Difference between revisions of "Barabbas"

<p> <b> [[Barabbas]] </b> <b> ( </b> [[Aramaic]] <i> Bar-Abba </i> , ‘son of Abba’ or ‘son of father.’ There is very slight documentary authority for the reading <i> Bar-Rabban </i> , ‘son of a Rabbi,’ which is adopted by Ewald and Renan. On the other hand, if <i> Bar-Abba </i> = ‘son of father,’ it would hardly differ in meaning from <i> Bar-Rabban </i> ; for in the time of Jesus ‘Abba’ was a common appellation of honour given to a Rabbi. But after all ‘Abba’ may have been a proper name; for though it is sometimes affirmed [ <i> e.g. </i> by Schmiedel in his article ‘Barabbas’ in <i> Encye. Bibl. </i> ] that it was not till after the time of our Lord that the word began to be used in this way, the authors of the corresponding article in the <i> [[Jewish]] Encyclopedia </i> assure us that ‘Abba is found as a <i> prœnomen </i> as early as Tannaitic times’). </p> <p> Only one Barabbas meets us in the Gospels, the criminal whom [[Pilate]] released instead of Jesus at the demand of the people. All the four [[Evangelists]] relate the incident (&nbsp;Matthew 27:15-26, &nbsp;Mark 15:6-15, &nbsp;Luke 23:17-25, &nbsp;John 18:39-40), which is again referred to in Acts in the account of St. Peter’s sermon in the [[Temple]] portico (&nbsp;Acts 3:14). From these narratives we gather that Barabbas was ‘a notable prisoner,’ ‘a robber,’ one who had taken part in ‘a certain insurrection made in the city,’ and who in this disturbance had ‘committed murder.’ It had probably been an old Jewish custom to release a prisoner at the [[Passover]] feast (&nbsp;John 18:39). According to the Roman habit in such matters, the procurators of [[Judaea]] had accommodated themselves to the Jewish practice. In his desire to save Jesus, Pilate bethought himself of this custom as offering a loophole of escape from the dilemma in which he found himself between his own sense of justice and his unwillingness to give offence to the multitude. So he offered them the choice between the life of Jesus and the life of Barabbas, probably never doubting that to Jesus the preference would be given. The fact that he seems to have expected this precludes the view which some have held that Barabbas was a pseudo-Messiah, and even the notion that he was no vulgar bandit, but the leader of a party of Zealots, since popular sympathy might have been anticipated on behalf of a bold [[Zealot]] or insurrectionary Messiah. The probability accordingly is that Barabbas was simply a criminal of the lowest type, a hater of the Romans it may be, but at the same time a pest to society at large. And unless we are to suppose, on the ground of the possible etymology, ‘son of father’ = ‘son of teacher,’ and the ‘ <i> filius magistri eorum </i> ’ which [[Jerome]] quotes from the account of the incident in the <i> [[Gospel]] of the Hebrews </i> , that he was popular among the people because he was the son of a Rabbi, we have no reason to think that either the Jewish leaders or the multitude had any ground for preferring him to Jesus except their passionate hatred of the latter. </p> <p> According to an old reading of &nbsp;Matthew 27:16-17, the name ‘Jesus’ in both verses is prefixed to Barabbas, so that Pilate’s question runs, ‘Whom will ye that I release unto you? Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?’ If this reading were accepted, <i> Barabbas </i> would not have the force of a proper name (like <i> [[Bartimaeus]] </i> ), but would be only a patronymic added for the sake of distinction (cf. ‘Simon <i> Bar-jona </i> ’). In his exposition of the passage, [[Origen]] refers to this reading, which is favoured by some cursive MSS [Note: SS Manuscripts.] and by the Armenian and [[Jerusalem]] [[Syriac]] Versions, and has been defended by Ewald, Lange, Meyer, and others, who have supposed that the accidental similarity of the name may have helped to suggest to Pilate the alternative which he presented to the Jews. Olshausen not only adopts this view, but finds a mournful significance in both of the (supposed) names of the condemned criminal—‘Jesus’ and ‘son of the father,’ and in the fact that the nation preferred this caricature of Jesus to the heavenly reality. Both dramatically and homiletically, no doubt, these ideas are tempting—the meeting of the two Jesuses, the irony of the popular choice, the sense of a [[Divine]] ‘lusus’ in human affairs. But the truth remains that the grounds on which this construction rests are very inadequate. There is ingenuity certainly in the suggestion, first made by Origen (who, however, prefers the ordinary reading), that ‘Jesus’ may have been dropped out of the early MSS [Note: SS Manuscripts.] of Matthew after the name had become a sacred one, because it appeared unseemly that it should be borne by a murderer; but it is of too hypothetical a kind to counterbalance the immense weight of the documentary evidence against the presence of the name ‘Jesus’ at all. The fact that, even in the scanty MSS [Note: SS Manuscripts.] and VSS [Note: SS Versions.] in which ‘Jesus Barabbas’ is found in &nbsp;Matthew 27:16-17, ‘Barabbas’ and ‘Jesus’ are set in direct antithesis in &nbsp;Matthew 27:20 tells strongly against the reading, as well as the circumstance that no trace of it is found in any MS of the other three Gospels. There is much to be said for the suggestion of Tregelles, by way of explaining the appearance of the ‘Jesus’ in some copies of Matthew, that at a very early date a careless transcriber repeated the last two letters of ὑμῖν (&nbsp;Matthew 27:17), and that the in was afterwards taken to be the familiar abbreviation of Ἰησοῦν. </p> <p> Literature.—The [[Commentaries]] of Meyer, Alford, and Olshausen; Ewald, <i> History of [[Israel]] </i> , vol. vi.; Lange’s and Renan’s <i> Life of Christ </i> ; art. ‘Barabbas’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible <i> , Encyc. Bibl. </i> , and <i> Jewish Encycl. </i> ; Merkel, ‘Die Begnadigung am Passahfeste’ in <i> ZNT </i> W [Note: NTW Zeitschrift für die Neutest. Wissen. schaft.] , 1905, p. 293 ff. </p> <p> J. C. Lambert. </p>

