Barabbas
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In the Christian narrative of the Passion of Jesus, Barabbas, according to some texts Jesus bar-Abbas,[citation needed] (Aramaic: בר-אבא, Bar-abbâ, "son of the father"), was the insurrectionary whom Pontius Pilate freed at the Passover feast in Jerusalem.
The penalty for Barabbas' crime was death by crucifixion, but according to the four canonical gospels and the Gospel of Peter there was a prevailing Passover custom in Jerusalem that allowed or required Pilate, the praefectus or governor of Judaea, to commute one prisoner's death sentence by popular acclaim, and the "crowd" (ochlos) — which has become "the Jews" and "the multitude" in some translations — were offered a choice of whether to have Barabbas or Jesus Christ released from Roman custody. According to the closely parallel gospels of Matthew (27:15-26), Mark (15:6-15), Luke (23:13–25), and the more divergent accounts in John (18:38-19:16) and the Gospel of Peter, the crowd chose Barabbas to be released and Jesus of Nazareth to be crucified. A passage found only in the Gospel of Matthew[1] has the crowd saying, "Let his blood be upon us and upon our children".
The story of Barabbas has special social significances, partly because it has frequently been used to lay the blame for the Crucifixion on the Jews and justify anti-Semitism. Equally, some[who?] argue the social significance of the story to early hearers was that it shifted blame away from the Roman state, removing an impediment to Christianity's eventual official acceptance.[citation needed]
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[edit] Barabbas' crime
John 18:40 refers to Barabbas as a lēstēs, "bandit;" Mark and Luke further refer to Barabbas as one involved in a stasis, a riot. Mark 15:7; Luke 23:19. Matthew refers to Barabbas only as a "notorious prisoner." Matthew 27:16. Some scholars[who?] posit that Barabbas was a member of the sicarii, a militant Jewish movement that sought to overthrow the Roman occupiers of their land by force, noting that Mark (15:7) mentions that he had committed murder in an insurrection.
The sicarii and the ongoing revolt of Jews against foreign presence in Judea have been discussed by Robert Eisenman;[2] however, many historians maintain that the sicarii only arose in the 40s or 50s of the first century — after Jesus' execution.[3]
Various authors contend Barabbas's crime would translate today as terrorism.[4][5][6]. Some however, have argued that he was a freedom fighter campaigning for autonomy from Roman imperialism. He is called a terrorist in the Contemporary English Version of the Bible.[7][8]
[edit] Barabbas in the gospels
Three gospels all state unequivocally that there was a custom at Passover during which the Roman governor would release a prisoner of the crowd's choice: Mark 15:6; Matt. 27:15; John 18:39. The corresponding verse in Luke (Luke 23:17) is not present in the earliest manuscripts and may be a later gloss to bring Luke into conformity.[9] The gospels differ on whether the custom was a Roman one or a Jewish one. Such a release or custom of such a release is not recorded in any other historical document.[10]
[edit] A possible parable
This practice of releasing a prisoner is said by Magee and others to be an element in a literary creation of Mark, who needed to have a contrast to the true "son of the father" in order to set up an edifying contest, in a form of parable. An interpretation, using modern reader response theory, suggests no petition for the release of Barabbas need ever have happened at all, and that the contrast between Barabbas and Jesus is a parable meant to draw the reader (or hearer) of the gospel into the narrative so that they must choose whose revolution, the violent insurgency of Barabbas or the challenging gospel of Jesus, is truly from the Father.[11].[12]
Dennis R. MacDonald, in the The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark, notes that a similar episode to the one that occurs in Mark--of a crowd picking one figure over another figure similar to the other--occurred in The Odyssey, where Odysseus entered the palace disguised as a beggar and defeated a real beggar to reclaim his throne[13]. MacDonald suggests Mark borrowed from this section of The Odyssey and used it to pen the Barabbas tale, only this time Jesus- the protagonist- loses to highlight the cruelness of Jesus' persecutors[14]. However, this theory too is rejected by mainstream scholars. [15]
[edit] References
- ^ Matthew 27:25.
- ^ Eisenman, James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls
- ^ Brown, Raymond E. (1994).The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels v.1 pp. 688-92. New York: Doubleday/The Anchor Bible Reference Library. ISBN 0-385-49448-3<; Meier, John P. (2001). A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, v. 3, p. 210. New York: Doubleday/The Anchor Bible Reference Library. ISBN 0-385-46993-4 (v.3).
- ^ Travis, Stephen H. (2004). The Bible in Time: An exploration of 130 passages providing an overview of the Bible as a whole. Clements Publishing, 200. ISBN 1894667476.
- ^ Boice, James Montgomery; Philip Graham Ryken (2002). Jesus on Trial. Crossway Books, 79. ISBN 1581344015.
- ^ McBride, Alfred A.; Virginia C. Holmgren, O. Praem (1998). To Love and Be Loved by Jesus. Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, 113. ISBN 087973356X.
- ^ Bible Gateway Contemporary English Version, Matthew 27:16.
- ^ Bible Gateway Contemporary English Version, John 18:40.
- ^ Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels v.1. pp 793-95. New York: Doubleday/The Anchor Bible Reference Library. ISBN 0-385-49448-3.
- ^ Philip A. Cunningham, Executive Director. Death of Jesus. Boston College: Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College.
- ^ Whitehouse, Mary. The Mystery Of Barabbas: Exploring the Origins of a Pagan Religion. United Kingdom: Ask Why Publications. ISBN 0-9521913-1-8.
- ^ Magee, Michael. The Hidden Jesus. United Kingdom: Ask Why Publications. ISBN 0-9521913-2-6.
- ^ Jesus and Barabbas
- ^ Jesus and Barabbas
- ^ Ibid. The Death of the Messiah pp.811-14
[edit] External links
- John Dominic Crossan, "Crowd control": identity, purpose and size of "the crowd" in Mark and its adapted purposes in Luke and John, on the occasion of the Mel Gibson film of 2004.
- More on the interpretation that Jesus and Barabbas were the same person
- Why Barabbas Was Released Instead of Jesus
