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

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged severely. ¹ 

When Pilate heard what they said, ¹  he was more afraid than ever, ² 

So Pilate came outside to them and said, “What accusation ¹  do you bring against this man?” ² 

So Pilate went back into the governor’s residence, ¹  summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” ² 

Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? ¹  Your own people ²  and your chief priests handed you over ³  to me. What have you done?”

Again Pilate went out and said to the Jewish leaders, ¹  “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no reason for an accusation ²  against him.”

So Pilate said, ¹  “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know I have the authority ²  to release you, and to crucify you?” ³ 

When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus outside and sat down on the judgment seat ¹  in the place called “The Stone Pavement” ²  (Gabbatha in ³  Aramaic). ⁴ 

Pilate also had a notice ¹  written and fastened to the cross, ²  which read: ³  “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews.”

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus (but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders ¹ ), ²  asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. Pilate ³  gave him permission, so he went and took the body away. ⁴ 

Pilate told them, ¹  “Take him yourselves and pass judgment on him ²  according to your own law!” ³  The Jewish leaders ⁴  replied, ⁵  “We cannot legally put anyone to death.” ⁶ 

Pilate asked, ¹  “What is truth?” ²  When he had said this he went back outside to the Jewish leaders ³  and announced, ⁴  “I find no basis for an accusation ⁵  against him.

When the chief priests and their officers saw him, they shouted out, “Crucify ¹  him! Crucify him!” ²  Pilate said, ³  “You take him and crucify him! ⁴  Certainly ⁵  I find no reason for an accusation ⁶  against him!”

From this point on, Pilate tried ¹  to release him. But the Jewish leaders ²  shouted out, ³  “If you release this man, ⁴  you are no friend of Caesar! ⁵  Everyone who claims to be a king ⁶  opposes Caesar!”

Then they ¹  shouted out, “Away with him! Away with him! ²  Crucify ³  him!” Pilate asked, ⁴  “Shall I crucify your king?” The high priests replied, “We have no king except Caesar!”

Then the chief priests of the Jews ¹  said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The king of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am king of the Jews.’”

Then Pilate said, ¹  “So you are a king!” Jesus replied, “You say that I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world – to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to ²  my voice.”

Then, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not stay on the crosses on the Sabbath ¹  (for that Sabbath was an especially important one), ²  the Jewish leaders ³  asked Pilate to have the victims’ legs ⁴  broken ⁵  and the bodies taken down. ⁶