Pilate asks Jesus questions
1 All the people at the meeting stood up to leave. They took Jesus to stand in front of Pilate. 2 Then they all started to tell Pilate that Jesus had done bad things. They said, ‘We found this man when he was telling our people wrong things. He said that we must not pay taxes to the Roman government. He also said that he himself is the Messiah, that is, a king.’
23:1Pontius Pilate ruled over this part of the land that the Romans ruled. He ruled over Jerusalem.
3 Pilate asked Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Jesus replied, ‘You have said it.’
4 Pilate then said to the leaders of the priests and to all the crowd of people, ‘I cannot find any reason to say that this man is guilty.’ 5 But they continued to speak strongly to him. They said, ‘He makes the people angry and ready to fight against the government. He has taught these bad things everywhere in Judea. He started in Galilee and now he has come to Jerusalem.’
6 When Pilate heard this, he asked if Jesus came from Galilee. 7 He discovered that he was from the country where Herod ruled. So Pilate sent Jesus to stand in front of Herod. Herod was also in Jerusalem at that time.
23:7Herod was a king and he ruled over the whole of Galilee. It was Herod that had killed John the Baptist.
