5. But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
6. Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested.
7. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder in the uprising.
8. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
9. ‘Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?’ asked Pilate,
10. knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him.
11. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to get Pilate to release Barabbas instead.
12. ‘What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?’ Pilate asked them.
13. ‘Crucify him!’ they shouted.
14. ‘Why? What crime has he committed?’ asked Pilate.But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’
15. Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
16. The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers.
17. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him.
18. And they began to call out to him, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’