The Daily Audio Bible

The death and burial of Jesus

⁴⁴ By the time of the sixth hour, darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁵ The sunlight vanished until the ninth hour. The veil of the Temple was ripped down the middle. ⁴⁶ Then Jesus shouted out at the top of his voice, “Here’s my spirit, Father! You can take care of it now!” And with that he died.

⁴⁷ The centurion saw what happened, and praised God.

“This fellow,” he said, “really was in the right.”

⁴⁸ All the crowds who had come together for the spectacle saw what happened, and they went away beating their breasts. ⁴⁹ Those who knew Jesus, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, remained at a distance and watched the scene.

⁵⁰ Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the council. He was a good and righteous man, ⁵¹ and had not given his consent to the court’s verdict or actions. He was from Arimathea, a town in Judaea, and he was longing for God’s kingdom. ⁵² He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. ⁵³ He took it down, wrapped it in a shroud, and put it in a tomb hollowed out of the rock, where no one had ever been laid. ⁵⁴ It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.

⁵⁵ The women who had followed Jesus, the ones who had come with him from Galilee, saw the tomb and how the body was laid. ⁵⁶ Then they went back to prepare spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested, as the commandment specified.

The resurrection

24 The women went to the tomb in the very early morning of the first day of the week, carrying the spices they had prepared. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ and when they went in they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus.

⁴ As they were at a loss what to make of it all, suddenly two men in shining clothes stood beside them. ⁵ The women were terrified, and bowed their faces towards the ground.

But the men said to them, “Why look for the living with the dead? ⁶ He isn’t here—he’s been raised! Don’t you remember? While you were still in Galilee he told you that ⁷ the son of man must be handed over into the hands of sinners, and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.”

⁸ And they remembered his words.

⁹ They went back, away from the tomb, and told all this to the eleven and all the others. ¹⁰ It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the others with them. They said this to the apostles; ¹¹ and this message seemed to them just stupid, useless talk, and they didn’t believe them.

¹² Peter, though, got up and ran to the tomb. He stooped down and saw only the grave-clothes. He went back home, perplexed at what had happened.