[15:6] At every Passover Festival Pilate was in the habit of setting free any one prisoner the people asked for.
[15:7] At that time a man named Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder in the riot.
[15:8] When the crowd gathered and began to ask Pilate for the usual favor,
[15:9] he asked them, “Do you want me to set free for you the king of the Jews?”
[15:10] He knew very well that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him because they were jealous.
[15:11] But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask, instead, that Pilate set Barabbas free for them.
[15:12] Pilate spoke again to the crowd, “What, then, do you want me to do with the one you call the king of the Jews?”
[15:13] They shouted back, “Crucify him!”
[15:14] “But what crime has he committed?” Pilate asked. They shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
[15:15] Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he set Barabbas free for them. Then he had Jesus whipped and handed him over to be crucified.