John 19:1-16

hen Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. ² The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns and placed it on his head. Then they threw a purple robe around him. ³ They kept coming to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they kept hitting him in the face.

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

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

⁶ When the chief priests and guards saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”

Pilate told them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him.”

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

⁸ When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. ⁹ He went back inside the palace again and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?”

But Jesus gave him no answer.

¹⁰ So Pilate asked him, “Are you not talking to me? Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you or to crucify you?”

¹¹ Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over me at all if it had not been given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”

¹² From then on Pilate tried to release Jesus. But the Jews shouted, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar! Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar!”

¹³ When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside. He sat down on the judge’s seat at a place called the Stone Pavement, or Gabbatha in Aramaic. ¹⁴ It was about the sixth hour on the Preparation Day for the Passover. Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your king!”

¹⁵ They shouted, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!”

Pilate said to them, “Should I crucify your king?”

“We have no king but Caesar!” the chief priests answered.

¹⁶ So then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified.