¹Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped.

²The soldiers made a crown out of thorny branches and put it on his head; then they put a purple robe on him

³and came to him and said, “Long live the King of the Jews!” And they went up and slapped him.

⁴Pilate went back out once more and said to the crowd, “Look, I will bring him out here to you to let you see that I cannot find any reason to condemn him.”

⁵So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Look! Here is the man!”

⁶When the chief priests and the Temple guards saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “You take him, then, and crucify him. I find no reason to condemn him.”

⁷The crowd answered back, “We have a law that says he ought to die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

⁸When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid.

⁹He went back into the palace and asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?” But Jesus did not answer.

¹⁰Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Remember, I have the authority to set you free and also to have you crucified.”

¹¹Jesus answered, “You have authority over me only because it was given to you by God. So the man who handed me over to you is guilty of a worse sin.”

¹²When Pilate heard this, he tried to find a way to set Jesus free. But the crowd shouted back, “If you set him free, that means that you are not the Emperor's friend! Anyone who claims to be a king is a rebel against the Emperor!”

¹³When Pilate heard these words, he took Jesus outside and sat down on the judge's seat in the place called “The Stone Pavement.” (In Hebrew the name is “Gabbatha.”)

¹⁴It was then almost noon of the day before the Passover. Pilate said to the people, “Here is your king!”

¹⁵They shouted back, “Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Do you want me to crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “The only king we have is the Emperor!”

Jesus Is Crucified

¹⁶Then Pilate handed Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took charge of Jesus.

¹⁷He went out, carrying his cross, and came to “The Place of the Skull,” as it is called. (In Hebrew it is called “Golgotha.”)

¹⁸There they crucified him; and they also crucified two other men, one on each side, with Jesus between them.

¹⁹Pilate wrote a notice and had it put on the cross. “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” is what he wrote.

²⁰Many people read it, because the place where Jesus was crucified was not far from the city. The notice was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

²¹The chief priests said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am the King of the Jews.’”

²²Pilate answered, “What I have written stays written.”

²³After the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier. They also took the robe, which was made of one piece of woven cloth without any seams in it.

²⁴The soldiers said to one another, “Let's not tear it; let's throw dice to see who will get it.” This happened in order to make the scripture come true: “They divided my clothes among themselves and gambled for my robe.” And this is what the soldiers did.

²⁵Standing close to Jesus' cross were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

²⁶Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, “He is your son.”

²⁷Then he said to the disciple, “She is your mother.” From that time the disciple took her to live in his home.

The Death of Jesus

²⁸Jesus knew that by now everything had been completed; and in order to make the scripture come true, he said, “I am thirsty.”

²⁹A bowl was there, full of cheap wine; so a sponge was soaked in the wine, put on a stalk of hyssop, and lifted up to his lips.

³⁰Jesus drank the wine and said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Jesus' Side Is Pierced

³¹Then the Jewish authorities asked Pilate to allow them to break the legs of the men who had been crucified, and to take the bodies down from the crosses. They requested this because it was Friday, and they did not want the bodies to stay on the crosses on the Sabbath, since the coming Sabbath was especially holy.

³²So the soldiers went and broke the legs of the first man and then of the other man who had been crucified with Jesus.

³³But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they did not break his legs.

³⁴One of the soldiers, however, plunged his spear into Jesus' side, and at once blood and water poured out.

³⁵(The one who saw this happen has spoken of it, so that you also may believe. What he said is true, and he knows that he speaks the truth.)

³⁶This was done to make the scripture come true: “Not one of his bones will be broken.”

³⁷And there is another scripture that says, “People will look at him whom they pierced.”

The Burial of Jesus

³⁸After this, Joseph, who was from the town of Arimathea, asked Pilate if he could take Jesus' body. (Joseph was a follower of Jesus, but in secret, because he was afraid of the Jewish authorities.) Pilate told him he could have the body, so Joseph went and took it away.

³⁹Nicodemus, who at first had gone to see Jesus at night, went with Joseph, taking with him about one hundred pounds of spices, a mixture of myrrh and aloes.

⁴⁰The two men took Jesus' body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices according to the Jewish custom of preparing a body for burial.

⁴¹There was a garden in the place where Jesus had been put to death, and in it there was a new tomb where no one had ever been buried.

⁴²Since it was the day before the Sabbath and because the tomb was close by, they placed Jesus' body there.

The Empty Tomb

¹Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away from the entrance.

²She went running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!”

³Then Peter and the other disciple went to the tomb.

⁴The two of them were running, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and reached the tomb first.

⁵He bent over and saw the linen cloths, but he did not go in.

⁶Behind him came Simon Peter, and he went straight into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there

⁷and the cloth which had been around Jesus' head. It was not lying with the linen cloths but was rolled up by itself.

⁸Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in; he saw and believed.

