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)

¹⁹ Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth,^[a] 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,^[b] 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.’ ”^{(A) 22} Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”