Annas sent him
bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
Now Simon Peter was
standing there keeping warm.
And they said to him,
“You are
not one of his disciples, are you?”
He denied it and said,
“I
am not.”
One of the slaves of the high priest,
a
relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said,
“Didn’t
I see you in the garden with him?”
Again Peter denied it.
And
immediately the cock crowed.
Then they brought Jesus from
Caiaphas to the praetorium.
It was morning.
And they
themselves did not enter the praetorium,
in order not to be
defiled so that they could eat the Passover.
So Pilate came out
to them and said,
“What charge do you bring against this
man?”
They answered and said to him,
“If he were not a
criminal,
we would not have handed him over to you.”
At
this, Pilate said to them,
“Take him yourselves, and
judge him according to your law.”
The Jews answered him,
“We
do not have the right to execute anyone,”
in order that
the word of Jesus might be fulfilled
that he said indicating the
kind of death he would die.
So Pilate went back into the
praetorium
and summoned Jesus and said to him,
“Are
you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered,
“Do you say
this on your own
or have others told you about me?”
Pilate
answered,
“I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the
chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?”
Jesus
answered,
“My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my
kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be
fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But
as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
So Pilate said to him,
“Then
you are a king?”
Jesus answered,
“You say I am a king.
For
this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to
testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens
to my voice.”
Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
When
he had said this,
he again went out to the Jews and said to
them,
“I find no guilt in him.
But you have a custom that I
release one prisoner to you at Passover.
Do you want me to
release to you the King of the Jews?”
They cried out
again,
“Not this one but Barabbas!”
Now Barabbas was a
revolutionary.
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him
scourged.
And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed
it on his head,
and clothed him in a purple cloak,
and
they came to him and said,
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
And
they struck him repeatedly.
Once more Pilate went out and said to
them,
“Look, I am bringing him out to you,
so
that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”
So Jesus came
out,
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.
And
he said to them, “Behold, the man!”
When the chief priests
and the guards saw him they cried out,
“Crucify him,
crucify him!”
Pilate said to them,
“Take him yourselves
and crucify him.
I find no guilt in him.”
The Jews
answered,
“We have a law, and according to that law he
ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God.”
Now
when Pilate heard this statement,
he became even more
afraid,
and went back into the praetorium and said to
Jesus,
“Where are you from?”
Jesus did not answer
him.
So Pilate said to him,
“Do you not speak to me?
Do
you not know that I have power to release you
and I have
power to crucify you?”
Jesus answered him,
“You would have
no power over me
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.”
Consequently, Pilate tried to release him;
but the Jews cried out,
“If you release him, you are not
a Friend of Caesar.
Everyone who makes himself a king opposes
Caesar.”
When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus
out
and seated him on the judge’s bench
in the
place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
It was
preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.
And he said
to the Jews,
“Behold, your king!”
They cried out,
“Take
him away, take him away! Crucify him!”
Pilate said to
them,
“Shall I crucify your king?”
The chief priests
answered,
“We have no king but Caesar.”
Then he handed him
over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus, and,
carrying the cross himself,
he went out to what is called
the Place of the Skull,
in Hebrew, Golgotha.
There they
crucified him, and with him two others,
one on either side,
with Jesus in the middle.
Pilate also had an inscription written
and put on the cross.
It read,
“Jesus the Nazorean, the King
of the Jews.”
Now many of the Jews read this
inscription,
because the place where Jesus was crucified
was near the city;
and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and
Greek.
So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate,
“Do
not write ‘The King of the Jews,’
but that he said, ‘I am
the King of the Jews’.”
Pilate answered,
“What I have
written, I have written.”
When the soldiers had crucified
Jesus,
they took his clothes and divided them into four
shares,
a share for each soldier.
They also took his
tunic, but the tunic was seamless,
woven in one piece from
the top down.
So they said to one another,
“Let’s
not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, “
in
order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that
says:They
divided my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast
lots.
This
is what the soldiers did.
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his
mother
and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
and
Mary of Magdala.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there
whom he loved
he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your
son.”
Then he said to the disciple,
“Behold, your
mother.”
And from that hour the disciple took her into his
home.
After this, aware that everything was now finished,
in
order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
Jesus said, “I
thirst.”
There was a vessel filled with common wine.
So they
put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop
and put it
up to his mouth.
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,
“It
is finished.”
And bowing his head, he handed over the
spirit.
Here
all kneel and pause for a short time.
Now
since it was preparation day,
in order that the bodies might not
remain on the cross on the sabbath,
for the sabbath day of that
week was a solemn one,
the Jews asked Pilate that their
legs be broken
and that they be taken down.
So the
soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
and then of
the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to
Jesus and saw that he was already dead,
they did not break
his legs,
but one soldier thrust his lance into his
side,
and immediately blood and water flowed out.
An
eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true;
he
knows that he is speaking the truth,
so that you also may
come to believe.
For this happened so that the Scripture passage
might be fulfilled:Not
a bone of it will be broken.
And
again another passage says:They
will look upon him whom they have pierced.
After
this, Joseph of Arimathea,
secretly a disciple of Jesus for
fear of the Jews,
asked Pilate if he could remove the body
of Jesus.
And Pilate permitted it.
So he came and took his
body.
Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at
night,
also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and
aloes
weighing about one hundred pounds.
They took the
body of Jesus
and bound it with burial cloths along with
the spices,
according to the Jewish burial custom.
Now
in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden,
and
in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
So
they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day;
for
the tomb was close by.
