Matthew 27:32-66 ▼

32 Going out they met a Cyrenaean named Simon; whom they compelled to carry His cross,

33 and so they came to a place called Golgotha, which means 'Skull-ground.'

34 Here they gave Him a mixture of wine and gall to drink, but having tasted it He refused to drink it.

35 After crucifying Him, they divided His garments among them by lot,

36 and sat down there on guard.

37 Over His head they placed a written statement of the charge against Him: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

38 At the same time two robbers were crucified with Him, one at His right hand and the other at His left.

39 And the passers-by reviled Him. They shook their heads at Him

40 and said, "You who would pull down the Sanctuary and build a new one within three days, save yourself. If you are God's Son, come down from the cross."

41 In like manner the High Priests also, together with the Scribes and the Elders, taunted Him.

42 "He saved others," they said, "himself he cannot save! He is the King of Israel! Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in him.

43 His trust is in God: let God deliver him now, if He will have him; for he said, 'I am God's Son.'"

44 Insults of the same kind were heaped on Him even by the robbers who were being crucified with Him.

45 Now from noon until three o'clock in the afternoon there was darkness over the whole land;

46 but about three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is to say, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

47 "The man is calling for Elijah," said some of the bystanders.

48 One of them ran forthwith, and filling a sponge with sour wine put it on the end of a cane and offered it Him to drink;

49 while the rest said, "Let us see whether Elijah is coming to deliver him."

50 But Jesus uttered another loud cry and then yielded up His spirit.

51 Immediately the curtain of the Sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom: the earth quaked; the rocks split;

52 the tombs opened; and many of God's people who were asleep in death awoke.

53 And coming out of their tombs after Christ's resurrection they entered the holy city and showed themselves to many.

54 As for the Captain and the soldiers who were with Him keeping guard over Jesus, when they witnessed the earthquake and the other occurrences they were filled with terror, and exclaimed, "Assuredly he was God's Son."

55 And there were a number of women there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee ministering to His necessities;

56 among them being Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zabdi.

57 Towards sunset there came a wealthy inhabitant of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who himself also had become a disciple of Jesus.

58 He went to Pilate and begged to have the body of Jesus, and Pilate ordered it to be given to him.

59 So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean sheet of fine linen.

60 He then laid it in his own new tomb which he had hewn in the solid rock, and after rolling a great stone against the door of the tomb he went home.

61 Mary of Magdala and the other Mary were both present there, sitting opposite to the sepulchre.

62 On the next day, the day after the Preparation, the High Priests and the Pharisees came in a body to Pilate.

63 "Sir," they said, "we recollect that during his lifetime that impostor pretended that after two days he was to rise to life again.

64 So give orders for the sepulchre to be securely guarded till the third day, for fear his disciples should come by night and steal the body, and then tell the people that he has come back to life; and so the last imposture will be more serious than the first."

65 "You can have a guard," said Pilate: "go and make all safe, as best you can."

66 So they went and made the sepulchre secure, sealing the stone besides setting the guard.