Chronological

23 With that, the whole Sanhedrin got up and brought Yeshua before Pilate, ² where they started accusing him. “We found this man subverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the Emperor and claiming that he himself is the Messiah — a king!” ³ Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” And he answered him, “The words are yours.” ⁴ Pilate said to the head cohanim and the crowds, “I find no ground for a charge against this man.” ⁵ But they persisted. “He is inciting the people with his teaching throughout all Y’hudah — he started in the Galil, and now he’s here!” ⁶ On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was from the Galil; ⁷ and when he learned that he was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who at that time happened to be in Yerushalayim too.

⁸ Herod was delighted to see Yeshua, because he had heard about him and for a long time had been wanting to meet him; indeed, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. ⁹ He questioned him at great length, but Yeshua made no reply. ¹⁰ However, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers stood there, vehemently pressing their case against him. ¹¹ Herod and his soldiers treated Yeshua with contempt and made fun of him. Then, dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. ¹² That day Herod and Pilate became friends with each other; previously they had been enemies.

¹³ Pilate summoned the head cohanim, the leaders and the people, ¹⁴ and said to them, “You brought this man before me on a charge of subverting the people. I examined him in your presence and did not find the man guilty of the crime you are accusing him of. ¹⁵ And neither did Herod, because he sent him back to us. Clearly, he has not done anything that merits the death penalty. ¹⁶ Therefore, what I will do is have him flogged and release him.” ^{17 [a] 18} But with one voice they shouted, “Away with this man! Give us Bar-Abba!” ¹⁹ (He was a man who had been thrown in prison for causing a riot in the city and for murder.) ²⁰ Pilate appealed to them again, because he wanted to release Yeshua. ²¹ But they yelled, “Put him to death on the stake! Put him to death on the stake!” ²² A third time he asked them, “But what has this man done wrong? I haven’t found any reason to put him to death. So I’m going to have him flogged and set free.” ²³ But they went on yelling insistently, demanding that he be executed on the stake; and their shouting prevailed. ²⁴ Pilate decided to grant their demand; ²⁵ he released the man who had been thrown in prison for insurrection and murder, the one they had asked for; and Yeshua he surrendered to their will.

²⁶ As the Roman soldiers led Yeshua away, they grabbed hold of a man from Cyrene named Shim‘on, who was on his way in from the country. They put the execution-stake on his back and made him carry it behind Yeshua. ²⁷ Large numbers of people followed, including women crying and wailing over him. ²⁸ Yeshua turned to them and said, “Daughters of Yerushalayim, don’t cry for me; cry for yourselves and your children! ²⁹ For the time is coming when people will say, ‘The childless women are the lucky ones — those whose wombs have never borne a child, whose breasts have never nursed a baby! ³⁰ Then

³¹ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what is going to happen when it’s dry?”

³² Two other men, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. ³³ When they came to the place called The Skull, they nailed him to a stake; and they nailed the criminals to stakes, one on the right and one on the left. ³⁴ Yeshua said, “Father, forgive them; they don’t understand what they are doing.”

They divided up his clothes by throwing dice.^{[c] 35} The people stood watching, and the rulers sneered at him.^[d] “He saved others,” they said, “so if he really is the Messiah, the one chosen by God, let him save himself!” ³⁶ The soldiers too ridiculed him; they came up, offered him vinegar^{[e] 37} and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” ³⁸ And there was a notice over him which read,

THIS IS

THE KING OF THE JEWS

³⁹ One of the criminals hanging there hurled insults at him. “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” ⁴⁰ But the other one spoke up and rebuked the first, saying, “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same punishment as he is. ⁴¹ Ours is only fair; we’re getting what we deserve for what we did. But this man did nothing wrong.” ⁴² Then he said, “Yeshua, remember me when you come as King.” ⁴³ Yeshua said to him, “Yes! I promise that you will be with me today in Gan-‘Eden.”

⁴⁴ It was now about noon, and darkness covered the whole Land until three o’clock in the afternoon; ⁴⁵ the sun did not shine. Also the parokhet in the Temple was split down the middle. ⁴⁶ Crying out with a loud voice, Yeshua said, “Father! Into your hands I commit my spirit.”^[f] With these words he gave up his spirit.

⁴⁷ When the Roman officer saw what had happened, he began to praise God and said, “Surely this man was innocent!” ⁴⁸ And when all the crowds that had gathered to watch the spectacle saw the things that had occurred, they returned home beating their breasts. ⁴⁹ All his friends, including the women who had accompanied him from the Galil, had been standing at a distance; they saw it all.

⁵⁰ There was a man named Yosef, a member of the Sanhedrin. He was a good man, a tzaddik; ⁵¹ and he had not been in agreement with either the Sanhedrin’s motivation or their action. He came from the town of Ramatayim, a town of the Judeans; and he looked forward to the Kingdom of God. ⁵² This man approached Pilate and asked for Yeshua’s body. ⁵³ He took it down, wrapped it in a linen sheet, and placed it in a tomb cut into the rock, that had never been used.

