Section LI.

[1] [Arabic, p. 192] 3459And when Pilate heard this saying, he took Jesus out, and sat on the tribune in the place which was called the pavement of stones, but in the Hebrew [2] called Gabbatha.  3460And that day was the Friday of the passover:  and it had reached [3] about the sixth hour.3461  3462And he said to the Jews, Behold, your King!  And they cried out, Take him, take him, crucify him, crucify him.  Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify your King?  The chief priests said unto him, We have no king except [4] Cæsar.  3463And Pilate, when he saw it, and3464 he was gaining nothing, but the tumult was increasing, took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, and said, I [5] am innocent of the blood of this innocent man:  ye shall know.3465  3466And all the people [6] answered and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.  3467Then Pilate commanded to grant them their request; and delivered up Jesus to be crucified, according to their wish.

[7] 3468Then Judas the betrayer, when he saw Jesus wronged, went and returned the [8] thirty pieces of money to the chief priests and the elders, 3469and said, I have sinned in my betraying innocent blood.  And they said unto him, And we, what must we do? [9] know thou.  3470And he threw down the money in the temple, and departed; and he [10] went away3471 and hanged3472 himself.  3473And the chief priests took the money, and said, We have not authority to cast it into the place of the offering,3474 for it is the price [11] of blood.  3475And they took counsel, and bought with it the plain of the potter, for [12] the burial of strangers.  3476Therefore that plain was called, The field of blood, unto [13] [Arabic, p. 193] this day.  3477Therein3478 was fulfilled the saying in the prophet which said, I took thirty pieces of money, the price of the precious one, which was fixed [14] by the children of Israel; 3479and I paid them for the plain of the potter, as the Lord commanded me.

[15] 3480And the Jews took Jesus, and went away to crucify him.  3481And when he bare his [16] cross and went out, they stripped him of those purple and scarlet garments which he [17] had on, and put on him his own garments.  3482And while they were going with him, they found a man, a Cyrenian, coming from the country, named Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus:  3483and they compelled this man to bear the cross of Jesus.  [18] 3484And they took the cross and laid it upon him, that he might bear it, and come after Jesus; and Jesus went, and his cross behind him.

[19] 3485And there followed him much people, and women which were lamenting and [20] raving.3486  3487But Jesus turned unto them and said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not [21] for me:  weep for yourselves, and for your children.  3488Days are coming, when they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that bare not, and the breasts [22] that gave not suck.  3489Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and [23] to the hills, Cover us.  3490For if they do so in the green tree,3491 what shall be in the dry?

[24] 3492And they brought with Jesus two others of the malefactors,3493 to be put to death.

[25] 3494And when they came unto a certain place called The skull, and called in the Hebrew Golgotha, they crucified him there:  3495they crucified with him these two [26] malefactors, one on his right, and the other on his left.  3496And the scripture was [27] [Arabic, p. 194] fulfilled, which saith, He was numbered with the transgressors.  3497And they gave him to drink wine and myrrh, and vinegar which had been mixed with the myrrh; 3498and he tasted, and would not drink; and he received it not.

[28] 3499And the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and cast lots for them in four parts, to every party of the soldiers a part; and his tunic was [29] without sewing, from the top woven throughout.  3500And they said one to another, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be:  and the scripture was fulfilled, which saith,

They divided my garments among them,

And cast the lot for my vesture.

[30, 31] 3501This the soldiers did.  And they sat and guarded him there.  3502And Pilate wrote on a tablet the cause of his death, and put it on the wood of the cross above his head.3503  And there was written upon it thus:  This is Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the [32] Jews.  3504And this tablet3505 read many of the Jews:  for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city:  and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin.  [33] 3506And the chief priests said unto Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but, He it is [34] that3507 said, I am the King of the Jews.  3508Pilate said unto them, What hath been [35] written hath been written.3509  3510And the people were standing beholding; and they [36] that passed by were reviling3511 him, and shaking3512 their heads, and saying, 3513Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, 3514save thyself if thou art the Son [37] of God, and come down from the cross.  3515And in like manner the chief priests and the [Arabic, p. 195] scribes and the elders and the Pharisees derided him, and laughed one with [38, 39] another, and said, 3516The saviour of others cannot save himself.  3517If he is the Messiah, the chosen of God, and the King of Israel,