Why just Barabas?

[richbansha]

When Pilate asked the crowd to choose between Jesus and Barabas, why just those two? The two criminals crucified with Jesus were condemned as well. Why were they not offered to the crowd too? Do we have any church tradition on this?

 

[thistle]

richbansha:

When Pilate asked the crowd to choose between Jesus and Barabas, why just those two? The two criminals crucified with Jesus were condemned as well. Why were they not offered to the crowd too? Do we have any church tradition on this?

The choice was between Jesus and Barabas because that is what scripture tells us happened. I don’t think this has anything to do with Church tradition.

 

[steve99]

thistle:

The choice was between Jesus and Barabas because that is what scripture tells us happened. I don’t think this has anything to do with Church tradition.

Very true.
Also I think Pilate didn’t really want to hand Jesus over to death but he was under heavry pressure from the Jewish leaders.
Barabbas was a nasty piece of work - a brigand some translations say, a rebel and a murderer. So perhaps Pilate was hoping the people would rather see Jesus released than Barabas. But he seems to have miscalculated.

 

[RyanL]

Matt 27:

15Now it was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd.

Mark 15:

6 Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

9 “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

The choice was offered because it was the governor’s custom to do so and the people were asking for it. The choice offered was Jesus and Barabbas because they were the two most notorious people held by Pilate. In all likelihood, the two thieves crucified with Jesus were relatively unknown before the crucifixion. Does that help?

God Bless,
RyanL

 

[wisdom_3_5]

I think its interesting that Barabbas’ name breaks down to bar, son of & abba, God. When we know that Jesus is the true Son of God the chief priests and elders saw this other man as worthy of their choice. It shows how blind to God they really were. It also shows, I think, how it wasn’t so much the blasphmey of Jesus claiming to be the Son of God but His teachings. Barabbas was publicly and legally known as the son of God and they didn’t call him a blasphemer.

 

[wisdom_3_5]

It also shows they ‘type’ of Messiah they were expecting. Someone political, a warrior etc. When Jesus began to get the people’s attention they couldn’t accept His teaching because of what they expected. If the people followed Jesus’ teaching then all their political and social structures with Rome would be in jeapordy.

 

[tee_eff_em]

wisdom 3:5:

I think its interesting that Barabbas’ name breaks down to bar, son of & abba, God. When we know that Jesus is the true Son of God the chief priests and elders saw this other man as worthy of their choice. It shows how blind to God they really were. It also shows, I think, how it wasn’t so much the blasphmey of Jesus claiming to be the Son of God but His teachings. Barabbas was publicly and legally known as the son of God and they didn’t call him a blasphemer.

Oops, I think you’re overstepping and retro-fitting. We only know “abba” to mean “God” because Jesus taught us to call God “father/daddy”.

([Unfounded speculation cast in smaller font] If the sort of etymology you propose is valid, I think it more likely to mean “son of [his] father”, ie “father unknown”, “b@st@rd”)

tee

 

[tjmiller]

More accurately: **Bar Abbas ** means “Son of the Father”.

The crowds shouted out, "Give us the Son of the Father!" -
and then sent the true Son of the Heavenly Father to His crucifixion.
The Evangelists could have chosen to mention Barabbas merely as an anonymous criminal, but they call attention to his name to emphasize the cruel irony of the scene…

 

[Unfinished]

Well, Barabas was a pretty bad guy.

It’s like today, if the President said “Who should I release from jail? Charles Manson or Pope John Paul II”?

They chose Charles Manson.

Insert your favorite sick and twisted serial killer into that sentence to observe the full impact of what these people did. It’s CRAZY to think about!

Adam

 

[BayCityRickL]

wisdom 3:5:

I think its interesting that Barabbas’ name breaks down to bar, son of & abba, God. When we know that Jesus is the true Son of God the chief priests and elders saw this other man as worthy of their choice.
According to the CCC, there are the literal and spiritual senses of scripture, and the spritual are divided into allegorical, moral, and anagogical.

I hardly know anything about those senses of scripture, but it seems that Barabbas (son of the father) surely represents all of us (allegorically) as we were released from sin by Christ’s death.

When the Passion is read in churches during Holy Week, the congregation always gets to play the “crowd” and to say “crucify Him” which pointedly makes us all once again responsible for Christ’s death, generally, individually, and specifically.

