The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread^(A)

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² “This month is to be for you the first month,^(B) the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb^[a](C) for his family, one for each household.^(D)

⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect,^(A) and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month,^(B) when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.^{(C) 7} Then they are to take some of the blood^(D) and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸ That same night^(E) they are to eat the meat roasted^(F) over the fire, along with bitter herbs,^(G) and bread made without yeast.^{(H) 9} Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs.^{(I) 10} Do not leave any of it till morning;^(J) if some is left till morning, you must burn it. ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste;^(K) it is the Lord’s Passover.^(L)

¹² “On that same night I will pass through^(M) Egypt and strike down^(N) every firstborn^(O) of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods^(P) of Egypt. I am the Lord.^{(Q) 13} The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over^(R) you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.^(S)

²⁴ Now the Pharisees who had been sent ²⁵ questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

²⁶ “I baptize with^[a] water,”^(A) John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. ²⁷ He is the one who comes after me,^(B) the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”^(C)

²⁸ This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan,^(D) where John was baptizing.

John Testifies About Jesus

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God,^(E) who takes away the sin of the world!^{(F) 30} This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’^(G)

¹⁴ It was the day of Preparation^(A) of the Passover; it was about noon.^(B)

“Here is your king,”^(C) Pilate said to the Jews.

¹⁵ But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.

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

¹⁶ Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.^(D)

The Crucifixion of Jesus^(E)

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.

³¹ Now it was the day of Preparation,^(A) and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses^(B) during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. ³² The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other.^{(C) 33} But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced^(D) Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.^{(E) 35} The man who saw it^(F) has given testimony, and his testimony is true.^(G) He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. ³⁶ These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled:^(H) “Not one of his bones will be broken,”^{[a](I) 37} and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”^[b](J)