Luke 23:2-25

²They began to accuse Jesus, saying, “We (exc) have determined that this fellow has caused political trouble in our country. He has been telling people that they should not pay taxes to the Roman government MTY. Also, he says that he is the Messiah, a king!”

³Pilate asked him, “Do you (sg) claim that you are the King of the Jews?” He replied, “ It is as you have just now said.”

⁴Pilate said to the chief priests and the rest of the crowd, “I do not conclude that this man is guilty of any crime.”

⁵But they kept insisting, “He is inciting the people to riot! He has been teaching his ideas throughout all of Judea district. He started doing it in Galilee district and now he is doing it here!”

⁶When Pilate heard that, he asked, “Is this man from Galilee district?”

⁷When they told him that Jesus was from Galilee, which was the district that Herod Antipas ruled, he told them to take Jesus to Herod Antipas, because Herod was in Jerusalem at that time.

⁸So they did. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very happy. He had heard about Jesus, and he had been hoping for a long time that he could see Jesus perform a miracle.

⁹So he asked Jesus many questions, but Jesus did not reply to any of them.

¹⁰The chief priests and men who taught the Jewish laws stood near Jesus, accusing him very strongly.

¹¹Then Herod and his soldiers ◄made fun of/ridiculed► Jesus. They put gorgeous clothes on him to mock him as being a king. Then Herod sent him back to Pilate.

¹²Until that time Herod and Pilate had been very hostile to each other, but that very day they became friends.

¹³Pilate then gathered together the chief priests and other Jewish leaders and the crowd that was still there.

¹⁴He said to them, “You brought this man to me, saying that he had caused trouble among the people. But I want you to know that after having examined him while you were listening, I do not conclude that he is guilty of any of the things that you are accusing him about.

¹⁵Obviously Herod did not conclude that either, because he sent him back to me without punishing him. So it is clear that this man has not done anything for which we (inc) should kill him.

¹⁶So I will have my soldiers flog him and then release him.”

¹⁸But the whole crowd shouted, “Execute this man! Release Barrabas for us (exc)!”

¹⁹Barrabas was a man who had tried to persuade people in the city to rebel against the Roman government. While doing that, he had murdered someone. So he had been put {they had put him} in prison, where he was waiting to be executed.

²⁰Because Pilate wanted to release Jesus, he tried to persuade the crowd again.

²¹But they kept shouting, “ Command your soldiers to kill him by nailing him to a cross!/Have him crucified!”

²²He spoke to them a third time and asked them, “Why? What crime has he committed? I have concluded that he has done nothing for which he deserves to die. So I will have my soldiers flog him and then release him.”

²³But they kept insisting. They shouted loudly that Jesus should be nailed {that Pilate should have his soldiers nail Jesus} to a cross. Finally, because they continued to shout PRS so loudly,

²⁴Pilate decided to do what the crowd requested.

²⁵The man who had been {whom they had} put in prison because he had rebelled against the government and who had murdered someone, he released! That was the man whom the crowd had asked him to release. He handed Jesus over to the soldiers, to do what the crowd wanted.