19 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.^{(A) 2} And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe.^{(B) 3} They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face.^{(C) 4} Pilate went out again and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.”^{(D) 5} So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate^[a] said to them, “Behold the man!”^{(E) 6} When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.”^{(F) 7} The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.”^(G)

⁸ Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. ⁹ He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.^{(H) 10} Pilate therefore said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and power to crucify you?” ¹¹ Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”^{(I) 12} From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against Caesar.”^(J)

¹³ When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat^[b] on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew^[c] Gabbatha.^{(K) 14} Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover, and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!”^{(L) 15} They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” ¹⁶ Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

So they took Jesus,^{(M) 17} and carrying the cross by himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew^[d] is called Golgotha.^{(N) 18} There they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. ¹⁹ Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth,^[e] the King of the Jews.” ²⁰ Many of the Jews read this inscription because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew,^[f] in Latin, and in Greek. ²¹ Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ”^{(O) 22} Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”