⁵⁴ It was Preparation Day, and a Shabbat was about to begin. ⁵⁵ The women who had come with Yeshua from the Galil followed; they saw the tomb and how his body was placed in it. ⁵⁶ Then they went back home to prepare spices and ointments.

On Shabbat the women rested, in obedience to the commandment;

18 After Yeshua had said all this, he went out with his talmidim across the stream that flows in winter through the Vadi Kidron, to a spot where there was a grove of trees; and he and his talmidim went into it. ² Now Y’hudah, who was betraying him, also knew the place; because Yeshua had often met there with his talmidim. ³ So Y’hudah went there, taking with him a detachment of Roman soldiers and some Temple guards provided by the head cohanim and the P’rushim; they carried weapons, lanterns and torches. ⁴ Yeshua, who knew everything that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Whom do you want?” ⁵ “Yeshua from Natzeret,” they answered. He said to them, “I AM.” Also standing with them was Y’hudah, the one who was betraying him. ⁶ When he said, “I AM,” they went backward from him and fell to the ground. ⁷ So he inquired of them once more, “Whom do you want?” and they said, “Yeshua from Natzeret.” ⁸ “I told you, ‘I AM,’” answered Yeshua, “so if I’m the one you want, let these others go.” ⁹ This happened so that what he had said might be fulfilled, “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”

¹⁰ Then Shim‘on Kefa, who had a sword, drew it and struck the slave of the cohen hagadol, cutting off his right ear; the slave’s name was Melekh. ¹¹ Yeshua said to Kefa, “Put your sword back in its scabbard! This is the cup the Father has given me; am I not to drink it?”

¹² So the detachment of Roman soldiers and their captain, together with the Temple Guard of the Judeans, arrested Yeshua, tied him up, ¹³ and took him first to ‘Anan, the father-in-law of Kayafa, who was cohen gadol that fateful year. ¹⁴ (It was Kayafa who had advised the Judeans that it would be good for one man to die on behalf of the people.) ¹⁵ Shim‘on Kefa and another talmid followed Yeshua. The second talmid was known to the cohen hagadol, and he went with Yeshua into the courtyard of the cohen hagadol; ¹⁶ but Kefa stood outside by the gate. So the other talmid, the one known to the cohen hagadol, went back out and spoke to the woman on duty at the gate, then brought Kefa inside. ¹⁷ The woman at the gate said to Kefa, “Aren’t you another of that man’s talmidim?” He said, “No, I’m not.” ¹⁸ Now the slaves and guards had lit a fire because it was cold, and they were standing around it warming themselves; Kefa joined them and stood warming himself too.

¹⁹ The cohen hagadol questioned Yeshua about his talmidim and about what he taught. ²⁰ Yeshua answered, “I have spoken quite openly to everyone; I have always taught in a synagogue or in the Temple where all Jews meet together, and I have said nothing in secret; ²¹ so why are you questioning me? Question the ones who heard what I said to them; look, they know what I said.” ²² At these words, one of the guards standing by slapped Yeshua in the face and said, “This is how you talk to the cohen hagadol?” ²³ Yeshua answered him, “If I said something wrong, state publicly what was wrong; but if I was right, why are you hitting me?” ²⁴ So ‘Anan sent him, still tied up, to Kayafa the cohen hagadol.

²⁵ Meanwhile, Shim‘on Kefa was standing and warming himself. They said to him, “Aren’t you also one of his talmidim?” He denied it, saying, “No, I am not.” ²⁶ One of the slaves of the cohen hagadol, a relative of the man whose ear Kefa had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you with him in the grove of trees?” ²⁷ So again Kefa denied it, and instantly a rooster crowed.

²⁸ They led Yeshua from Kayafa to the governor’s headquarters. By now it was early morning. They did not enter the headquarters building because they didn’t want to become ritually defiled and thus unable to eat the Pesach meal. ²⁹ So Pilate went outside to them and said, “What charge are you bringing against this man?” ³⁰ They answered, “If he hadn’t done something wrong, we wouldn’t have brought him to you.” ³¹ Pilate said to them, “You take him and judge him according to your own law.” The Judeans replied, “We don’t have the legal power to put anyone to death.” ³² This was so that what Yeshua had said, about how he was going to die, might be fulfilled.

³³ So Pilate went back into the headquarters, called Yeshua and said to him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” ³⁴ Yeshua answered, “Are you asking this on your own, or have other people told you about me?” ³⁵ Pilate replied, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and head cohanim have handed you over to me; what have you done?” ³⁶ Yeshua answered, “My kingship does not derive its authority from this world’s order of things. If it did, my men would have fought to keep me from being arrested by the Judeans. But my kingship does not come from here.” ³⁷ “So then,” Pilate said to him, “You are a king, after all.” Yeshua answered, “You say I am a king. The reason I have been born, the reason I have come into the world, is to bear witness to the truth. Every one who belongs to the truth listens to me.” ³⁸ Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”

Having said this, Pilate went outside again to the Judeans and told them, “I don’t find any case against him. ³⁹ However, you have a custom that at Passover I set one prisoner free. Do you want me to set free for you the ‘king of the Jews’?” ⁴⁰ But they yelled back, “No, not this man but Bar-Abba!” (Bar-Abba was a revolutionary.)

