Mark 15

¹ First thing in the morning, the chief priests, together with the elders and scribes and the rest of theSanhedrin, had their plan ready. They had Jesus bound and took him away and handed him over to Pilate.

² Pilate put to him this question, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' He replied, 'It is you who say it.'

³ And the chief priests brought many accusations against him.

⁴ Pilate questioned him again, 'Have you no reply at al ? See how many accusations they are bringingagainst you!'

⁵ But, to Pilate's surprise, Jesus made no further reply.

⁶ At festival time Pilate used to release a prisoner for them, any one they asked for.

⁷ Now a man called Barabbas was then in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during theuprising.

⁸ When the crowd went up and began to ask Pilate the customary favour,

⁹ Pilate answered them, 'Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?'

¹⁰ For he realised it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over.

¹¹ The chief priests, however, had incited the crowd to demand that he should release Barabbas forthem instead.

¹² Then Pilate spoke again, 'But in that case, what am I to do with the man you call king of the Jews?'

¹³ They shouted back, 'Crucify him!'

¹⁴ Pilate asked them, 'What harm has he done?' But they shouted al the louder, 'Crucify him!'

¹⁵ So Pilate, anxious to placate the crowd, released Barabbas for them and, after having Jesusscourged, he handed him over to be crucified.

¹⁶ The soldiers led him away to the inner part of the palace, that is, the Praetorium, and cal ed thewhole cohort together.

¹⁷ They dressed him up in purple, twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on him.

¹⁸ And they began saluting him, 'Hail, king of the Jews!'

¹⁹ They struck his head with a reed and spat on him; and they went down on their knees to do himhomage.

²⁰ And when they had finished making fun of him, they took off the purple and dressed him in his ownclothes. They led him out to crucify him.

²¹ They enlisted a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming in fromthe country, to carry his cross.

²² They brought Jesus to the place cal ed Golgotha, which means the place of the skul .

²³ They offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he refused it.

²⁴ Then they crucified him, and shared out his clothing, casting lots to decide what each should get.

²⁵ It was the third hour when they crucified him.

²⁶ The inscription giving the charge against him read, 'The King of the Jews'.

²⁷ And they crucified two bandits with him, one on his right and one on his left.

²⁸

²⁹ The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said, 'Aha! So you would destroy theTemple and rebuild it in three days!

³⁰ Then save yourself; come down from the cross!'

³¹ The chief priests and the scribes mocked him among themselves in the same way with the words,'He saved others, he cannot save himself.

³² Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, for us to see it and believe.' Eventhose who were crucified with him taunted him.

³³ When the sixth hour came there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

³⁴ And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani?' which means, 'MyGod, my God, why have you forsaken me?'

³⁵ When some of those who stood by heard this, they said, 'Listen, he is cal ing on Elijah.'

³⁶ Someone ran and soaked a sponge in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it to him to drink saying,'Wait! And see if Elijah wil come to take him down.'

³⁷ But Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

³⁸ And the veil of the Sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.

³⁹ The centurion, who was standing in front of him, had seen how he had died, and he said, 'In truth thisman was Son of God.'

⁴⁰ There were some women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary of Magdala, Mary whowas the mother of James the younger and Joset, and Salome.

⁴¹ These used to follow him and look after him when he was in Galilee. And many other women werethere who had come up to Jerusalem with him.

⁴² It was now evening, and since it was Preparation Day -- that is, the day before the Sabbath-

⁴³ there came Joseph of Arimathaea, a prominent member of the Council, who himself lived in the hopeof seeing the kingdom of God, and he boldly went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

⁴⁴ Pilate, astonished that he should have died so soon, summoned the centurion and enquired if he hadbeen dead for some time.

⁴⁵ Having been assured of this by the centurion, he granted the corpse to Joseph

⁴⁶ who bought a shroud, took Jesus down from the cross, wrapped him in the shroud and laid him in atomb which had been hewn out of the rock. He then rol ed a stone against the entrance to the tomb.

⁴⁷ Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of Joset took note of where he was laid.