The Gospel According to MATTHEW

³⁶ JESUS THEN CAME with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane. He said to them, 'Sit here while I go over there to pray.' ³⁷ He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. Anguish and dismay came over him, ³⁸ and he said to them, 'My heart is ready to break with grief. Stop here, and stay awake with me.' ³⁹ He went on a little, fell on his face in prayer, and said, 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Yet not as I will, but as thou wilt.'

⁴⁰ He came to the disciples and found them asleep; and he said to Peter, 'What! Could none of you stay awake with me one hour? ⁴¹ Stay awake, and pray that you may be spared the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.'

⁴² He went away a second time, and prayed: 'My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to pass me by without my drinking it, thy will be done.' ⁴³ He came again and found them asleep, for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ So he left them and went away again; and he prayed the third time, using the same words as before.

⁴⁵ Then he came to the disciples and said to them, 'Still sleeping? Still taking your ease? The hour has come! The Son of Man is betrayed to sinful men. ⁴⁶ Up, let us go forward; the traitor is upon us.'
⁴⁷ While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared; with him was a great crowd armed with swords and cudgels, sent by the chief priests and the elders of the nation. ⁴⁸ The traitor gave them this sign: 'The one I kiss is your man; seize him'; ⁴⁹ and stepping forward at once, he said, 'Hail, Rabbi!', and kissed him. ⁵⁰ Jesus replied, 'Friend, do what you are here to do.' They then came forward, seized Jesus, and held him fast.

⁵¹ At that moment one of those with Jesus reached for his sword and drew it, and he struck at the High Priest's servant and cut off his ear. ⁵² But Jesus said to him, 'Put up your sword. All who take the sword die by the sword. ⁵³ Do you suppose that I cannot appeal to my Father, who would at once send to my aid more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴ But how then could the scriptures be fulfilled, which say that this must be?'

⁵⁵ At the same time Jesus spoke to the crowd. 'Do you take me for a bandit,' he said, 'that you have come out with swords and cudgels to arrest me? Day after day I sat teaching in the temple, and you did not lay hands on me. ⁵⁶ But this has all happened to fulfil what the prophets wrote.'

Then the disciples all deserted him and ran away.

⁵⁷ JESUS WAS LED OFF under arrest to the house of Caiaphas the High Priest, where the lawyers and elders were assembled. ⁵⁸ Peter followed him at a distance till he came to the High Priest's courtyard, and going in he sat down there among the attendants, meaning to see the end of it all.

⁵⁹ The chief priests and the whole Council tried to find some allegation against Jesus on which a death-sentence could be based; ⁶⁰ but they failed to find one, though many came forward with false evidence. Finally two men ⁶¹ alleged that he had said, 'I can pull down the temple of God, and rebuild it in three days.' ⁶² At this the High Priest rose and said to him, ' ⁶³ But Jesus kept silence. The High Priest then said, 'By the living God I charge you to tell us: Are you the Messiah, the Son of God ?' ⁶⁴ Jesus replied, "The words are yours. But I tell you this: from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God and coming on the clouds of heaven.'

⁶⁵ At these words the High Priest tore his robes and exclaimed, 'Blasphemy! Need we call further witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. ⁶⁶ What is your opinion?' 'He is guilty,' they answered; 'he should die.'
⁶⁷ Then they spat in his face and beat him with their fists; ⁶⁸ and others said, as they struck him, 'Now, Messiah, if you are a prophet, tell us who hit you.'

⁶⁹ Meanwhile Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard when a serving-maid accosted him and said, "You were there too with Jesus the Galilean.' ⁷⁰ Peter denied it in face of them all. 'I do not know what you mean', he said. ⁷¹ He then went out to the gateway, where another girl, seeing him, said to the people there, 'This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.' ⁷² Once again he denied it, saying with an oath, 'I do not know the man.' ⁷³ Shortly afterwards the bystanders came up and said to Peter, 'Surely you are another of them; your accent gives you away!' ⁷⁴ At this he broke into curses and declared with an oath: 'I do not know the man.' At that moment the cock crew. ⁷⁵ And Peter remembered how Jesus had said, 'Before the cock crows you will disown me three times.' He went outside, and wept bitterly.

