1  Then Pilate took Jesus inside and had soldiers ◄scourge Jesus/stike Jesus with a whip that had pieces of metal or bone fastened to it►. 2  The soldiers also took some branches with thorns and wove them to make something like a crown. Then they put it on his head. They also put a purple robe on him. They did these things to ridicule him by pretending that he was a king. 3  Then they kept coming to him and saying, “Hooray for the King of the Jews [IRO]!” and slapping him on his face.

4  Once more Pilate came outside and said to the crowd, “Look! I am bringing him out to you so that you may know that I do not find that he has done anything for which we should punish him anymore.” 5  When Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Look at this wretched man!” 6  When the chief priests and Temple guards saw him, they shouted, “Command your soldiers to kill him by nailing him to a cross! Crucify him!” Pilate, knowing that they could not legally do it themselves, said to them, “You yourselves take him and nail him to a cross! As for me, I do not find that he has done anything for which we should punish him.” 7  The Jewish leaders [SYN] replied, “ Our ancestor Moses gave us the law that says we must kill anyone who claims to be God. This man claims that he is ◄the Son of/the man who is also► God, so you must have him killed { command your soldiers to kill him}.” 8  When Pilate heard that, he was more afraid of what would happen to himself if he commanded the soldiers to kill Jesus. 9  So he took Jesus back inside the headquarters. He said to Jesus, “Where do you really come from?” But Jesus did not answer him. 10  So Pilate said to him, “Are you refusing to answer me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you, and I also have authority to have you crucified {command my soldiers to crucify you}?” 11  Jesus replied, “The only authority you have is what has been given to you by God [MTY] {what God [MTY] has given you}. The high priest put me into your hands. He has done to me what he wanted to do, and you do not really want to do it. So he is guilty of committing a greater sin than you are.”

12  Because of that, Pilate kept trying to release Jesus. But the Jewish leaders [SYN], threatening to report to the Emperor that Pilate was not going to punish a man who claimed he was a king, continued to shout, “Anyone who claims that he is a king is opposing the Emperor! So if you release this man, we will make sure that the Emperor learns about it, and then he will not consider you as his friend!” 13  When Pilate heard that, he brought Jesus out again. He sat down at the place where he made decisions about punishing people. The place was called {People called it} The Stone Pavement. In the Aramaic language its name was Gabbatha. 14  It was almost noontime, on the day that they prepared things for the Passover celebration (OR, the day before the Sabbath during the Passover celebration).

Pilate said to the Jewish leaders [SYN], ridiculing them, “Look at your king!” 15  They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Have him crucified {Command your soldiers to nail him to a cross}!” Pilate said to them, “ He is your king! Do you really want me to tell my soldiers to nail him to a cross?” The chief priests replied, “The Emperor is our king! We do not have any other king!” 16  Then at last Pilate agreed to do what they wanted, and he told the soldiers to crucify Jesus.

Then the soldiers took Jesus away. 17  As they left, he himself was carrying the cross on which they were going to nail him. They went to a place called The Place of a Skull. In the Aramaic language it is called {they call it} Golgotha. 18  There, after removing most of his clothes, the soldiers nailed him to the cross. They also nailed two other criminals to crosses. There was one on each side, and Jesus was in the middle.

19  Pilate also had them write on a board a notice that stated why they were executing him, and fasten it to the cross. But all they wrote was ‘Jesus from Nazareth, the King of the Jews’. 20  Many Jews were able to read this sign, because the place where Jesus was nailed {where they nailed Jesus} to the cross was very close to Jerusalem, where many people had come for the celebration, and because it was written {they wrote it} in three languages: Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. 21  So the Jewish priests went back to Pilate and protested, saying to him, “Change what they have written from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘This man said that he is the King of the Jews’!” 22  Pilate replied, “What I told them to write is what they have written, and I will not change it.”

23  After the soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. But they kept his cloak separate. This cloak was without seam, woven from top to bottom, one piece of cloth. 24  So they said to each other, “Let’s not tear it. Instead, let’s decide ◄ by throwing lots/ by gambling► who will get it.” So that is what the soldiers did. As a result, these words were fulfilled {they fulfilled these words} that the Psalmist had written in Scripture,

25  Near the cross where they had nailed Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and another Mary, the woman from Magdala village. 26  Jesus saw his mother standing there. He also saw me standing nearby. Then he said to his mother, “This man will now be like your son.” 27  And he said to me, “ Treat this woman as [MET] your mother.” So from that time I took her to my home and took care of her.

28  Later, Jesus knew that everything that God sent him to do had now been completed {that he had now completed everything that God sent him to do}, but he knew that something else that was written in the Scriptures had to be fulfilled { that he had to fulfill something else that they had written in the Scriptures}. So he said, “I am thirsty!” 29  There was a jar of sour wine there. So someone took a stalk of a plant called hyssop and fastened a sponge to it. Then he dipped the sponge into the wine and lifted it up to Jesus’ lips. 30  When Jesus tasted the sour wine, he shouted, “ I have finished all that I came to do!” Then he bowed his head and ◄died/handed over his spirit to God►.

31  That was the day that they prepared everything for their ◄ Sabbath/day of rest►. The next day was a special day of rest, because it was the day of rest during the Passover celebration. The Jewish leaders [SYN] did not want the bodies of the three men to remain on the cross during their ◄Sabbath/day of rest► because leaving bodies hanging overnight would be contrary to their Jewish laws. So they went to Pilate and asked him to command that the legs of the three men on the crosses be broken {the soldiers to break the legs of the three men on the crosses}, so that they would die quickly. Then their bodies could be taken down and buried {someone could take down their bodies and bury them}. 32  So, after Pilate agreed, the soldiers went and broke the legs of the first man whom they had nailed on a cross near Jesus. Then they broke the legs of the second man. 33  But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was dead already. So they did not break his legs. 34  Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear to make sure that Jesus was dead. Immediately blood clots and other liquid flowed out, which showed that Jesus was really dead. 35  I, John, saw this myself, and what I am writing is true. I know that I am telling the truth, and I am saying this in order that you may believe in (OR, my testimony about) Jesus. 36  These things happened in order that these words would be fulfilled {to fulfill these words} that are written in Scripture: “Not one of his bones will be broken {No one will break any of his bones}.”

37  And they fulfilled another Scripture passage that has these words: ‘They will look on the one whom they have pierced’.

38  Later, Joseph, from Arimathea town, went to Pilate and asked Pilate to allow him to take Jesus’ body down from the cross. Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but he did not tell anyone that, because he was afraid of the other Jewish leaders [SYN]. Pilate permitted him to take Jesus’ body, so he went, along with others, and they took Jesus’ body down from the cross. 39  Nicodemus was one of them. He was the man who previously went to visit Jesus at night. Nicodemus bought an expensive mixture of myrrh and aloe spices to put on the body. It weighed about ◄75 pounds/35 kilograms►. 40  They took the body of Jesus and wrapped strips of linen cloth around it, putting the spices in with the strips of cloth. They did this according to the Jewish customs about burying bodies in tombs. 41  Close to the place where Jesus was crucified {where they nailed Jesus to the cross} there was a grove of trees, and at the edge of that grove was a new burial cave. Nobody had ever been put in that cave previously. 42  The Jewish day of rest would start at sunset, and they had to finish burying his body before then. So, since that cave was nearby, they laid Jesus’ body there and rolled a huge stone in front of the entrance.