John 19 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

So Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.

The soldiers twisted together a crown out of thorns and shoved it on his head, and they threw a purple robe around him.

They kept coming up to him and saying, "Long live the King of the Jews!" — and slapping him across the face.

Pilate went back outside and said to them, "Look — I'm bringing him out to you so you understand that I find absolutely nothing against him."

So Jesus came out wearing the thorn crown and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Here is the man."

When the chief priests and their officers saw him, they started shouting, "Execute him! Execute him!" Pilate told them, "Take him and execute him yourselves — I find nothing against him."

The Jewish leaders answered him, "We have a law, and according to that law he has to die — because he made himself out to be the Son of God."

When Pilate heard this, he got even more afraid.

He went back inside the headquarters and asked Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer.

Pilate said to him, "You're not going to talk to me? Don't you realize I have the authority to release you and the authority to have you executed?"

Jesus answered him, "You wouldn't have any authority over me at all if it hadn't been given to you from above. That's why the one who handed me over to you carries the greater guilt."

After this, Pilate kept trying to release him. But the Jewish leaders shouted, "If you let this man go, you're no friend of Caesar's! Anyone who makes himself a king is opposing Caesar!"

When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat down on the judge's seat at a place called the Stone Pavement — in Aramaic, Gabbatha.

It was the Preparation Day for the Passover, around noon. Pilate said to the Jewish leaders, "Here is your king."

They shouted back, "Get rid of him! Get rid of him! Execute him!" Pilate asked them, "You want me to execute your king?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar."

So Pilate finally handed Jesus over to them to be executed. They took custody of Jesus.

Carrying his own execution stake, he went out to what's called the Place of the Skull — in Aramaic, Golgotha.

There they nailed him to the execution stake — and two others with him, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle.

Pilate also had a sign made and fastened to the execution stake. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Many of the Jewish people read this sign because the place where Jesus was executed was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.

So the Jewish chief priests said to Pilate, "Don't write 'The King of the Jews.' Write that he said, 'I am the King of the Jews.'"

Pilate answered, "What I've written, I've written."

When the soldiers had nailed Jesus to the execution stake, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares — one for each soldier. They also took the tunic, but it was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

So they said to each other, "Let's not tear it up. Let's throw dice for it to see who gets it." This happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: "They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they threw dice." And that's exactly what the soldiers did.

Standing near the execution stake were Jesus' mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

When Jesus saw his mother and the student he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son."

Then he said to the student, "Here is your mother." And from that moment on, the student took her into his own home.

After this, knowing that everything had now been completed, Jesus said, "I'm thirsty" — so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

A jar of sour wine was sitting there. So they soaked a sponge in the sour wine, put it on a hyssop stalk, and held it up to his mouth.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Since it was the Preparation Day, the Jewish leaders didn't want the bodies left on the execution stakes during the Sabbath — especially because that Sabbath was a major festival day. So they asked Pilate to have their legs broken and the bodies taken down.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and then of the other man who had been executed with Jesus.

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they didn't break his legs.

Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

The one who saw it has testified to it, and his testimony is true. He knows he's telling the truth, so that you too can believe.

These things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken."

And another Scripture says, "They will look at the one they pierced."

After this, Joseph from Arimathea — who was a follower of Jesus but secretly, because he was afraid of the Jewish leaders — asked Pilate for permission to take Jesus' body. Pilate gave permission, so Joseph came and took the body away.

Nicodemus — the one who had first come to Jesus at night — also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds' worth.

So they took Jesus' body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, following the Jewish burial custom.

There was a garden at the place where he was executed, and in the garden there was a new tomb where no one had ever been laid.

So because it was the Jewish Preparation Day and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.