John 19:16-37

Contemporary English Version

¹⁶Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be nailed to a cross.

Jesus Is Nailed to a Cross

(Matthew 27.32-44; Mark 15.21-32; Luke 23.26-43)

Jesus was taken away, ¹⁷and he carried his cross to a place known as “The Skull.”^[a] In Aramaic this place is called “Golgotha.” ¹⁸There Jesus was nailed to the cross, and on each side of him a man was also nailed to a cross.

¹⁹Pilate ordered the charge against Jesus to be written on a board and put above the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” ²⁰The words were written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

The place where Jesus was taken wasn't far from the city, and many of the people read the charge against him. ²¹So the chief priests went to Pilate and said, “Why did you write that he is King of the Jews? You should have written, ‘He claimed to be King of the Jews.’ ”

²²But Pilate told them, “What is written will not be changed!”

²³After the soldiers had nailed Jesus to the cross, they divided up his clothes into four parts, one for each of them. But his outer garment was made from a single piece of cloth, and it did not have any seams. ²⁴^(A) The soldiers said to each other, “Let's not rip it apart. We will gamble to see who gets it.” This happened so the Scriptures would come true, which say,

“They divided up my clothes
and gambled
for my garments.”

The soldiers then did what they had decided.

²⁵Jesus' mother stood beside his cross with her sister and Mary the wife of Clopas. Mary Magdalene was standing there too.^[b] ²⁶When Jesus saw his mother and his favorite disciple with her, he said to his mother, “This man is now your son.” ²⁷Then he said to the disciple, “She is now your mother.” From then on, that disciple took her into his own home.

The Death of Jesus

(Matthew 27.45-56; Mark 15.33-41; Luke 23.44-49)

²⁸^(B) Jesus knew that he had now finished his work. And in order to make the Scriptures come true, he said, “I am thirsty!” ²⁹A jar of cheap wine was there. Someone then soaked a sponge with the wine and held it up to Jesus' mouth on the stem of a hyssop plant. ³⁰After Jesus drank the wine, he said, “Everything is done!” He bowed his head and died.

A Spear Is Stuck in Jesus' Side

³¹The next day would be both a Sabbath and the Passover. It was a special day for the Jewish people,^[c] and they did not want the bodies to stay on the crosses during this day. So they asked Pilate to break the men's legs^[d] and take their bodies down. ³²The soldiers first broke the legs of the other two men who were nailed there. ³³But when they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, and they did not break his legs.

³⁴One of the soldiers stuck his spear into Jesus' side, and blood and water came out. ³⁵We know this is true, because it was told by someone who saw it happen. Now you can have faith too. ³⁶^(C) All this happened so that the Scriptures would come true, which say, “No bone of his body will be broken” ³⁷^(D) and “They will see the one in whose side they stuck a spear.”

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Footnotes

19.17 The Skull: The place was probably given this name because it was near a large rock in the shape of a human skull.
19.25 Jesus' mother stood beside his cross with her sister and Mary the wife of Clopas. Mary Magdalene was standing there too: The Greek text may also be understood to include only three women (“Jesus' mother stood beside the cross with her sister, Mary the mother of Clopas. Mary Magdalene was standing there too.”) or merely two women (“Jesus' mother was standing there with her sister Mary of Clopas, that is, Mary Magdalene.”). “Of Clopas” may mean “daughter of” or “mother of.”
19.31 a special day for the Jewish people: Passover could be any day of the week. But according to the Gospel of John, Passover was on a Sabbath in the year that Jesus was nailed to a cross.
19.31 break the men's legs: This was the way that the Romans sometimes speeded up the death of a person who had been nailed to a cross.