They fix Jesus to a cross
The soldiers took hold of Jesus. 17 He was carrying the cross on which they would kill him. He went out to the place called ‘The Place of the Skull’. This place is called ‘Golgotha’ in the Jewish language.
19:17The place was called that because they killed people there.
19:17Golgotha is the place where Jesus died. The word means Skull Hill. The place is also called Calvary.
18 When they arrived there, the soldiers fixed Jesus to the cross. They put two other men on crosses near to him. They were on each side of him and Jesus was between them.
19 Pilate wrote a notice. Then the soldiers put it on the cross. It said: ‘Jesus from Nazareth, the King of the Jews’. 20 The place where they put Jesus on the cross was near to the city. So many of the Jews read this notice. They could read it because Pilate had written the words in three languages. He had written it in the Jewish language and in the languages of the Roman people and the Greek people. 21 The leaders of the Jewish priests said to Pilate, ‘Do not write, “The King of the Jews”. Instead, write, “This man said that he is the King of the Jews.” ’ 22 Pilate answered, ‘I will not change what I have written.’
23 After the soldiers had put Jesus on the cross, they took his clothes. They made them into four parts, one part for each soldier. They also took his long shirt, which was one single piece of cloth. 24 So they said to each other, ‘We will not tear it. Instead, we will play a game with dice. The person who wins the game will have the shirt.’ This happened in the way that the Bible had already said:
‘Each of them took some of my clothes.
They played a game with dice to win what I was wearing.’
And that is what the soldiers did.
25 Some women stood near to Jesus while he was on the cross. They were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary from Magdala. 26 Jesus saw his mother there. He also saw the disciple that he loved. That disciple was standing there, near Jesus' mother. So Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, look! There is your son.’ 27 Then he said to the disciple, ‘Look! There is your mother.’ From that time, the disciple took Jesus' mother to live in his own home.