19 Pilate then took Yeshua and had him flogged. ² The soldiers twisted thorn-branches into a crown and placed it on his head, put a purple robe on him, ³ and went up to him, saying over and over, “Hail, ‘king of the Jews’!” and hitting him in the face.

⁴ Pilate went outside once more and said to the crowd, “Look, I’m bringing him out to you to get you to understand that I find no case against him.” ⁵ So Yeshua came out, wearing the thorn-branch crown and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Look at the man!” ⁶ When the head cohanim and the Temple guards saw him they shouted, “Put him to death on the stake! Put him to death on the stake!” Pilate said to them, “You take him out yourselves and put him to death on the stake, because I don’t find any case against him.” ⁷ The Judeans answered him, “We have a law; according to that law, he ought to be put to death, because he made himself out to be the Son of God.” ⁸ On hearing this, Pilate became even more frightened.

⁹ He went back into the headquarters and asked Yeshua, “Where are you from?” But Yeshua didn’t answer. ¹⁰ So Pilate said to him, “You refuse to speak to me? Don’t you understand that it is in my power either to set you free or to have you executed on the stake?” ¹¹ Yeshua answered, “You would have no power over me if it hadn’t been given to you from above; this is why the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” ¹² On hearing this, Pilate tried to find a way to set him free; but the Judeans shouted, “If you set this man free, it means you’re not a ‘Friend of the Emperor’! Everyone who claims to be a king is opposing the Emperor!” ¹³ When Pilate heard what they were saying, he brought Yeshua outside and sat down on the judge’s seat in the place called The Pavement (in Aramaic, Gabta); ¹⁴ it was about noon on Preparation Day for Pesach. He said to the Judeans, “Here’s your king!” ¹⁵ They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Put him to death on the stake!” Pilate said to them, “You want me to execute your king on a stake?” The head cohanim answered, “We have no king but the Emperor.” ¹⁶ Then Pilate handed Yeshua over to them to have him put to death on the stake.

So they took charge of Yeshua. ¹⁷ Carrying the stake himself he went out to the place called Skull (in Aramaic, Gulgolta). ¹⁸ There they nailed him to the stake along with two others, one on either side, with Yeshua in the middle. ¹⁹ Pilate also had a notice written and posted on the stake; it read,

YESHUA FROM NATZERET

THE KING OF THE JEWS

²⁰ Many of the Judeans read this notice, because the place where Yeshua was put on the stake was close to the city; and it had been written in Hebrew, in Latin and in Greek. ²¹ The Judeans’ head cohanim therefore said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but ‘He said, “I am King of the Jews.”’” ²² Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

²³ When the soldiers had nailed Yeshua to the stake, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier, with the under-robe left over. Now the under-robe was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom; ²⁴ so they said to one another, “We shouldn’t tear it in pieces; let’s draw for it.” This happened in order to fulfill the words from the Tanakh,

This is why the soldiers did these things.

²⁵ Nearby Yeshua’s execution stake stood his mother, his mother’s sister Miryam the wife of K’lofah, and Miryam from Magdala. ²⁶ When Yeshua saw his mother and the talmid whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Mother, this is your son.” ²⁷ Then he said to the talmid, “This is your mother.” And from that time on, the talmid took her into his own home.

²⁸ After this, knowing that all things had accomplished their purpose, Yeshua, in order to fulfill the words of the Tanakh, said, “I’m thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar full of cheap sour wine was there; so they soaked a sponge in the wine, coated it with oregano leaves and held it up to his mouth. ³⁰ After Yeshua had taken the wine, he said, “It is accomplished!” And, letting his head droop, he delivered up his spirit.

³¹ It was Preparation Day, and the Judeans did not want the bodies to remain on the stake on Shabbat, since it was an especially important Shabbat. So they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies removed. ³² The soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been put on a stake beside Yeshua, then the legs of the other one; ³³ but when they got to Yeshua and saw that he was already dead, they didn’t break his legs. ³⁴ However, one of the soldiers stabbed his side with a spear, and at once blood and water flowed out. ³⁵ The man who saw it has testified about it, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he tells the truth, so you too can trust. ³⁶ For these things happened in order to fulfill this passage of the Tanakh:

³⁷ And again, another passage says,

³⁸ After this, Yosef of Ramatayim, who was a talmid of Yeshua, but a secret one out of fear of the Judeans, asked Pilate if he could have Yeshua’s body. Pilate gave his consent, so Yosef came and took the body away. ³⁹ Also Nakdimon, who at first had gone to see Yeshua by night, came with some seventy pounds of spices — a mixture of myrrh and aloes. ⁴⁰ They took Yeshua’s body and wrapped it up in linen sheets with the spices, in keeping with Judean burial practice. ⁴¹ In the vicinity of where he had been executed was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had ever been buried. ⁴² So, because it was Preparation Day for the Judeans, and because the tomb was close by, that is where they buried Yeshua.