Mark 15 — Legacy Standard Bible

Jesus Before Pilate

15^aAnd early in the morning the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole ^bSanhedrin, immediately held council; and binding Jesus, led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate. ²^aAnd Pilate questioned Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And He answered him and *said, “You yourself say it.” ³And the chief priests began to accuse Him of many things. ⁴Then Pilate was questioning Him again, saying, “You answer nothing? See how many accusations they bring against You!” ⁵But Jesus ^amade no further answer; so Pilate marveled.

⁶^aNow at the feast he used to release for them any one prisoner whom they requested. ⁷And the man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the insurrection. ⁸And the crowd went up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them. ⁹And Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” ¹⁰For he was aware that the chief priests had delivered Him over because of envy. ¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd ^ato ask him to release Barabbas for them instead. ¹²And answering again, Pilate was saying to them, “Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?” ¹³And they shouted again, “Crucify Him!” ¹⁴But Pilate was saying to them, “Why? What evil did He do?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify Him!” ¹⁵And wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus ^ascourged, he delivered Him over to be crucified.

Jesus Is Mocked

¹⁶^aSo the soldiers took Him away into ^bthe ¹palace (that is, the ²Praetorium), and they *called together the whole Roman ³^,^ccohort. ¹⁷And they *dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they *put it on Him; ¹⁸and they began to greet Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” ¹⁹And they kept beating His head with a ¹reed, and spitting on Him; and kneeling, they were bowing down before Him. ²⁰And after they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they *led Him out to crucify Him.

²¹^aAnd they *pressed into service a passer-by coming from the countryside, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and ^bRufus), to ¹carry His cross.

The Crucifixion

²²^aThen they *brought Him to the place ^bGolgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull. ²³And they tried to give Him ^awine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it. ²⁴And they *crucified Him, and *^adivided up His garments among themselves, casting ¹lots for them to decide who should take what. ²⁵Now it was the ¹^,^athird hour, and they crucified Him. ²⁶And the inscription of the charge against Him ¹read, “^aTHE KING OF THE JEWS.”

²⁷And they *crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left. ²⁸¹[And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And He was numbered with transgressors.”] ²⁹And those passing by were blaspheming Him, ^ashaking their heads, and saying, “Ha! You who are going to ^bdestroy the ¹sanctuary and rebuild it in three days, ³⁰save Yourself by coming down from the cross!” ³¹In the same way, mocking Him to one another, the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were saying, “^aHe saved others; ¹He cannot save Himself. ³²“Let this ¹Christ, ^athe King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” ^bThose who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him.

³³^aAnd when the ¹^,^bsixth hour came, darkness ²fell over the whole land until the ³^,^cninth hour. ³⁴And at the ^aninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “^bEloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” ³⁵And when some of the bystanders heard it, they began saying, “Look, He is calling for Elijah.” ³⁶And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink, saying, “¹Let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him down.” ³⁷^aAnd Jesus, uttering a loud cry, breathed His last. ³⁸^aAnd the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. ³⁹^aAnd when the centurion, who was standing ¹right in front of Him, saw ²the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”

⁴⁰^aAnd there were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James ^bthe ¹Less and Joses, and ^cSalome, ⁴¹who, when He was in Galilee, were following Him and ¹^,^aserving Him; and there were many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.

Jesus Is Buried

⁴²^aAnd when evening had already come, because it was ¹^,^bPreparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, ⁴³Joseph of Arimathea came, a ^aprominent ¹Council member, who himself was ^bwaiting for the kingdom of God; and he ^cgathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. ⁴⁴And Pilate wondered if He had died by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He already died. ⁴⁵And ascertaining this from ^athe centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. ⁴⁶And when Joseph had bought a linen cloth and took Him down, he wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. ⁴⁷^aAnd Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on to see where He had been laid.