Pilate Questions Jesus^(A)

¹¹ Jesus stood before Pilate the governor, and Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus answered, “·Those are your words [It is as you say; ^LYou say so; ^Can indirect affirmation].”

¹² When the ·leading [^Tchief] priests and the elders accused Jesus, he ·said nothing [did not answer].

¹³ So Pilate said to Jesus, “Don’t you hear them accusing you of ·all these [so many] things?”

¹⁴ But Jesus ·said nothing in answer to Pilate [did not answer a single charge], and ·Pilate [^Lthe governor] was very ·surprised [amazed] at this.

² Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus answered, “·Those are your words [It is as you say; ^LYou say so; ^Can indirect affirmation].”

³ The ·leading [^Tchief] priests accused Jesus of many things. ⁴ So Pilate asked Jesus another question, “You can see that they are accusing you of many things. Aren’t you going to answer?”

⁵ But Jesus still said nothing, so Pilate was ·very surprised [amazed].

² They began to accuse Jesus, saying, “We caught this man ·misleading [subverting] our ·people [nation]. He ·says that we should not pay [opposes/forbids paying] taxes to Caesar, and he ·calls himself [claims to be] the ·Christ [Messiah], a king.”

³ Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus answered, “·Those are your words [or It is as you say; ^LYou say so; ^Can indirect affirmation; see 22:70].”

⁴ Pilate said to the ·leading [^Tchief] priests and the ·people [crowd], “I find ·nothing against [no basis for a charge against; no guilt in] this man.”

⁵ [^LBut] They were insisting, saying, “But Jesus ·makes trouble with [is inciting/stirring up] the people, teaching all around Judea. He began in Galilee, and now he is here.”

²⁹ So Pilate [^CPontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea from ad 26 to 37] went outside to them and asked, “What ·charges [accusation] do you bring against this man?”

³⁰ They answered, “If he were not a ·criminal [^Levildoer], we wouldn’t have brought him to you.”

³¹ Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”

“But ·we are not allowed [it is not legal for us] to put anyone to death,” the Jews answered. [^CThe Jewish people had to concede the authority for capital punishment to their Roman occupiers.] ³² (This happened so that what Jesus said about how he would die [^Cby crucifixion rather than stoning] would ·come true [^Lbe fulfilled; see 12:32–33].)

³³ Then Pilate went back inside the ·palace [headquarters; ^LPraetorium] and called Jesus to him and asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

³⁴ Jesus ·said [answered], “Is that your own question, or did others tell you about me?”

³⁵ Pilate answered, “·I am not one of you [^LAm I a Jew?]. It was your own ·people [nation] and their ·leading [^Tchief] priests who ·handed you over [or betrayed you] to me. What have you done wrong?”

³⁶ Jesus answered, “My kingdom ·does not belong to [^Tis not of] this world. If it belonged to this world, my servants would have fought to keep me from being ·given over [betrayed; handed over] to the ·Jewish leaders [^LJews]. But my kingdom is from another place.”

³⁷ Pilate said, “So you are a king!”

Jesus answered, “You are the one saying I am a king. This is why I was born and came into the world: to ·tell people [testify/witness to] the truth. And everyone ·who belongs to the [on the side of] truth ·listens to me [^Lhears my voice].”

³⁸ Pilate said, “What is truth?” After he said this, he went out to the ·crowd [^LJews] again and said to them, “I find ·nothing [no case; no basis for a charge] against this man.