Now, every year at Passover it was the custom of the governor to pardon a prisoner and release him to the people—anyone they wanted. And at that time, Pilate was holding in custody a notorious criminal named Jesus Barabbas. So as the crowds of people assembled outside of Pilate’s residence, he went out and offered them a choice. He asked them, “Who would you want me to release to you today, Jesus who is called Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Anointed One?” (Now, Pilate was fully aware that the religious leaders had handed Jesus over to him because of their bitter jealousy.)
Just then, as Pilate was presiding over the tribunal, his wife sent him an urgent message: “Don’t harm that holy man, for I suffered a horrible nightmare last night about him!”
Meanwhile, the chief priest and the religious leaders were inciting the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be freed and to have Jesus killed. So Pilate asked them again, “Which of the two men would you like me to release for you?”
They shouted, “Barabbas.”
Pilate asked them, “Then what would you have me to do with Jesus who is called the Anointed One?”
They all shouted back, “Crucify him!”
“Why?” Pilate asked. “What has he done wrong?”
But they kept shouting out, “Crucify him!”
When Pilate realized that a riot was about to break out and that it was useless to try to reason with the crowd, he sent for a basin of water. After washing his hands in front of the people, he said, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man. The responsibility for his death is now yours!”
And the crowd replied, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”
So he released Barabbas to the people. He ordered that Jesus be beaten with a whip of leather straps embedded with metal, and afterward be crucified. Then the guards took him into their military compound, where a detachment of nearly six hundred soldiers surrounded him.
They stripped off his clothing and placed a scarlet robe on him to make fun of him. Then they braided a crown of thorns and forcefully shoved it onto his head. After placing a reed staff in his right hand, they knelt down before him and mocked him, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” Then they spat in his face and took the reed staff from his hand and hit him repeatedly on his head, driving the crown of thorns deeper. When they finished ridiculing him, they took off the scarlet robe and put his own clothes back on him and led him away to be crucified.
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