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Bible chapter guide
Luke 23
Jesus is tried before Pilate and sent to Herod Antipas, then back; Pilate finds no guilt but gives in to the crowd. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross; Jesus prays 'Father, forgive them,' promises paradise to a criminal, and commits his spirit to the Father. Joseph of Arimathea buries him.
Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.
What happens in this chapter
The council brings Jesus to Pilate on political charges, and when Pilate learns that he is a Galilean he sends him to Herod Antipas, who is in Jerusalem for the feast and hopes to see a miracle. Jesus says nothing; Herod and his soldiers mock him, dress him in fine clothes and send him back, and that day the two rulers become friends. Pilate three times finds no case against him, yet releases Barabbas and hands Jesus over; on the way Simon of Cyrene carries the cross, and Jesus tells the women mourning him to weep for themselves and their children. At the place called the Skull, between two criminals, he prays for those who crucify him, promises the one who asks to be remembered that he will be with him in Paradise that day, and dies committing his spirit to the Father.
What the lab shows, and where to look
Herod Antipas has no scene of his own: the Before Pilate stop shows the judgment seat, and its notes record that Luke alone tells of the visit to Herod. Switch between the two places the lab offers for Pilate's court, Herod's palace on the western hill (rated strong) and the Antonia fortress beside the temple (speculative). The crucifixion stop starts with the way out of the city, Simon of Cyrene carrying the cross behind Jesus. The darkness moment shows the crosses only from a distance; the figures are stylized, Jesus has no face, and no wounds are drawn, since the Gospels themselves tell the crucifixion in very few words.
- Before Pilate · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- Before Pilate: Herod's palace · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- Before Pilate: Antonia · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- The crucifixion · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- The crucifixion: The darkness · Holy Week in Jerusalem
Questions people ask
Why did Pilate send Jesus to Herod?
Luke says that when Pilate heard Jesus was a Galilean, and so under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was in Jerusalem at the time (23:6–7). This is Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, who ruled Galilee and had long wanted to see Jesus (9:9; 23:8). Jesus gave him no answer, and Herod sent him back. Where Antipas stayed in the city the text does not say.
Who were the two criminals crucified with Jesus?
Luke calls them criminals, literally evildoers; Mark and Matthew call them robbers, a word Josephus also uses for armed rebels. Their names are not given: Dismas and Gestas come from a much later apocryphal text. Luke alone tells that one mocked Jesus while the other rebuked him, asked Jesus to remember him, and was promised Paradise that same day (23:39–43).
Was Golgotha a hill?
No Gospel calls it a hill. Luke names it simply the Skull (23:33); John adds that it was near the city, and Mark and Matthew mention people passing by. The green hill of hymns and pictures is later imagery, so the lab draws a low rock outcrop beside a road and marks that as its own choice.
See it in the Labs
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe crucifixion · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe crucifixion: The darkness · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- The Bible Time MapCrucifixion and resurrection · The Bible Time MapOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemBefore Pilate · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemBefore Pilate: Herod's palace · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemBefore Pilate: Antonia · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe crucifixion: Holy Sepulchre · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe crucifixion: Garden Tomb · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
Also in this chapter
How sure can we be?
- Textually stated
Luke alone tells that Pilate sent Jesus to Herod Antipas, who was in Jerusalem for the feast, and that Herod sent him back.
- Textually stated
In the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in it a new tomb where no one had yet been laid, cut in the rock.
- Textually stated
When Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom.
Stated in the Gospels. That veil hung in Herod's Temple in Jerusalem, not in the wilderness Tabernacle, so the tearing shown in this lab is a reflection rather than a scene from the Tabernacle's history. Hebrews reads the veil as Christ's flesh, through which…
- Plausible
Who carried the cross?: John says Jesus went out carrying his own cross; Matthew, Mark and Luke say the soldiers made Simon of Cyrene carry it. Most readers see both: Jesus set out with it, and Simon was pressed into carrying it on the way.