Chapter: 27

¹ WHEN MORNING CAME, the chief priests and the elders of the nation met in conference to plan the death of Jesus. ² They then put him in chains and led him off, to hand him over to Pilate, the Roman Governor.

³ When Judas the traitor saw that Jesus had been condemned, he was seized with remorse, and returned the thirty silver pieces to the chief priests and elders. ⁴ 'I have sinned,' he said; 'I have brought an innocent man to his death.' But they said, 'What is that to us? ⁵ See to that yourself.' So he threw the money down in the temple and left them, and went and hanged himself.

⁶ Taking up the money, the chief priests argued: 'This cannot be put into the temple fund; it is blood-money.' ⁷ So after conferring they used it to buy the Potter's Field, as a burial-place for foreigners. ⁸ This explains the name 'Blood Acre', by which that field has been known ever since; ⁹ and in this way fulfilment was given to the prophetic utterance of Jeremiah: 'They took the thirty silver pieces, the price set on a man's head (for that was his price among the Israelites), ¹⁰ and gave the money for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.'

¹¹ Jesus was now brought before the Governor; and as he stood there the Governor asked him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' 'The words are yours', said Jesus; ¹² and to the charges laid against him by the chief priests and elders he made no reply. ¹³ Then Pilate said to him, 'Do you not hear all this evidence that is brought against you?'; ¹⁴ but he still refused to answer one word, to the Governor's great astonishment.

¹⁵ At the festival season it was the Governor's custom to release one prisoner chosen by the people. ¹⁶ There was then in custody a man of some notoriety, called Jesus Bar-Abbas. ¹⁷ When they were assembled Pilate said to them, 'Which would you like me to release to you Jesus Bar-Abbas, or Jesus called Messiah?' ¹⁸ For is he knew that it was out of spite that they had brought Jesus before him.

¹⁹ While Pilate was sitting in court a message came to him from his wife: 'Have nothing to do with that innocent man; I was much troubled on his account in my dreams last night.'

²⁰ Meanwhile the chief priests and elders had persuaded the crowd to ask for the release of Bar-Abbas and to have Jesus put to death. ²¹ So when the Governor asked, 'Which of the two do you wish me to release to you?', they said, 'Bar-Abbas.' ²² 'Then what am I to do with Jesus called Messiah?' asked Pilate; and with one voice they answered, 'Crucify him!' ²³ 'Why, what harm has he done ?' Pilate asked; but they shouted all the louder, 'Crucify him!'

²⁴ Pilate could see that nothing was being gained, and a riot was starting; so he took water and washed his hands in full view of the people, saying, 'My hands are clean of this man's blood; see to that yourselves.' ²⁵ And with one voice the people cried, 'His blood be on us, and on our children.' ²⁶ He then released Bar-Abbas to them; but he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

²⁷ PILATE'S SOLDIERS then took Jesus into the Governor's headquarters, where they collected the whole company round him. ²⁸ First they stripped him and dressed him in a scarlet mantle; ²⁹ and plaiting a crown of thorns they placed it on his head, with a cane in his right hand. Falling on their knees before him they jeered at him: 'Hail, King of the Jews!' ³⁰ They spat on him, and used the cane to beat him about the head. ³¹ Finally, when the mockery was over, they took off the mantle and dressed him in his own clothes.

³² Then they led him away to be crucified. On their way out they met a man from Cyrene, Simon by name, and pressed him into service to carry his cross.

³³ So they came to a place called Golgotha (which means 'Place of a skull') ³⁴ and there they offered him a draught of wine mixed with gall; but when he had tasted it he would not drink.

³⁵ After fastening him to the cross they divided his clothes among them by casting lots, ³⁶ and then sat down there to keep watch. ³⁷ Over his head was placed the inscription giving the charge: 'This is Jesus the king of the Jews.'

³⁸ Two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and the other on his left.

