The Gospel of Mark 15

Jesus before Pilate

1As soon as morning came, the chief priests held a council meeting with the elders, the legal experts, and the whole Sanhedrin. They bound Jesus, took him off to Pilate, and handed him over.

2“Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“You have said it,” replied Jesus.

3The chief priests laid many accusations against him.

4Pilate again interrogated him: “Aren’t you going to make any reply? Look how many accusations they’re making against you!”

5But Jesus gave no reply at all, which astonished Pilate.

6The custom was that at festival time he used to release for them a single prisoner, whoever they would ask for. 7There was a man in prison named Barabbas, one of the revolutionaries who had committed murder during the uprising. 8So the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do what he normally did.

9“Do you want me,” answered Pilate, “to release for you ‘the king of the Jews’?”

10He said this because he knew that the chief priests had handed him over out of envy. 11The chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask for Barabbas instead to be released to them. So Pilate once again asked them, 12“What then do you want me to do with the one you call ‘the king of the Jews’?”

13“Crucify him!” they shouted again.

14“Why?” asked Pilate. “What has he done wrong?”

“Crucify him!” they shouted all the louder.

15Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd; so he released Barabbas for them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

The crucifixion

16The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard, that is, the Praetorium, and called together the whole squad. 17They dressed Jesus up in purple; then, weaving together a crown of thorns, they stuck it on him. 18They began to salute him: “Greetings, King of the Jews!” 19And they hit him over the head with a staff, and spat at him, and knelt down to do him homage. 20Then, when they had mocked him, they took the purple robe off him, and put his own clothes back on.

Then they led him off to crucify him. 21They compelled a man called Simon to carry Jesus’ cross. He was from Cyrene, and was coming in from out of town. He was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

22They took Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which in translation means “Skull’s Place.” 23They gave him a mixture of wine and myrrh, but he didn’t drink it.

24So they crucified him; they “parted his clothing between them, casting lots” to see who would get what. 25It was about nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. 26The inscription, giving the charge, read: “The King of the Jews.” 27They also crucified two bandits alongside him, one on his right and one on his left.

29People who were passing by abused him. They shook their heads at him.

“Hah!” they said. “You were going to destroy the Temple, were you? And build it again in three days? 30Why don’t you rescue yourself, and come down from the cross?”

31The chief priests and the lawyers were mocking him in the same way among themselves.

“He rescued others,” they said, “but he can’t rescue himself. 32Messiah, is he? King of Israel, did he say? Well, let’s see him come down from the cross! We’ll believe him when we see that!”

The two who were crucified alongside him taunted him as well.

The death of Jesus

33At midday there was darkness over all the land until three in the afternoon. 34At three o’clock Jesus shouted out in a powerful voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?”

35When the bystanders heard it, some of them said, “He’s calling for Elijah!”

36One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a pole, and gave it him to drink.

“Well then,” he declared, “let’s see if Elijah will come and take him down.”

37But Jesus, with another loud shout, breathed his last.

38The Temple veil was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39When the centurion who was standing facing him saw that he died in this way, he said, “This fellow really was God’s son.”

The burial of Jesus

40Some women were watching from a distance. They included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome. 41They had followed Jesus in Galilee, and had attended to his needs. There were several other women, too, who had come up with him to Jerusalem.

42It was already getting towards evening, and it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath. 43Joseph of Arimathea, a reputable member of the council who was himself eagerly awaiting God’s kingdom, took his courage in both hands, went to Pilate, and requested the body of Jesus.

44Pilate was surprised that he was already dead. He summoned the centurion, and asked whether he had been dead for some time. 45When he learned the facts from the centurion, he conceded the body to Joseph.

46So Joseph bought a linen cloth, took the body down, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb cut out of the rock. He rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. 47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was buried.

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The Gospel of Mark 15: NTFE

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a. The New Testament for Everyone, Third Edition. Copyright © 2011, 2018, 2019 by Nicholas Thomas Wright, The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. All rights reserved. Published by Zondervan, 2023.

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