Chapter 18

After offering this prayer Jesus went out with His disciples to a place on the further side of the Ravine of the Cedars, where there was a garden which He entered--Himself and His disciples.

Now Judas also, who at that very time was betraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus had often resorted there with His disciples.

So Judas, followed by the battalion and by a detachment of the Temple police sent by the High Priests and Pharisees, came there with torches and lamps and weapons.

Jesus therefore, knowing all that was about to befall Him, went out to meet them. 'Who are you looking for?' He asked them.

'For Jesus the Nazarene,' was the answer. 'I am he,' He replied. (Now Judas who was betraying Him was also standing with them.)

As soon then as He said to them, 'I am he,' they went backwards and fell to the ground.

Again therefore He asked them, 'Who are you looking for?' 'For Jesus the Nazarene,' they said.

'I have told you,' replied Jesus, 'that I am he. If therefore you are looking for me, let these my disciples go their way.'

He made this request in order that the words He had spoken might be fulfilled, 'As for those whom Thou hast given me, I have not lost one.'

Simon Peter, however, having a sword, drew it, and, aiming at the High Priest's servant, cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.

Jesus therefore said to Peter, 'Put back your sword. Shall I refuse to drink the cup of sorrow which the Father has given me to drink?'

So the battalion and their tribune and the Jewish police closed in, and took Jesus and bound Him.

They then brought Him to Annas first; for Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was High Priest that year.

(It was this Caiaphas who had advised the Jews, saying, 'It is to your interest that one man should die for the People.')

Meanwhile Simon Peter was following Jesus, and so also was another disciple. The latter was known to the High Priest, and went in with Jesus into the court of the High Priest's palace.

But Peter remained standing outside the door, till the disciple who was acquainted with the High Priest came out and induced the portress to let Peter in.

This led the girl, the portress, to ask Peter, 'Are you also one of this man's disciples?' 'No, I am not,' he replied.

Now because it was cold the servants and the police had lighted a charcoal fire, and were standing and warming themselves; and Peter too remained with them, standing and warming himself.

So the High Priest questioned Jesus about His disciples and His teaching.

'As for me,' replied Jesus, 'I have spoken openly to the world. I have continually taught in some synagogue or in the Temple where all the Jews are wont to assemble, and I have said nothing in secret.

Why do you question me? Question those who heard what it was I said to them: these witnesses here know what I said.'

Upon His saying this, one of the officers standing by struck Him with his open hand, asking Him as he did so, 'Is that the way you answer the High Priest?'

'If I have spoken wrongly,' replied Jesus, 'bear witness to it as wrong; but if rightly, why that blow?'

So Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the High Priest.

But Simon Peter remained standing and warming himself, and this led to their asking him, 'Are you also one of his disciples?' He denied it, and said, 'No, I am not.'

One of the High Priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, 'Did I not see you in the garden with him?'

Once more Peter denied it, and immediately a cock crowed.

So they brought Jesus from Caiaphas's house to the Praetorium. It was the early morning, and they would not enter the Praetorium themselves for fear of defilement, and in order that they might be able to eat the Passover.

Accordingly Pilate came out to them and inquired, 'What accusation have you to bring against this man?'

'If the man were not a criminal,' they replied, 'we would not have handed him over to you.'

'Take him yourselves,' said Pilate, 'and judge him by your Law.' 'We have no power,' replied the Jews, 'to put any man to death.'

They said this that the words might be fulfilled in which Jesus predicted the kind of death He was to die.

Re-entering the Praetorium, therefore, Pilate called Jesus and asked Him, 'Are *you* the King of the Jews?'

'Do you say this of yourself, or have others told it you about me?' replied Jesus.

'Am I a Jew?' exclaimed Pilate; 'it is your own nation and the High Priests who have handed you over to me. What have you done?'

'My kingdom,' replied Jesus, 'does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my subjects would have resolutely fought to save me from being delivered up to the Jews. But, as a matter of fact, my kingdom has not this origin.'

'So then *you* are a king!' rejoined Pilate. 'Yes,' said Jesus, 'you say truly that I am a king. For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world--to give testimony for the truth. Every one who is a friend of the truth listens to my voice.'

'What is truth?' said Pilate. But no sooner had he spoken the words than he went out again to the Jews and told them, 'I find no crime in him.

But you have a custom that I should release one prisoner to you at the Passover. So shall I release to you the King of the Jews?'

With a roar of voices they again cried out, saying, 'Not this man, but Barabbas!' Now Barabbas was a robber.