3. When Judas, the traitor, learnt that Jesus had been condemned, he repented and took back the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders.
4. “I have sinned by betraying an innocent man to death!” he said.“What do we care about that?” they answered. “That is your business!”
5. Judas threw the coins down in the Temple and left; then he went off and hanged himself.
6. The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “This is blood money, and it is against our Law to put it in the temple treasury.”
7. After reaching an agreement about it, they used the money to buy Potter's Field, as a cemetery for foreigners.
8. That is why that field is called “Field of Blood” to this very day.
9. Then what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true: “They took the thirty silver coins, the amount the people of Israel had agreed to pay for him,
10. and used the money to buy the potter's field, as the Lord had commanded me.”
11. Jesus stood before the Roman governor, who questioned him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked.“So you say,” answered Jesus.
12. But he said nothing in response to the accusations of the chief priests and elders.
13. So Pilate said to him, “Don't you hear all these things they accuse you of?”
14. But Jesus refused to answer a single word, with the result that the Governor was greatly surprised.
15. At every Passover Festival the Roman governor was in the habit of setting free any one prisoner the crowd asked for.
16. At that time there was a well-known prisoner named Jesus Barabbas.
17. So when the crowd gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to set free for you? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus called the Messiah?”