Gospel according to John 18

¹ After he had said all this Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kedron valley. There was a garden there, and he went into it with his disciples.

² Judas the traitor knew the place well, since Jesus had often met his disciples there,

³ and he brought the cohort[*a] to this place together with a detachment of guards sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees, all with lanterns and torches and weapons.

⁴ Knowing everything that was going to happen to him, Jesus then came forward and said, ‘Who are you looking for?’

⁵ They answered, ‘Jesus the Nazarene’. He said, ‘I am he’. Now Judas the traitor was standing among them.

⁶ When Jesus said, ‘I am he’, they moved back and fell to the ground.

⁷ He asked them a second time, ‘Who are you looking for?’ They said, ‘Jesus the Nazarene’.

⁸ ‘I have told you that I am he’ replied Jesus. ‘If I am the one you are looking for, let these others go.’

⁹ This was to fulfil the words he had spoken, ‘Not one of those you gave me have I lost’.

¹⁰ Simon Peter, who carried a sword, drew it and wounded the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.

¹¹ Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword back in its scabbard; am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?’

¹² The cohort and its captain and the Jewish guards seized Jesus and bound him.

¹³ They took him first to Annas, because Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.

¹⁴ It was Caiaphas who had suggested to the Jews, ‘It is better for one man to die for the people’.

¹⁵ Simon Peter, with another disciple, followed Jesus. This disciple, who was known to the high priest, went with Jesus into the high priest’s palace,

¹⁶ but Peter stayed outside the door. So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who was keeping the door and brought Peter in.

¹⁷ The maid on duty at the door said to Peter, ‘Aren’t you another of that man’s disciples?’ He answered, ‘I am not’.

¹⁸ Now it was cold, and the servants and guards had lit a charcoal fire and were standing there warming themselves; so Peter stood there too, warming himself with the others.

¹⁹ The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.

²⁰ Jesus answered, ‘I have spoken openly for all the world to hear; I have always taught in the synagogue and in the Temple where all the Jews meet together: I have said nothing in secret.

²¹ But why ask me? Ask my hearers what I taught: they know what I said.’

²² At these words, one of the guards standing by gave Jesus a slap in the face, saying, ‘Is that the way to answer the high priest?’

²³ Jesus replied, ‘If there is something wrong in what I said, point it out; but if there is no offence in it, why do you strike me?’

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

²⁵ As Simon Peter stood there warming himself, someone said to him, ‘Aren’t you another of his disciples?’ He denied it saying, ‘I am not’.

²⁶ One of the high priest’s servants, a relation of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, ‘Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?’

²⁷ Again Peter denied it; and at once a cock crew.

²⁸ They then led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the Praetorium.[*b] It was now morning. They did not go into the Praetorium themselves or they would be defiled[*c] and unable to eat the passover.

²⁹ So Pilate came outside to them and said, ‘What charge do you bring against this man?’ They replied,

³⁰ ‘If he were not a criminal, we should not be handing him over to you’.

³¹ Pilate said, ‘Take him yourselves, and try him by your own Law’. The Jews answered, ‘We are not allowed to put a man to death’.

³² This was to fulfil the words Jesus had spoken indicating the way he was going to die.

³³ So Pilate went back into the Praetorium and called Jesus to him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ he asked.

³⁴ Jesus replied, ‘Do you ask this of your own accord, or have others spoken to you about me?’

³⁵ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? It is your own people and the chief priests who have handed you over to me: what have you done?’

³⁶ Jesus replied, ‘Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this kind.’

³⁷ ‘So you are a king then?’ said Pilate. ‘It is you who say it’ answered Jesus. ‘Yes, I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.’

³⁸ ‘Truth?’ said Pilate ‘What is that?’; and with that he went out again to the Jews and said, ‘I find no case against him.

³⁹ But according to a custom of yours I should release one prisoner at the Passover; would you like me, then, to release the king of the Jews?’

⁴⁰ At this they shouted: ‘Not this man,’ they said ‘but Barabbas’. Barabbas was a brigand.