Jesus Is Taken to Governor Pilate^(A)

27 Early the next morning, all the leading priests and older leaders of the people met and decided to kill Jesus. ² They tied him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.

Governor Pilate Questions Jesus^(A)

¹¹ Jesus stood before Pilate, the governor, who asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus answered, “Yes, that’s right.”

¹² Then, when the leading priests and the older Jewish leaders made their accusations against Jesus, he said nothing.

¹³ So Pilate said to him, “Don’t you hear all these charges they are making against you? Why don’t you answer?”

¹⁴ But Jesus did not say anything, and this really surprised the governor.

Governor Pilate Questions Jesus^(A)

23 Then the whole group stood up and led Jesus away to Pilate. ² They began to accuse Jesus and said to Pilate, “We caught this man trying to change the thinking of our people. He says we should not pay taxes to Caesar. He calls himself the Messiah, a king.”

³ Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus answered, “Yes, what you say is true.”

⁴ Pilate said to the leading priests and the people, “I find nothing wrong with this man.”

⁵ But they kept on saying, “His teaching is causing trouble all over Judea. He began in Galilee, and now he is here!”

Jesus Is Brought Before Pilate^(A)

²⁸ Then the guards took Jesus from Caiaphas’ house to the Roman governor’s palace. It was early in the morning. The Jews there would not go inside the palace. They did not want to make themselves unclean,^[a] because they wanted to eat the Passover meal. ²⁹ So Pilate went outside to them and asked, “What do you say this man has done wrong?”

³⁰ They answered, “He is a bad man. That is why we brought him to you.”

³¹ Pilate said to them, “You take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”

The Jewish leaders answered, “But your law does not allow us to punish anyone by killing them.” ³² (This was to show the truth of what Jesus said about how he would die.)

³³ Then Pilate went back inside the palace. He called for Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

³⁴ Jesus said, “Is that your own question, or did other people tell you about me?”

³⁵ Pilate said, “I’m not a Jew! It was your own people and their leading priests who brought you before me. What have you done wrong?”

³⁶ Jesus said, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If it did, my servants would fight so that I would not be handed over to the Jewish leaders. No, my kingdom is not an earthly one.”

³⁷ Pilate said, “So you are a king.”

Jesus answered, “You are right to say that I am a king. I was born for this: to tell people about the truth. That is why I came into the world. And everyone who belongs to the truth listens to me.”

³⁸ Pilate said, “What is truth?” Then he went out to the Jewish leaders again and said to them, “I can find nothing against this man.