 

[Ahimsa]

The crowd shouted out “Give us ‘the Son of God’”!

Jesus was crucified.

And the crowd got what they asked for: the Son of God.

Without asking for ‘the son of God’, we would have never had the Son of God.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Am I the only one who remembers the movie “Barabbas” which starred Anthony Quinn? I used to watch it during Holy Week (back before cable TV when the local networks actually used to run religious movies, specials, etc). Fiction of course, but followed Barabbas’ s life after the crucifixion–and in the end, he became a Christian and himself died on the cross during one of Nero’s persecutions.

 

[tee_eff_em]

Tantum ergo:

Am I the only one who remembers the movie “Barabbas” which starred Anthony Quinn? I used to watch it during Holy Week (back before cable TV when the local networks actually used to run religious movies, specials, etc). Fiction of course, but followed Barabbas’ s life after the crucifixion–and in the end, he became a Christian and himself died on the cross during one of Nero’s persecutions.

You are not alone.

tee

 

[patg]

BayCityRickL:

I hardly know anything about those senses of scripture, but it seems that Barabbas (son of the father) surely represents all of us (allegorically) as we were released from sin by Christ’s death.

When the Passion is read in churches during Holy Week, the congregation always gets to play the “crowd” and to say “crucify Him” which pointedly makes us all once again responsible for Christ’s death, generally, individually, and specifically.

I’d say that the allegorical sense is the only reasonable manner to read this, especially since there is no reference in any Jewish scripture, writing, or history to indicate that this practice ever occured, much less that it was a “common” practice.

 

[Spyder1jcd]

patg:

I’d say that the allegorical sense is the only reasonable manner to read this, especially since there is no reference in any Jewish scripture, writing, or history to indicate that this practice ever occured, much less that it was a “common” practice.

I would agree as well. Even if the practice did exist, I don’t think that Pilate would’ve respected it. I think the Gospels portray him too heavily as a puppet of the Sanhedrin. Sure, he was in a kind of probationary period that would’ve caused him to think twice before using violence, but can we really believe that a Roman procurator with such a brutal track record as his would’ve been at the mercy of these Jewish leaders? It seems to me that Barabbas was either an allegory or just another excuse to take the blame from Pilate and place it more on the Jewish leaders. I am more inclined to believe the former simply because I do not want to think of the evangelists as anti-Semitic.

 

[NotWorthy]

This comes to us from Dr. Tim Gray:
During His Passion, Jesus is brought to Pontius Pilate with the charge of insurrection, a serious charge in Roman territories: “We found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ a king” (Lk. 23:2). Of course, these charges were false, for Jesus had constantly opposed revolution. His accusers were the ones seeking a rebellion against Rome (which broke out in 66AD).
The prophetic purpose of the charges against Jesus is now evident. Jesus takes upon Himself the charge of rebellion, of which Israel was actually guilty. The irony is even clearer when Pilate’s offers to release a prisoner. The people demand that Pilate release Barabbas, “a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city, and for murder” (Lk. 23:19). The crowd cries for Jesus’ crucifixion and Pilate finally relents. “He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, whom they asked for; but Jesus he delivered up to their will” (Lk. 23:25). Luke repeats the fact that Barabbas is an insurrectionist, underscoring the irony that the one guilty of rebellion is released whereas the one who preached against sedition is sentenced for it. Jesus takes the place of Barabbas, the innocent for the guilty. In the larger picture, Jesus takes the place not only of Barabbas, but also of all Israel. It is worthy noting that the name “Barabbas” means “son of the father”, and it is Israel who in the Old testament is considered God’s son, as seen in Isaiah’s oracle where God declared, “Sons have I reared … but they have rebelled against me” (Is. 1:2). Barabbas represents the rebellious sons of God, and ultimately not just Israel, but all sinners, who make the ultimate act of rebellion, that against God the Father.

Notworthy

 

[Liberian]

richbansha:

When Pilate asked the crowd to choose between Jesus and Barabas, why just those two? The two criminals crucified with Jesus were condemned as well. Why were they not offered to the crowd too? Do we have any church tradition on this?

If I remember correctly, the crowd asked for Barabbas; he wasn’t offered by Pilate until after they had asked for him.

• Liberian