734 CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS AND DEATH-IIMatthew 27, NJV
Early in the morning,
all the chief priests and the elders of the people
came to the decision to put Jesus to death.
They bound him, led him away and handed
him over to Pilate, the governor.

"What shall I do, then,
with Jesus who is called Christ?" Pilate asked.
They all answered, "Crucify him!" "Why?
What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!"

Then he released Barabbas to them.
But he had Jesus flogged,
and handed him over to be crucified.
Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus
into the Praetorium and gathered the whole
company of soldiers around him.

They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him,
and then wove a crown of thorns and
set it on his head.
They put a staff in his right hand and
knelt in front of him and mocked him.
"Hail, King of the Jews!" they said.

They spit on him,
and took the staff and struck him on the head
again and again. After they had mocked him,
they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him.
Then they led him away to crucify him.

And when Jesus had cried out again
in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

At that moment the curtain of the temple
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth shook and the rocks split.

When the centurion and those with him who
were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake
and all that had happened,
they were terrified, and exclaimed,
"Surely he was the Son of God!"

SUFFERINGS AND DEATH: See also No. 842.