John 18:22-40 ▼

22 When Jesus had said this, one of the officers standing nearby slapped Him in the face and said, “Is this how You answer the high priest?”

23 Jesus replied, “If I said something wrong, testify as to what was wrong. But if I spoke correctly, why did you strike Me?”

24 Then Annas sent Him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.

25 Simon Peter was still standing and warming himself. So they asked him, “Aren’t you also one of His disciples?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”

26 One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Didn’t I see you with Him in the garden?”

27 Peter denied it once more, and immediately a rooster crowed.

28 Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.

29 So Pilate went out to them and asked, “What accusation are you bringing against this man?”

30 “If He were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed Him over to you.”

31 “You take Him and judge Him by your own law,” Pilate told them. “We are not permitted to execute anyone,” the Jews then replied.

32 This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to indicate the kind of death He was going to die.

33 Pilate went back into the Praetorium, summoned Jesus, and asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”

34 “Are you saying this on your own,” Jesus asked him, “or did others tell you about Me?”

35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed You over to me. What have You done?”

36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.”

37 “Then You are a king!” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”

38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. And having said this, he went out again to the Jews and told them, “I find no basis for a charge against Him.

39 But it is your custom that I release to you one prisoner at the Passover. So then, do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”

40 “Not this man,” they all shouted, “but Barabbas!” (Now Barabbas was an insurrectionist.)