New Testament · Gospels and Acts

Mark chapter 15

First thing in the morning, the held a meeting with the elders, the legal experts, and the whole . They tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to .Pilate asked him, “Are you the ?” Jesus answered, “.”The chief priests kept at him.Pilate questioned him again: “Aren’t you going to respond? Look at how many charges they’re bringing against you.”But Jesus still didn’t answer, and Pilate was .Now it was customary during to release one prisoner — whoever the crowd requested.There was a man named , locked up with the other rebels who had committed murder during a recent .The crowd came up and began asking Pilate to do what he usually did for them.Pilate asked them, “Do you want me to release the king of the Jewish people for you?”He knew perfectly well that the chief priests had handed Jesus over because they were of him.But the chief priests the crowd to have Barabbas released instead.Pilate asked them again, “Then what do you want me to do with the man you call the king of the Jewish people?”They shouted back, “Nail him to an !”“Why? What crime has he committed?” Pilate asked. But they just , “Nail him to an execution stake!”Pilate wanted to keep the crowd happy, so he released Barabbas for them. He had Jesus and handed him over to be .The soldiers led Jesus away into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters — the — and called the whole together.They dressed him in a and twisted together a and shoved it on his head.They began saluting him: “ of the Jewish people!”They kept hitting him on the head with a , spitting on him, and dropping to their knees in .When they had finished mocking him, they stripped off the purple robe, put his own clothes back on him, and led him out to .A man named — the father of Alexander and Rufus — was passing by on his way in from the countryside, and they Jesus’s .They brought Jesus to a place called , which means “Skull Place.”They offered him , but he refused it.They . Then they divided up his clothes by , each one taking whatever he won.It was when they .The against him read: .They executed two alongside him, one on his right and one on his left.[This verse is not found in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel. Later scribes added it to echo Isaiah 53:12 — ‘He was counted among the lawless.’ Most modern translations omit it or place it in a footnote.]People walking by at him, and saying, “Ha! You were going to tear down the and rebuild it in three days?! Come down from that !”The chief priests and the mocked him the same way among themselves: “He others, but he can’t rescue himself!”“Let — the — come down from the right now so we can see it and believe!” Even the men being executed alongside him taunted him.At , covered the whole land, and it lasted until three in the afternoon.At three in the afternoon, Jesus , “?” — which means, “My God, my God, why have you me?”Some of the people standing nearby heard it and said, “Listen — he’s calling for !”Someone ran and soaked a sponge in , stuck it on a , and held it up for him to drink, saying, “Wait — let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down.”Then Jesus and .At that moment, the was .The standing right in front of Jesus saw how he died, and said, “This man really was the .”There were also . Among them were , Mary the mother of James the younger and Joses, and Salome.These women had when he was in Galilee. And many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were there too.It was now evening on — the day before the . — a prominent member of the who was himself waiting for — and went to Pilate to ask for Jesus’s body.Pilate was that Jesus was already dead. He called for the military officer and asked him whether Jesus had been dead long.Once the officer confirmed it, Pilate to Joseph.Joseph bought , took the body down, wrapped it in the linen, and laid it in a tomb that had been cut out of solid rock. Then he .Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses where he was laid.