Mattityahu (Mat) 27:1-31

Early in the morning, all the head cohanim and elders met to plan how to bring about Yeshua’s death. Then they put him in chains, led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor. When Y’hudah, who had betrayed him, saw that Yeshua had been condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the head cohanim and elders, saying, “I sinned in betraying an innocent man to death.” “What is that to us?” they answered. “That’s your problem.” Hurling the pieces of silver into the sanctuary, he left; then he went off and hanged himself. The head cohanim took the silver coins and said, “It is prohibited to put this into the Temple treasury, because it is blood money.” So they decided to use it to buy the potter’s field as a cemetery for foreigners. This is how it came to be called the Field of Blood, a name it still bears. Then what Yirmeyahu the prophet spoke was fulfilled, “And they took the thirty silver coins, which was the price the people of Isra’el had agreed to pay for him, and used them to buy the potter’s field, just as the Lord directed me.” Meanwhile, Yeshua was brought before the governor, and the governor put this question to him: “Are you the King of the Jews?” Yeshua answered, “The words are yours.” But when he was accused by the head cohanim and elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Don’t you hear all these charges they are making against you?” But to the governor’s great amazement, he did not say a single word in reply to the accusations. It was the governor’s custom during a festival to set free one prisoner, whomever the crowd asked for. There was at that time a notorious prisoner being held, named Yeshua Bar-Abba. So when a crowd had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to set free for you? Bar-Abba? or Yeshua, called ‘the Messiah’?” For he understood that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. While he was sitting in court, his wife sent him a message, “Leave that innocent man alone. Today in a dream I suffered terribly because of him.” But the head cohanim persuaded the crowd to ask for Bar-Abba’s release and to have Yeshua executed on the stake. “Which of the two do you want me to set free for you?” asked the governor. “Bar-Abba!” they answered. Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Yeshua, called ‘the Messiah’?” They all said, “Put him to death on the stake! Put him to death on the stake!” When he asked, “Why? What crime has he committed?” they shouted all the louder, “Put him to death on the stake!” When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, “My hands are clean of this man’s blood; it’s your responsibility.” All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!” Then he released to them Bar-Abba; but Yeshua, after having him whipped, he handed over to be executed on a stake. The governor’s soldiers took Yeshua into the headquarters building, and the whole battalion gathered around him. They stripped off his clothes and put on him a scarlet robe, wove thorn-branches into a crown and put it on his head, and put a stick in his right hand. Then they kneeled down in front of him and made fun of him: “Hail to the King of the Jews!” They spit on him and used the stick to beat him about the head. When they had finished ridiculing him, they took off the robe, put his own clothes back on him and led him away to be nailed to the execution-stake.