John 19 · WEB
The Crucifixion and Burial of Jesus
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So Pilate then took Jesus, and flogged him.
2The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown, and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment.
3They kept saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and they kept slapping him.
4Then Pilate went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him."
5Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, "Behold, the man!"
6When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, saying, "Crucify! Crucify!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves, and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him."
7The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."
8When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid.
9He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer.
10Pilate therefore said to him, "Aren't you speaking to me? Don't you know that I have power to release you, and have power to crucify you?"
11Jesus answered, "You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin."
12At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you release this man, you aren't Caesar's friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!"
13When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called "The Pavement," but in Hebrew, "Gabbatha."
14Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Behold, your King!"
15They cried out, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!"
16So then he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away.
17He went out, bearing his cross, to the place called "The Place of a Skull," which is called in Hebrew, "Golgotha,"
18where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle.
19Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, "JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS."
20Therefore many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.
21The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, "Don't write, 'The King of the Jews,' but, 'he said, "I am King of the Jews."'"
22Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
23Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.
24Then they said to one another, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be," that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says, "They parted my garments among them. For my cloak they cast lots." Therefore the soldiers did these things.
25But standing by Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!"
27Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.
28After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I am thirsty."
29Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth.
30When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished." He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.
31Therefore the Jews, because it was the Preparation Day, so that the bodies wouldn't remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special one), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
32Therefore the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him;
33but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was already dead, they didn't break his legs.
34However one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
35He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, that you may believe.
36For these things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled, "A bone of him will not be broken."
37Again another Scripture says, "They will look on him whom they pierced."
38After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus' body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore and took away his body.
39Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred Roman pounds.
40So they took Jesus' body, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.
41Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb in which no man had ever yet been laid.
42Then because of the Jews' Preparation Day (for the tomb was near at hand) they laid Jesus there.
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Summary
Pilate flogs Jesus and presents him to the crowd with the words "Behold, the man," but the chief priests demand crucifixion, declaring "We have no king but Caesar." Jesus is led to Golgotha and crucified between two others, with an inscription proclaiming him King of the Jews in three languages. After entrusting his mother to the beloved disciple, Jesus declares "It is finished" and gives up his spirit; a soldier pierces his side, and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus bury him in a nearby garden tomb.
Themes
- Kingship of Jesus mocked and proclaimed
- Fulfillment of Scripture in every detail
- The finished work of the cross
- Substitutionary suffering of the Lamb
- Witness and testimony to truth
Key verses
- John 19:11 — “You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above.”
- John 19:30 — “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, 'It is finished.' He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.”
- John 19:37 — “They will look on him whom they pierced.”
- John 19:5 — “Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, 'Behold, the man!'”
Context & background
Pilate's trial took place at the Praetorium in Jerusalem (modern Israel), likely the Antonia Fortress or Herod's palace, with the judgment seat at "The Pavement" (Gabbatha). Golgotha — "The Place of a Skull" — was just outside Jerusalem's walls, traditionally identified with either the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Garden Tomb area in modern Jerusalem. Roman crucifixion was the empire's most shameful execution, reserved for slaves and rebels, and the inscription in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek reflected the trilingual reality of first-century Judea. The piercing and unbroken bones fulfill specific Old Testament patterns from the Passover lamb and the Psalms.
Cross-references
- Exodus 12:46 — "Don't break any of its bones" — the Passover lamb prefigures Jesus
- Hebrews 10:14 — "By one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified" — the "It is finished" theology
- Isaiah 53:5-7 — The suffering servant pierced and silent before his accusers
- Psalm 22:18 — "They divide my garments among them" — fulfilled by the soldiers casting lots
- Zechariah 12:10 — "They will look on me whom they have pierced" — directly quoted in verse 37