Ep.134: Barabbas

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MATTHEW 27:15-18

‍And so, Jesus was once more sent back to the Praetorium, to which Pilate had summoned the Sanhedrists and the people. The crowd was growing. It was not only to see what was about to happen but also to witness another spectacle, that of the release of a prisoner. For it seems to have been the custom that at the Passover the Roman Governor released some notorious prisoner who had been condemned to death. A very significant custom of release this, for which they now began to clamour.

This was also known by the Sanhedrists who mingled among them. For if the stream of popular sympathy might be diverted to Bar-Abbas, the doom of Jesus would be the more securely fixed. On the present occasion, it might be easier to influence the people, since Bar-Abbas was that kind of villain who, under the colourful pretence of political aspirations, committed robbery and other crimes. But these movements were strongly rooted in popular sympathy.

‍A strange name and figure, Bar-Abbas. That could scarcely have been his real name. It means ‘Son of the Father.’ Was he a political anti-Christ? And why, if there had not been some connection between them, should Pilate have proposed the alternative of Jesus or Bar-Abbas, and not rather that of one of the two thieves who were actually crucified with Jesus? But when the Governor, hoping for some popular sympathy, put this alternative to them on the ground that neither he nor yet Herod had found any crime in him and would even have appeased them by offering to submit Jesus to the cruel punishment of scourging, it was in vain.

This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £12 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)

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