John 19:1-12

New American Standard Bible

The Crown of Thorns

19 So Pilate then took Jesus and ^[a]^(A)had Him flogged. ²^(B)And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and placed it on His head, and put a purple ^[b]cloak on Him; ³and they repeatedly came up to Him and said, “^(C)Hail, King of the Jews!” and ^(D)slapped Him in the face again and again. ⁴And then Pilate ^(E)came out again and *said to them, “See, I am bringing Him out to you so that you will know that ^(F)I find no grounds at all for charges in ^[c]His case.” ⁵Jesus then came out, ^(G)wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate *said to them, “Behold, the Man!” ⁶So when the chief priests and the ^(H)officers saw Him, they shouted, saying, “Crucify, crucify!” Pilate *said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him; for ^(I)I find no grounds for charges in ^[d]His case!” ⁷The Jews answered him, “^(J)We have a law, and by that law He ought to die, because He ^(K)made Himself out to be the Son of God!”

⁸Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid; ⁹and he ^(L)entered the ^[e]Praetorium again and *said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But ^(M)Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰So Pilate *said to Him, “Are you not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” ¹¹Jesus answered him, “^(N)You would have no authority ^[f]over Me at all, if it had not been given to you from above; for this reason ^(O)the one who handed Me over to you has the greater sin.” ¹²As a result of this, Pilate ^[g]made efforts to release Him; but the Jews shouted, saying, “^(P)If you release this Man, you are not a friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king ^[h]opposes Caesar!”