Matthew 27 When morning came, all the high priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus, so as to have him put to death.

Moffatt⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ When morning came, all the high priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus, so as to have him put to death. ² After binding him, they led him off and handed him over to Pontius Pilate the governor. ³ Then Judas his betrayer saw he was condemned, and repented; he brought back the thirty silver pieces to the high priests and elders, ⁴ saying, "I did wrong in betraying innocent blood." "What does that matter to us?" they said, "it is your affair, not ours!" ⁵ Then he flung down the silver pieces in the temple and went off and hung himself. ⁶ The high priests took the money and said, "It would be wrong to put this into the treasury, for it is the price of blood." ⁷ So after consulting they bought with it the Potter's Field, to serve as a burying-place for strangers. ⁸ That is why the field is called to this day "The Field of Blood." ⁹ Then the word spoken by the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: and I took the thirty silver pieces, the price of him who had been priced, whom they had priced and expelled from the sons of Israel; ¹⁰ and I gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord had bidden me. ¹¹ Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus replied, "Certainly." ¹² But while he was being accused by the high priests and elders, he made no reply. ¹³ Then Pilate said to him, "Do you not hear all their evidence against you?" ¹⁴ But, to Pilate's great astonishment, he would not answer him a single word. ¹⁵ At festival time the governor was in the habit of releasing any one prisoner whom the crowd chose. ¹⁶ At that time they had a notorious prisoner called Jesus Bar-Abbas; ¹⁷ so, when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Who do you want released? Jesus Bar-Abbas or Jesus the so-called 'Christ'?" ¹⁸ (He knew quite well that Jesus had been delivered up out of envy. ¹⁹ Besides, when he was seated on the tribunal, his wife had sent to tell him, "Do nothing with that innocent man, for I have suffered greatly to-day in a dream about him.") ²⁰ But the high priests and elders persuaded the crowds to ask Bar-Abbas and to have Jesus killed. ²¹ The governor said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release for you?" "Bar-Abbas," they said. ²² Pilate said, "Then what am I to do with Jesus the so-called 'Christ'?" They all said, "Have him crucified!" ²³ "Why," said the governor, "what has he done wrong?" But they shouted on more fiercely than ever, "Have him crucified!" ²⁴ Now when Pilate saw that instead of him doing any good a riot was rising, he took some water and washed his hands in presence of the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this good man's blood. It is your affair!" ²⁵ To this all the people replied, "His blood be on us and on our children!" ²⁶ Then he released Bar-Abbas for them; Jesus he scourged and handed over to be crucified. ²⁷ Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium and got all the regiment round him; ²⁸ they stripped him and threw a scarlet mantle round him, ²⁹ plaited a crown of thorns and set it on his head, put a stick in his hand, and knelt before him in mockery, crying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" ³⁰ They spat on him, they took the stick and struck him on the head, ³¹ and after making fun of him they stripped him of the mantle, put on his own clothes, and took him off to be crucified. ³² As they went out they met a Cyrenian called Simon, whom they forced to carry his cross. ³³ When they came to a place called Golgotha (meaning the place of a skull), ³⁴ they gave him a drink of wine mixed with bitters; but when he tasted it he would not drink it. ³⁵ Then they crucified him, distributed his clothes among them by drawing lots, ³⁶ and sat down there to keep watch over him. ³⁷ They also put over his head his charge in writing, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. ³⁸ Two robbers were also crucified with him at that time, one on the right hand and one on the left. ³⁹ Those who passed by scoffed at him, nodding at him in derision ⁴⁰ and calling, "You were to destroy the temple and build it in three days! Save yourself, if you are God's Son! Come down from the cross!" ⁴¹ So, too, the high priests made fun of him with the scribes and the elders of the people. ⁴² "He saved others," they said, "but he cannot save himself! He the 'king of Israel'! Let him come down now from the cross; then we will believe in him! ⁴³ His trust is in God? Let God deliver him now if he cares for him! He said he was the Son of God!" ⁴⁴ The robbers who were crucified with him also denounced him in the same way. ⁴⁵ Now from twelve o'clock to three o'clock darkness covered all the land, ⁴⁶ and about three o'clock Jesus gave a loud cry, "Eli, eli, lema sabachthani" (that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?) ⁴⁷ On hearing this some of the bystanders said, "He is calling for Elijah." ⁴⁸ One of them ran off at once and took a sponge, which he soaked in vinegar and put on the end of a stick to give him a drink. ⁴⁹ But the others said, "Stop, let us see if Elijah does come to save him!" [Seizing a lance, another pricked his side, and out came water and blood.] ⁵⁰ Jesus again uttered a loud scream and gave up his spirit. ⁵¹ And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth shook, the rocks were split, ⁵² the tombs were opened, and a number of bodies of the saints who slept the sleep of death rose up — ⁵³ they left the tombs after his resurrection and entered the holy city and appeared to a number of people. ⁵⁴ Now when the army-captain and his men who were watching Jesus saw the earthquake and all that happened, they were dreadfully afraid; they said, "This man was certainly a son of God!" ⁵⁵ There were also a number of women there looking on from a distance, women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and waited on him, ⁵⁶ including Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedaeus. ⁵⁷ Now when evening came, a rich man from Arimathaea, called Joseph, who had become a disciple of Jesus, ⁵⁸ went to Pilate and asked him for the body of Jesus. Pilate then ordered the body to be handed over to him. ⁵⁹ So Joseph took the body, wrapped it in clean linen, ⁶⁰ and put it in his new tomb, which he had cut in the rock; then, after rolling a large boulder to the opening of the tomb, he went away. ⁶¹ Mary of Magdala and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. ⁶² Next day (that is, on the day after the Preparation) the high priests and Pharisees gathered round Pilate ⁶³ and said, "We remember, sir, that when this impostor was alive he said, 'I will rise after three days.' ⁶⁴ Now then, give orders for the tomb to be kept secure till the third day, in case his disciples go and steal him and then tell the people, 'He has risen from the dead.' The end of the fraud will then be worse than the beginning of it." ⁶⁵ Pilate said to them, "Take a guard of soldiers, go and make it as secure as you can." ⁶⁶ So off they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the boulder and setting the guard.