AUV(i)
1 So, Pilate then took Jesus and had Him flogged.
2 The soldiers wove thorny twigs into a crown and placed it on His head and dressed Him in a purple robe.
3 Then they went [up] to Him and said, “Hey! King of the Jews!” and struck Him [in the face with their hands].
4 Now Pilate went outside again and said to the Jewish authorities, “Look, I am bringing him out here to you, so you can know that I do not find him guilty of any crime.”
5 So, Jesus came outside wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Then Pilate said to the [assembled] Jewish authorities, “Look, [here is] the man!”
6 Then, when the leading priests and the [Temple] guards saw Him, they shouted out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate responded by saying, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, because I do not find him guilty of any crime.”
7 The Jews replied, “We have a law which requires that he ought to die because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
8 So, when Pilate heard this statement, he was [even] more afraid
9 and went back into the headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where did you come from?” But Jesus did not answer him.
10 Then Pilate said to Him, “Are you not going to speak to me? Do you not know that I have the authority to release you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered him, “You would not have any authority over me unless it were given to you from above [i.e., from God]. So, the person who turned me over to you is guilty of a worse sin.”
12 After [hearing] this, Pilate tried to release Jesus, but the Jews shouted out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar’s. Everyone who claims to be a king [i.e., as they had accused Jesus of doing. See 18:37] is in opposition to Caesar.”
13 Then when Pilate heard [them say] this, he brought Jesus outside [again] and sat down on the judge’s bench at a place called ‘The Stone Pavement,’ but in the Hebrew language is called ‘Gabbatha.’
14 Now it was about six o’clock in the morning [Note: This was according to Roman time, but if Jewish time were meant, it would have been 12 noon] on the Day of Preparation for the Passover Festival. [Note: This would be the day before the Passover Festival]. And Pilate said to the Jews, “Look, [here is] your king!”
15 Then they shouted out, “Take him away; take him away and crucify him!” Pilate replied to them, “Do you want me to crucify your king?” The leading priests answered, “We do not have any [other] king, except Caesar.”
16 Finally, Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified.
17 So, they took Jesus [away] and He went out [of the city] carrying the cross by Himself to a place called “The Place of the Skull,” [also] called “Golgotha” in the Hebrew language [and “Calvary” in Latin].
18 There they crucified Him, along with two other men, one on each side with Jesus in the middle.
19 Then Pilate had an inscription written and placed on the cross [i.e., on the upright portion, above His head]. It read, “Jesus from Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
20 Many of the Jews read this notice, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city [of Jerusalem]. It was written in the Hebrew, Latin and Greek languages.
21 But the Jewish leading priests said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but ‘He said, I am the King of the Jews.’”
22 Pilate replied, “What I have written I have written.” [i.e., “I am not going to change it.”]
23 So, when the [Roman] soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took His clothing and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took His seamless coat [i.e., which was left over], woven from top [to bottom] in one piece,
24 and said to one another, “Let us not tear it [i.e., because of its great value], but gamble to see who gets it.” [This was] so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, which said [Psa. 22:18], “They divided my clothing between themselves, and they gambled for my clothing.” So, this is what the soldiers did.
25 Now standing near Jesus’ cross were His mother; His mother’s sister [i.e., Salome, the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. See Matt. 27:55; Mark 15:40]; Mary the wife of Clopas [i.e., the mother of James and Joseph. See Matt. 27:55]; and Mary, from Magdala.
26 So, when Jesus saw His mother standing beside the disciple He loved [i.e., probably the apostle John], He said to her, “[My dear] woman, look, [here is] your son!”
27 Then He said to the disciple, “Look, [here is] your mother!” And from that time onward, this disciple took Jesus’ mother to [live in] his own home.
28 Now Jesus knew that everything had been completed [i.e., relating to His crucifixion], so then He said, in order to fulfill Scripture [Psa. 69:21], “I am thirsty.”
29 A bottle full of sour wine was sitting nearby so someone put a sponge full of the wine on a hyssop plant stalk and lifted it up to Jesus’ mouth.
30 After drinking some of the sour wine, Jesus said, “It is completed,” [i.e., His work of dying for the sins of mankind] and gave up His spirit [i.e., to God. See Luke 23:46].
31 Now it was the Day of Preparation [Note: This was the day before the Passover Festival began, and fell on a Friday that year], and the Jews did not permit bodies to remain on a cross over the Sabbath day. (Besides, that Sabbath day was a special day [i.e., since it was both the Passover and the regular weekly Sabbath, as well]). So, they asked Pilate to have Jesus’ and the criminals’ legs broken [i.e., to speed up their deaths] and then have their bodies taken away.
32 So, the soldiers went and broke the legs of the first [criminal] and then of the other man crucified with Jesus.
33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.
34 However, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
35 And the person who saw this happen is giving a true testimony about it. He knows it is true [and is giving it] so that you will believe [it, also].
36 For these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled [Ex. 12:46], “Not a [single] bone of his will be broken.”
37 And another Scripture says [Zech. 12:10], “People will look at him whom they [had] pierced.”
38 After this happened, one of Jesus’ disciples (but secretly, for fear of the Jews), named Joseph from Arimathaea, asked Pilate if he could remove Jesus’ body [from the cross]. Pilate granted him permission, so he went and removed the body from the cross.
39 Nicodemus, the man who first came to Jesus one night, also went with him [i.e., to claim Jesus’ body]. He brought about a seventy-five pound mixture of myrrh and aloes [i.e., aromatic spices used for embalming].
40 So, they took Jesus’ body and wrapped it in linen cloths, with spices, according to customary Jewish burial practices.
41 Now there was an [olive] orchard at the place where Jesus was crucified. And in the orchard there was a new grave site [i.e., a cave-like tomb] where no one had ever been buried.
42 So, they placed Jesus’ body there, for it was the Day of Preparation and that was the closest grave site. [Note: Since this was the day before the Passover Festival, and the next day was also the regular weekly Sabbath, they had to bury the body before sundown to comply with Jewish restrictions against working on a Sabbath day].