Book Order Plan

¹Early in the morning the chief priests, with the elders and scribes and the whole Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court), immediately consulted together; and they bound Jesus, they took Him away [violently] and handed Him over to Pilate.

²Pilate questioned Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" And He replied to him, "It is as you say."

³The chief priests began accusing Him of many things.

⁴Then Pilate again asked Him, "Have You no answer [to give]? See how many charges they are bringing against You!"

⁵But Jesus gave no further answer; so Pilate was perplexed.

⁶Now at the [Passover] feast Pilate used to set free for them any one prisoner whom they requested.

⁷The man called Barabbas was imprisoned with the insurrectionists (revolutionaries) who had committed murder in the civil rebellion.

⁸The crowd came up and began asking Pilate to do as he usually did for them.

⁹Pilate answered them, saying, "Do you want me to set free for you the King of the Jews?"

¹⁰For he was aware that the chief priests had turned Jesus over to him because of envy and resentment.

¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to get him to release Barabbas for them instead.

¹²Again Pilate answered, "Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?"

¹³They screamed back, "Crucify Him!"

¹⁴But Pilate asked them, "Why, what has He done that is evil?" But they screamed all the more, "Crucify Him!"

¹⁵So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, set Barabbas free for them; and after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over [to his soldiers] to be crucified.

¹⁶The soldiers led Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they called together the entire [Roman] battalion [of 600 soldiers].

¹⁷They dressed Him up in [a ranking Roman officer's robe of] purple, and after twisting [together] a crown of thorns, they placed it on Him;

¹⁸and they began saluting and mocking Him: "Hail, King of the Jews!"

¹⁹They kept beating Him on the head with a reed and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing in [mock] homage to Him.

²⁰After they had mocked Him, they took off the purple robe and put His own clothes on Him. And they led Him out [of the city] to crucify Him.

²¹They forced into service a passer-by coming in from the countryside, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to carry His cross.

²²Then they brought Him to the place [called] Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.

²³They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh [to dull the pain], but He would not take it.

²⁴And they crucified Him, and divided up His clothes among themselves, casting lots for them to see who should take what.

²⁵It was the third hour (9:00 a.m.) when they crucified Him.

²⁶The inscription of the accusation against Him had been written [above Him]: "THE KING OF THE JEWS."

²⁷They crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left.

²⁸[And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "He was counted with the transgressors."]

²⁹Those who were passing by were insulting Him with abusive and insolent language, wagging their heads [as a sign of contempt], and saying, "Ha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in [only] three days,

³⁰save Yourself by coming down from the cross!"

³¹In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were ridiculing and mocking Him among themselves and saying, "He saved others [from death]; He cannot save Himself!

³²Let the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe and trust [in Him]!" Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him.

³³When the sixth hour (noon) came, darkness covered the whole land until the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.).

³⁴And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

³⁵Some of the bystanders heard Him and said, "Look! He is calling for Elijah!"

³⁶Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave Him a drink, saying, "Let us see whether Elijah is coming to take Him down."

³⁷But Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed out His last [voluntarily, sovereignly dismissing and releasing His spirit from His body in submission to His Father's plan].

³⁸And the veil [of the Holy of Holies] of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

³⁹When the centurion, who was standing opposite Him, saw the way He breathed His last [being fully in control], he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"

⁴⁰Now some women also were watching from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome.

⁴¹When Jesus was in Galilee, they used to accompany him and minister to Him; and there were also many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.

⁴²When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,

⁴³Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent and respected member of the Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court), who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God—and he courageously dared to go in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.

⁴⁴Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time [only six hours after being crucified], and he summoned the centurion and asked him whether He was already dead.

⁴⁵And when he learned from the centurion [that Jesus was in fact dead], he gave the body to Joseph [by granting him permission to remove it].

⁴⁶So Joseph purchased a [fine] linen cloth [for wrapping the body], and after taking Jesus down [from the cross], he wrapped Him in the linen cloth and placed Him in a tomb which had been cut out of rock. Then he rolled a [large, wheel-shaped] stone against the entrance of the tomb.

⁴⁷Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were [carefully] watching to see where He was laid.

¹When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome purchased [sweet-smelling] spices, so that they might go and anoint Him.

²Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.

³And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?"

⁴Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, though it was extremely large.

⁵Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right, wearing a [long, stately] white robe; and they were amazed and bewildered.

⁶And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here. See, [here is] the place where they laid Him.

⁷But go, tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see Him there, just as He told you.'"

⁸They went out and fled from the tomb, for they were seized with trembling and astonishment; and they said nothing [about it] to anyone, because they were afraid.

⁹[Now Jesus, having risen [from death] early on the first day of the week, appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.

¹⁰She went and reported it to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping.

¹¹When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe it.

¹²After that, He appeared in a different form to two of them as they were walking along the way to the country.

¹³They returned [to Jerusalem] and told the others, but they did not believe them either.

¹⁴Later, Jesus appeared to the eleven [disciples] themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He called them to account for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen [from death].

¹⁵And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

¹⁶He who has believed [in Me] and has been baptized will be saved [from the penalty of God's wrath and judgment]; but he who has not believed will be condemned.

¹⁷These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues;

¹⁸they will pick up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will get well."

¹⁹So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

²⁰And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord was working with them and confirming the word by the signs that followed.]