12 Again in reply Pilate said to them: “What, then, should I do with the one you call the King of the Jews?”+ 13 Once more they cried out: “To the stake with him!”*+ 14 But Pilate went on to say to them: “Why? What bad thing did he do?” Still they cried out all the more: “To the stake with him!”*+ 15 At that Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Bar·abʹbas to them; and after having Jesus whipped,+ he handed him over to be executed on the stake.+

12 For this reason Pilate kept trying to find a way to release him, but the Jews shouted: “If you release this man, you are not a friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against* Caesar.”+