The Testimony of John the Baptist

This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites to him from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest Him.

The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?”

Conspiracy to Kill Jesus

Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council meeting, and they were saying, “What are we doing in regard to the fact that this man is performing many signs?

Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might arrest Him.

But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also,

So Judas, having obtained the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, *came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

Jesus before the Priests

So the Roman cohort, the commander, and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him,

Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed You over to me; what have You done?”

So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they shouted, saying, “Crucify, crucify!” Pilate *said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him; for I find no grounds for charges in His case!”

So they shouted, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Pilate *said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king except Caesar.”

So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; rather, write that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’”