The Jefferson Bible

The Life and Morals of Jesus

CHAPTER 17.

OW at the feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would.
    2 And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.
    3 Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?
    4 For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.

Moreover, while he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.
    6 But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask for Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.
    7 The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas.
    8 Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.
    9 And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.

Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
    11 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.
    12 And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
    13 And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
    14 And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
    16 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
    17 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
    18 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.
    19 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.
    20 Wherefore that field is called, The Field of Blood, unto this day.

And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon of Cyrene, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.
    22 And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which bewailed and lamented him.
    23 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
    24 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
    25 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.
    26 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
    27 And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death.

And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:
    29 There they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
    30 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
    31 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Latin, and Greek.
    32 Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but, This man said I am King of the Jews.
    33 Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.
    34 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his undergarment: now the undergarment was without seam, woven from the top to the bottom.
    35 They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, in order to determine whose it shall be.

And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,
    37 And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
    38 Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said,
    39 He saved others; himself he cannot save. He is the King of Israel: let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in him.
    40 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
    41 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, Art thou not the Christ? Save thyself and us!
    42 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
    43 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.
    44 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clophas, and Mary Magdalene.
    46 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
    47 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
    49 Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elijah.
    50 And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
    51 The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.
    52 Jesus, when he had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
    53 And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him:
    54 Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.
    55 The Jews therefore, because it was the day of preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath, (for that sabbath was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
    56 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.
    57 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
    58 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
    59 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
    60 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
    61 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
    62 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
    63 There laid they Jesus,
    64 And rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.