Pilate handed Jesus over to them is literally “he handed him over to them.” Good News Translation makes the first two pronominal references explicit. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch makes the third pronominal reference explicit also and transforms the passive verb be crucified into an active verb: “then Pilate handed him over to the soldiers for them to crucify him.” In the Greek text the nearest antecedent for them is the chief priests. However, Pilate could not have handed Jesus over to the priests for crucifixion, since crucifixion was a Roman type of punishment, which had to be carried out by Roman soldiers. In Matthew and Mark the statement that Pilate/he … handed him over to be crucified (Matt 27.26; Mark 15.15) is immediately followed by a reference to Pilate’s/The soldiers (Matt 27.27; Mark 15.16), who take Jesus off to mock him and beat him. Consequently, it is evident that Pilate handed Jesus over to the Roman soldiers. In Luke (23.25) and John (19.16) Pilate’s action in handing Jesus over is not followed by the mocking of Jesus by the Roman soldiers, and therefore it is unclear to whom the pronoun them refers in these two Gospels. Although the soldiers are mentioned later on in the crucifixion scene (Luke 23.36; John 19.23), it may be that both Luke and John have intentionally left it unclear to whom Jesus was handed over, in order to suggest that the crowd (Luke 23.20) or The chief priests (John 19.16) were responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion. New English Bible translates “Then at last, to satisfy them, he handed Jesus over to be crucified,” New American Bible renders “In the end, Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified,” but adds this note: “… according to the sequence this would seem to mean ‘handed him over to the chief priests….’ ”

Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch takes the unexpressed subject of the Greek verb “they took charge” to be Roman soldiers: “the soldiers took charge of Jesus.” A literal translation of they took charge of Jesus could be misunderstood to mean “they took care of Jesus.” In some languages the most satisfactory equivalent is “they led Jesus off” or “the soldiers led Jesus away.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .