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The Gospel of Mark 15

15 Very early in the morning the chief priests met together with the rest of the Jewish council to decide how to accuse Jesus before the Roman governor. Their guards tied Jesus’ hands again. They took him to the residence of Pilate, the governor. 2 Pilate asked Jesus, “Do you say that you are the king of the Jews?” Jesus answered him, “You yourself have said so.” 3 Then the chief priests claimed that Jesus had done many bad things. 4 So Pilate asked him again, “Don’t you have anything to say? Listen to how many bad things they are saying that you have done!” 5 But even though Jesus was not guilty, he did not say anything more. The result was that Pilate was very much surprised.

6 Now it was the governor’s custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one person who was held in prison. He customarily released whichever prisoner the people requested. 7 At that time there was a man called Barabbas whom the soldiers had put in prison with some other men. The men had murdered some soldiers during a rebellion against the Roman government. 8 A crowd approached Pilate and asked him to release someone, just like he customarily did for them during the Passover celebration. 9 Pilate replied to them, “Would you like me to release for you the man whom you Jewish people say is your king?” 10 He asked this because he realized what the chief priests were wanting to do. They were accusing Jesus because they were jealous of him because many people were becoming his disciples. 11 But the chief priests urged the crowd to request that Pilate release Barabbas for them instead of Jesus. 12 Once more, Pilate said to them, “If I release Barabbas, what do you want me to do with the man whom some of you Jews say is your king?” 13 Then they shouted again, “Command your soldiers to crucify him!” 14 Then Pilate said to them, “Why? What crime has he committed?” But they shouted even louder, “Command your soldiers to crucify him!” 15 So because Pilate wanted to please the crowd, he released Barabbas for them. Then, after his soldiers had whipped Jesus with leather straps into which they had fastened metal and bone pieces, Pilate told the soldiers to take Jesus away to crucify him.

16 Pilate’s soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the palace where Pilate lived. That place was the government headquarters. Then they summoned the whole group of soldiers who were on duty there. 17 After the soldiers gathered together, they put a purple robe on Jesus. Then they placed on his head a crown that they had woven from branches of thornbushes. They did those things in order to ridicule him by pretending that they thought he was a king. 18 Then they greeted him like they would greet a king, again in order to ridicule him, saying, “Hooray for the King who rules the Jews!” 19 They struck his head again and again with a heavy reed, and they spat on him. They knelt down in front of him to pretend to honor him. 20 When they had finished ridiculing him, they pulled off the purple robe. They put his own clothes on him, and then they led him outside of the city in order to nail him to a cross.

21 After Jesus carried his cross a short distance, a man named Simon from the city of Cyrene came along. He was the father of Alexander and Rufus. He was passing by while he was returning home from outside the city. The soldiers compelled Simon to carry the cross for Jesus, because Jesus was weakened by all the mistreatment he had received. 22 The soldiers brought them both to a place that they call Golgotha. That name means, “The Place of the Skull.” 23 Then they tried to give Jesus wine that they had mixed with a medicine called myrrh, but he refused to drink it. 24 Some of the soldiers took his clothes. Then they nailed him to a cross. Afterwards, they divided his clothes among themselves by gambling for them with something like dice. They did this to determine which piece of clothing each one would get.

25 It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. 26 To the cross above Jesus’ head they attached a sign on which someone had written the reason why they were nailing him to the cross. It said, “The King of the Jews.” 27 They also nailed to other crosses two other prisoners who were bandits. They nailed one to a cross at the right side of Jesus and one to a cross at the left side of Jesus. 28 [fn] [And by crucifying him with robbers they fulfilled the scripture passage that says, ‘And they considered him as being among wicked people.’] 29 The people who were passing by insulted him by shaking their heads at him. They said, “Ha! You said that you would destroy the temple and then you would build it again within three days. 30 If you could do that, then rescue yourself by coming down from the cross!” 31 The chief priests, along with the men who taught the Jewish laws, also wanted to make fun of Jesus. So they said to each other, “People claim that he has saved others from trouble, but he cannot save himself! 32 He claimed to be the Messiah and the king who rules the people of Israel. If his words are true, he should come down now from the cross! Then we will believe him!” The two men who were nailed onto crosses beside him also insulted him.

33 At noon the whole land became dark, and it stayed dark until three o’clock in the afternoon. 34 At three o’clock Jesus called out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” That means, “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?” 35 When some of the people who were standing there heard the word ‘Eloi’, they misunderstood it and said, “Listen! He is calling for the prophet Elijah!” 36 One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine. He placed it on the tip of a reed, and then held it up to try to get Jesus to suck out the wine that was in it. While he was doing that, someone said, “Wait! Let’s see whether Elijah will come to take him down from the cross!” 37 And then, after Jesus shouted loudly, he stopped breathing and died. 38 At that moment the heavy, thick curtain that closed off the most holy place in the temple split into two pieces from top to bottom. 39 The officer who supervised the soldiers who had nailed Jesus to the cross was standing in front of Jesus. When he saw how Jesus had died, he exclaimed, “Certainly, this Jesus was God’s Son!”40-41 40-41There were also some women there, watching what happened from further back. They had accompanied Jesus when he was in the district of Galilee, and they had provided what he needed. They, and many other women, had come with him to the city of Jerusalem. Among those women was Mary from the town of Magdala. There was another Mary, who was the mother of the younger James and of Joses. There was also Salome.

42-43 42-43When evening was near, a man named Joseph from a town called Arimathea came there. He was a member of the Jewish council, one whom everyone respected. He was also one of those who had been waiting expectantly for the time when God would send his king to begin to rule. He knew that, according to Jewish law, a body must be buried on the day the person died. He also realized that it was the Day of Preparation, the day when people prepared things for the Jewish day of rest, and that the Jewish day of rest would start when the sun set. Evening was now approaching. Courageously, he went to Pilate and asked his permission to take the body of Jesus down from the cross and bury it immediately. 44 Pilate was surprised when he heard that Jesus was already dead. So he summoned the officer who was in charge of the soldiers who had crucified Jesus, and he asked him if Jesus had already died. 45 When the officer told Pilate that Jesus had died, Pilate allowed Joseph to take away the body. 46 After Joseph had bought a linen cloth, he and others took Jesus’ body down from the cross. They wrapped it in the linen cloth and laid it in a tomb that previously had been hewn out of the rock cliff. Then they rolled a huge flat stone in front of the entrance to the tomb. 47 Mary from Magdala and Mary the mother of Joses were watching where they placed Jesus’ body.

Some ancient manuscripts include verse 28 (compare Luke 22:37).

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