6. At every Passover Festival Pilate was in the habit of setting free any one prisoner the people asked for.
7. At that time a man named Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder in the riot.
8. When the crowd gathered and began to ask Pilate for the usual favour,
9. he asked them, “Do you want me to set free for you the king of the Jews?”
10. He knew very well that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him because they were jealous.
11. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask, instead, for Pilate to set Barabbas free for them.
12. Pilate spoke again to the crowd, “What, then, do you want me to do with the one you call the king of the Jews?”
13. They shouted back, “Crucify him!”
14. “But what crime has he committed?” Pilate asked.They shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
15. Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he set Barabbas free for them. Then he had Jesus whipped and handed him over to be crucified.
16. The soldiers took Jesus inside to the courtyard of the governor's palace and called together the rest of the company.
17. They put a purple robe on Jesus, made a crown out of thorny branches, and put it on his head.
18. Then they began to salute him: “Long live the King of the Jews!”
19. They beat him over the head with a stick, spat on him, fell on their knees, and bowed down to him.
20. When they had finished mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
21. On the way they met a man named Simon, who was coming into the city from the country, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus' cross. (Simon was from Cyrene and was the father of Alexander and Rufus.)