Chapter 27

¹When it was morning, all the high priests and elders of the people held a consultation about Jesus, with a view to putting him to death. ²And they bound him and led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor.

³Then Judas who had betrayed him, when he saw that he had been condemned, in his remorse brought back the thirty silver pieces to the high priests and elders, ⁴and said,

“I did wrong when I handed an innocent man over to death!”

They said,

“What is that to us? You see to it yourself.”

⁵And he threw down the silver and left the Temple and went off and hung himself. ⁶The high priests gathered up the money, and they said,

“It is not legal to put this into the Temple treasury, for it is blood money.”

⁷So after consultation they bought with it the Potter’s Field as a burial ground for strangers. ⁸For this reason that piece of ground has ever since been called the Field of Blood. ⁹So the words spoken by the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled: “They took the thirty silver pieces, the price of the one whose price had been fixed, on whom some of the Israelites had set a price, ¹⁰and gave them for the Potter’s Field as the Lord directed me.”

¹¹Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him,

“Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus said,

“Yes.”

¹²And while the high priests and elders were making their charges against him, he made no answer. ¹³Then Pilate said to him,

“Do you not hear what evidence they are bringing against you?”

¹⁴And he made him no reply to even a single accusation, so that the governor was greatly surprised. ¹⁵Now at festival time the governor was accustomed to release for the people any prisoner whom they chose, ¹⁶and at this time there was a notorious prisoner named Barabbas. ¹⁷So when they gathered to ask this, Pilate said to them,

“Which one do you want me to release for you, Barabbas, or Jesus, the so-called Christ?”

¹⁸For he knew that they had handed him over to him out of envy. ¹⁹Now while he was on the bench his wife sent to him to say,

“Do not have anything to do with that upright man, for I have just had a painful experience in a dream about him.”

²⁰But the high priests and the elders prevailed on the crowd to ask for Barabbas, and to have Jesus put to death. ²¹And the governor answered,

“Which of the two do you want me to release for you?”

They said,

“Barabbas!”

²²Pilate said to them,

“Then what am I to do with Jesus, the so-called Christ?”

They all said,

“Have him crucified!”

²³He said,

“Why, what has he done that is wrong?”

But they shouted all the louder,

“Have him crucified!”

²⁴When Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing but that a riot was beginning instead, he took some water and washed his hands in the presence of the crowd, saying,

“I am not responsible for this man’s death; you must see to it yourselves.”

²⁵And all the people answered,

“His blood be on us and on our children!”

²⁶Then he released Barabbas for them, and he had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified.

²⁷Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the barracks, and got the whole battalion together about him. ²⁸And they stripped him and put a red cloak on him, ²⁹and made a wreath of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a stick in his hand, and knelt down before him in mockery, saying,

“Long live the king of the Jews!”

³⁰And they spat at him, and took the stick and struck him on the head. ³¹And when they had finished making sport of him, they took off the cloak, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified.

³²As they went out of the city they came upon a Cyrenian named Simon, and they forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. ³³When they came to a place called Golgotha, which means the Place of the Skull, ³⁴they offered him a drink of wine mixed with gall, and when he tasted it he would not drink it. ³⁵And they crucified him and divided up his clothes among them by drawing lots, ³⁶and sat down there to keep watch of him. ³⁷They put above his head the charge against him, which read,

“This is Jesus, the king of the Jews.”

³⁸There were two robbers crucified with him at the time, one at his right and one at his left. ³⁹And the passers-by jeered at him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰and saying,

“You who would tear down the sanctuary, and build one in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”

⁴¹And the high priests, too, made sport of him with the scribes and elders, and said,

⁴²“He saved others, but he cannot save himself! He is King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. ⁴³He trusts in God; let God deliver him if he cares for him, for he said he was God’s son.”

⁴⁴Even the robbers who were crucified with him abused him in the same way.

⁴⁵Now from noon there was darkness over the whole country until three o’clock. ⁴⁶And about three, Jesus called out loudly,

“Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?”

⁴⁷Some of the bystanders when they heard it said,

“The man is calling for Elijah!”

⁴⁸And one of them ran off at once and got a sponge and soaked it in sour wine and put it on the end of a stick and held it up to him to drink. ⁴⁹But the others said,

“Let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”

⁵⁰But Jesus cried out again loudly, and gave up his spirit. ⁵¹And at once the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split, ⁵²the tombs opened, and many of the saints who had fallen asleep rose ⁵³and left their tombs and after his resurrection went into the holy city and showed themselves to many people. ⁵⁴And the captain and the men with him who were watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and all that was happening, were dreadfully frightened and said,

“He surely must have been a son of God!”

⁵⁵There were several women there watching from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee to wait upon him, ⁵⁶among them Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

⁵⁷In the evening a rich man named Joseph, from Arimathea, who had himself been a disciple of Jesus, came. ⁵⁸He went to Pilate and asked him for Jesus’ body. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. ⁵⁹And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a piece of clean linen, ⁶⁰and laid it in a new tomb that belonged to him, that he had cut in the rock, and he rolled a great stone over the doorway of the tomb, and went away. ⁶¹And Mary of Magdala and the other Mary remained there, sitting before the tomb.

⁶²On the next day, that is, the day after the Preparation Day, the high priests and Pharisees went in a body to Pilate ⁶³and said,

“Sir, we remember that when this impostor was alive he said, ‘After three days I will rise again!’ ⁶⁴Give orders, therefore, to have the tomb closely guarded till the third day, so that his disciples cannot come and steal him, and then tell the people that he is risen from the dead, and that delusion be worse than the other was.”

⁶⁵Pilate said to them,

“Take a guard of soldiers, and go and make it as secure as you can.”

⁶⁶And they went and set the guard and put a seal on the stone.