⁹(They still did not understand the scripture which said that he must rise from death.)

¹⁰Then the disciples went back home.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

¹¹Mary stood crying outside the tomb. While she was still crying, she bent over and looked in the tomb

¹²and saw two angels there dressed in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and the other at the feet.

¹³“Woman, why are you crying?” they asked her. She answered, “They have taken my Lord away, and I do not know where they have put him!”

¹⁴Then she turned around and saw Jesus standing there; but she did not know that it was Jesus.

¹⁵“Woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who is it that you are looking for?” She thought he was the gardener, so she said to him, “If you took him away, sir, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned toward him and said in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (This means “Teacher.”)

¹⁷“Do not hold on to me,” Jesus told her, “because I have not yet gone back up to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to him who is my Father and their Father, my God and their God.”

¹⁸So Mary Magdalene went and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and related to them what he had told her.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

¹⁹It was late that Sunday evening, and the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities. Then Jesus came and stood among them. “Peace be with you,” he said.

²⁰After saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord.

²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you.”

²²Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

²³If you forgive people's sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus and Thomas

²⁴One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (called the Twin), was not with them when Jesus came.

²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas said to them, “Unless I see the scars of the nails in his hands and put my finger on those scars and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

²⁶A week later the disciples were together again indoors, and Thomas was with them. The doors were locked, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands; then reach out your hand and put it in my side. Stop your doubting, and believe!”

²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

²⁹Jesus said to him, “Do you believe because you see me? How happy are those who believe without seeing me!”

The Purpose of This Book

³⁰In his disciples' presence Jesus performed many other miracles which are not written down in this book.

³¹But these have been written in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through your faith in him you may have life.

Jesus Appears to Seven Disciples

¹After this, Jesus appeared once more to his disciples at Lake Tiberias. This is how it happened.

²Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael (the one from Cana in Galilee), the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples of Jesus were all together.

³Simon Peter said to the others, “I am going fishing.” “We will come with you,” they told him. So they went out in a boat, but all that night they did not catch a thing.

⁴As the sun was rising, Jesus stood at the water's edge, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

⁵Then he asked them, “Young men, haven't you caught anything?” “Not a thing,” they answered.

⁶He said to them, “Throw your net out on the right side of the boat, and you will catch some.” So they threw the net out and could not pull it back in, because they had caught so many fish.

⁷The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Peter heard that it was the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken his clothes off) and jumped into the water.

⁸The other disciples came to shore in the boat, pulling the net full of fish. They were not very far from land, about a hundred yards away.

⁹When they stepped ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish on it and some bread.

¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.”

¹¹Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore full of big fish, a hundred and fifty-three in all; even though there were so many, still the net did not tear.

¹²Jesus said to them, “Come and eat.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord.

¹³So Jesus went over, took the bread, and gave it to them; he did the same with the fish.

¹⁴This, then, was the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from death.

Jesus and Peter

¹⁵After they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Take care of my lambs.”

¹⁶A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Take care of my sheep.”

¹⁷A third time Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter became sad because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” and so he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you!” Jesus said to him, “Take care of my sheep.

¹⁸I am telling you the truth: when you were young, you used to get ready and go anywhere you wanted to; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you up and take you where you don't want to go.”

¹⁹(In saying this, Jesus was indicating the way in which Peter would die and bring glory to God.) Then Jesus said to him, “Follow me!”

Jesus and the Other Disciple

²⁰Peter turned around and saw behind him that other disciple, whom Jesus loved—the one who had leaned close to Jesus at the meal and had asked, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”

²¹When Peter saw him, he asked Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”

²²Jesus answered him, “If I want him to live until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!”

²³So a report spread among the followers of Jesus that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say he would not die; he said, “If I want him to live until I come, what is that to you?”

²⁴He is the disciple who spoke of these things, the one who also wrote them down; and we know that what he said is true.

Conclusion

²⁵Now, there are many other things that Jesus did. If they were all written down one by one, I suppose that the whole world could not hold the books that would be written.

²⁵Don't be tempted by their beauty; don't be trapped by their flirting eyes.

²⁶A man can hire a prostitute for the price of a loaf of bread, but adultery will cost him all he has.

²⁷Can you carry fire against your chest without burning your clothes?

²⁸Can you walk on hot coals without burning your feet?

²⁹It is just as dangerous to sleep with another man's wife. Whoever does it will suffer.

³⁰People don't despise a thief if he steals food when he is hungry;

³¹yet if he is caught, he must pay back seven times more—he must give up everything he has.

³²But a man who commits adultery doesn't have any sense. He is just destroying himself.

³³He will be dishonored and beaten up; he will be permanently disgraced.

³⁴A husband is never angrier than when he is jealous; his revenge knows no limits.

³⁵He will not accept any payment; no amount of gifts will satisfy his anger.