²⁰ Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed.^(A)

¹⁴ But you rejected the holy and righteous^[a] one and asked to have a murderer given to you,^{(A) 15} and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.^(B)

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,^(A)

⁴⁰ They shouted in reply, “Not this man but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a rebel.^(A)

¹¹ But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead.^(A)

¹⁸ Then they all shouted out together, “Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!”^{(A) 19} (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city and for murder.) ²⁰ Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again,

²³ About that time no little disturbance broke out concerning the Way.^{(A) 24} A man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the artisans.^{(B) 25} These he gathered together, with the workers of the same trade, and said, “Men, you know that we get our wealth from this business. ²⁶ You also see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost the whole of Asia this Paul has persuaded and drawn away a considerable number of people by saying that gods made with hands are not gods.^{(C) 27} And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned, and she will be deprived of her majesty that brought all Asia and the world to worship her.”

²⁸ When they heard this, they were enraged and shouted, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”^{(D) 29} The city was filled with the confusion, and people^[a] rushed together to the theater, dragging with them Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s travel companions.^(E)

¹⁸ Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

¹⁹ But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.^(A)