7. The crowd replied, “He claimed to be the Son of God! Our Jewish Law says that he must be put to death.”
8. When Pilate heard this, he was terrified.
9. He went back inside and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus did not answer.
10. “Why won't you answer my question?” Pilate asked. “Don't you know that I have the power to let you go free or to nail you to a cross?”
11. Jesus replied, “If God had not given you the power, you couldn't do anything at all to me. But the one who handed me over to you did something even worse.”
12. Then Pilate wanted to set Jesus free. But the crowd again yelled, “If you set this man free, you are no friend of the Emperor! Anyone who claims to be a king is an enemy of the Emperor.”
13. When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out. Then he sat down on the judge's bench at the place known as “The Stone Pavement”. In Aramaic this pavement is called “Gabbatha”.
14. It was about midday on the day before Passover, and Pilate said to the crowd, “Look at your king!”
15. “Kill him! Kill him!” they yelled. “Nail him to a cross!”“So you want me to nail your king to a cross?” Pilate asked.The chief priests replied, “The Emperor is our king!”
16. Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be nailed to a cross.Jesus was taken away,
17. and he carried his cross to a place known as “The Skull”. In Aramaic this place is called “Golgotha”.
18. There Jesus was nailed to the cross, and on each side of him a man was also nailed to a cross.
19. Pilate ordered the charge against Jesus to be written on a board and put above the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”
20. The words were written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.The place where Jesus was taken wasn't far from the city, and many of the Jewish people read the charge against him.
21. So the chief priests went to Pilate and said, “Why did you write that he is King of the Jews? You should have written, ‘He claimed to be King of the Jews.’ ”