Pontius

¹³ I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who made the good confession in His testimony before Pontius Pilate:

¹⁴ Keep this commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus. You handed Him over and rejected Him before Pilate, even though he had decided to release Him.

In fact, this is the very city where Herod and Pontius Pilate conspired with the Gentiles and the people of Israel against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed.

And though they found no ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have Him executed.

²⁹ So Pilate went out to them and asked, “What accusation are you bringing against this man?”

³⁰ “If He were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed Him over to you.”

³¹ “You take Him and judge Him by your own law,” Pilate told them. “We are not permitted to execute anyone,” the Jews replied.

³² This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to indicate the kind of death He was going to die.

³³ Pilate went back into the Praetorium, summoned Jesus, and asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”

³⁵ “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed You over to me. What have You done?”

³⁶ Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.”

³⁷ “Then You are a king!” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”

³⁸ “What is truth?” Pilate asked. And having said this, he went out again to the Jews and told them, “I find no basis for a charge against Him.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had Him flogged.

⁴ Once again Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing Him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against Him.”

⁵ When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

⁶ As soon as the chief priests and officers saw Him, they shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” “You take Him and crucify Him,” Pilate replied, “for I find no basis for a charge against Him.”

⁷ “We have a law,” answered the Jews, “and according to that law He must die, because He declared Himself to be the Son of God.”

⁸ When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid,

⁹ and he went back into the Praetorium. “Where are You from?” he asked. But Jesus gave no answer.

¹⁰ So Pilate said to Him, “Do You refuse to speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You and authority to crucify You?”

¹¹ Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of greater sin.”

¹² From then on, Pilate tried to release Him, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who declares himself a king is defying Caesar.”

¹³ When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement, which in Hebrew is Gabbatha.

¹⁴ It was the day of Preparation for the Passover, about the sixth hour. And Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your King!”

¹⁵ At this, they shouted, “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!” “Shall I crucify your King?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” replied the chief priests.

¹⁹ Pilate also had a notice posted on the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

²⁰ Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

²¹ So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but only that He said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’”

²² Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”