Mark 15:15-23

Contemporary English Version

¹⁵Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he set Barabbas free. Then he ordered his soldiers to beat Jesus with a whip and nail him to a cross.

Soldiers Make Fun of Jesus

(Matthew 27.27-30; John 19.2,3)

¹⁶The soldiers led Jesus inside the courtyard of the fortress^[a] and called together the rest of the troops. ¹⁷They put a purple robe^[b] on him, and on his head they placed a crown they had made out of thorn branches. ¹⁸They made fun of Jesus and shouted, “Hey, you king of the Jews!” ¹⁹Then they beat him on the head with a stick. They spit on him and knelt down and pretended to worship him.

²⁰When the soldiers had finished making fun of Jesus, they took off the purple robe. They put his own clothes back on him and led him off to be nailed to a cross. ²¹^(A) Simon from Cyrene happened to be coming in from a farm, and they forced him to carry Jesus' cross. Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

Jesus Is Nailed to a Cross

(Matthew 27.31-44; Luke 23.27-43; John 19.17-27)

²²The soldiers took Jesus to Golgotha, which means “Place of a Skull.”^[c] ²³There they gave him some wine mixed with a drug to ease the pain, but he refused to drink it.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

15.16 fortress: The place where the Roman governor stayed. It was probably at Herod's palace west of Jerusalem, though it may have been Fortress Antonia, north of the temple, where the Roman troops were stationed.
15.17 purple robe: This was probably a Roman soldier's robe.
15.22 Place of a Skull: The place was probably given this name because it was near a large rock in the shape of a human skull.