³⁹ The passers-by hurled abuse at him: they wagged their heads ⁴⁰ and cried, 'You would pull the temple down, would you, and build it in three days? Come down from the cross and save yourself, if you are indeed the Son of God.' ⁴¹ So too the chief priests with the lawyers and elders mocked at him: ⁴² 'He saved others,' they said, 'but he cannot save himself. King of Israel, indeed! Let him come down now from the cross, and then we will believe him. ⁴³ Did he trust in God? Let God rescue him, if he wants himùfor he said he was God's Son.' ⁴⁴ Even the bandits who were crucified with him taunted him in the same way.

⁴⁵ Darkness fell over the whole land from midday until three in the afternoon; ⁴⁶ and about three Jesus cried aloud, 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?', which means, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' ⁴⁷ Some of the bystanders, on hearing this, said, 'He is calling Elijah.' ⁴⁸ One of them ran at once and fetched a sponge, which he soaked in sour wine, and held it to his lips on the end of a cane. ⁴⁹ But the others said, 'Let us see if Elijah will come to save him.'

⁵⁰ Jesus again gave a loud cry, and breathed his last. ⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. There was an earthquake, the rocks split ⁵² and the graves opened, and many of God's people arose from sleep; ⁵³ and coming out of their graves after his resurrection they entered the Holy City, where many saw them. ⁵⁴ And when the centurion and his men who were keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and all that was happening, they were filled with awe, and they said, 'Truly this man was a son of God.'

⁵⁵ A NUMBER OF WOMEN were also present, watching from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and waited on him. ⁵⁶ Among them were Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

⁵⁷ When evening fell, there came a man of Arimathaea, Joseph by name, who was a man of means, and had himself become a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ He approached Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave orders that he should have it. ⁵⁹ Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen sheet, ⁶⁰ and laid it in his own unused tomb, which he had cut out of the rock; he then rolled a large stone against the entrance, and went away. ⁶¹ Mary of Magdala was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave.

⁶² Next day, the morning after that Friday, the chief priests and the Pharisees came in a body to Pilate. ⁶³ 'Your Excellency,' they said, 'we recall how that impostor said while he was still alive, "I am to rise after three days." ⁶⁴ So will you give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day? Otherwise his disciples may come, steal the body, and then tell the people that he has been raised from the dead; and the final deception will be worse than the first.' ⁶⁵ 'You may have your guard,' said Pilate; 'go and make it secure as best you can.' ⁶⁶ So they went and made the grave secure; they sealed the stone, and left the guard in charge.

Chapter: 28

¹ THE SABBATH HAD PASSED, and it was about daybreak on Sunday, when Mary of Magdala and the other Mary came to look at the grave. ² Suddenly there was a violent earthquake; an angel of the Lord descended from heaven; he came to the stone and rolled it away, and sat himself down on it. ³ His face shone like lightning; his garments were white as snow. ⁴ At the sight of him the guards shook with fear and lay like the dead.

⁵ The angel then addressed the women: 'You', he said, 'have nothing to fear. I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has been raised again, as he said he would be. Come and see the place where he was laid, ⁷ and then go quickly and tell his disciples: "He has been raised from the dead and is going on before you into Galilee; there you will see him." That is what I had to tell you.'

⁸ They hurried away from the tomb in awe and great joy, and ran to tell the disciples. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus was there in their path. He gave them his greeting, and they came up and clasped his feet, falling prostrate before him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid. Go and take word to my brothers that they are to leave for Galilee. They will see me there.'

¹¹ The women had started on their way when some of the guard went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. ¹² After meeting wvith the elders and conferring together, the chief priests offered the soldiers a substantial bribe ¹³ and told them to say, 'His disciples came by night and stole the body while we were asleep.' ¹⁴ They added, 'If this should reach the Governor's ears, we will put matters right with him and see that you do not suffer.' ¹⁵ So they took the money and did as they were told. This story became widely known, and is current in Jewish circles this day.

¹⁶ The eleven disciples made their way to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to meet him. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they fell prostrate before him, though some were doubtful. ¹⁸ Jesus then came up and is spoke to them. He said: 'Full authority in heaven and on earth has been committed to me. ¹⁹ Go forth therefore and make all nations my disciples; baptize men everywhere in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And be assured, I am with you always, to the end of time.'