<p> <strong> BARABBAS </strong> (&nbsp; Matthew 27:15-23 = &nbsp; Mark 15:6-14 = &nbsp; Luke 23:18-23 = &nbsp; John 18:39-40 ). A brigand, probably one of those who infested the [[Ascent]] of [[Blood]] (wh. see). He had taken part in one of the insurrections so frequent during the procuratorship of [[Pontius]] Pilate; and, having been caught red-handed, was awaiting sentence when Jesus was arraigned. It was customary for the procurator, by way of gratifying the Jews, to release a prisoner at the Passover season, letting the people choose whom they would; and Pilate, reluctant to condemn an innocent man, yet afraid to withstand the clamour of the rulers, saw here a way to save Jesus. His artifice would probably have succeeded had not the malignant priests and elders incited the people to choose Barabbas. </p> <p> <em> Barabbas </em> , like <em> [[Bartholomew]] </em> and <em> BartimÅ“us </em> , is a patronymic, possibly = ‘the son of the father’ ( <em> i.e. </em> the Rabbi). According to an ancient reading of &nbsp; Matthew 27:17 , the brigand’s name was <em> Jesus </em> . If so, there is a dramatic adroitness in Pilate’s presentation of the alternative to the multitude: ‘Which of the two do ye wish me to release to you Jesus the bar-Abba or Jesus that is called Messiah?’ </p> <p> David Smith. </p>

<p> '''Barabbas''' (''Bär-Ăb'Bas'' ), ''Son Of Abba.'' A noted criminal at Jerusalem who was in prison for sedition and murder when Christ was condemned. &nbsp;Matthew 27:16. It was a custom of the Romans to release one prisoner at the time of the Jewish Passover. The [[Jews]] were permitted to name any prisoner whose release they desired; and when the choice lay between Barabbas and Christ, they chose the robber. &nbsp;Matthew 27:21; &nbsp;Mark 15:6-11; &nbsp;Luke 23:18; &nbsp;John 18:40; &nbsp;Acts 3:14. Pilate was anxious to save Christ, but at last released Barabbas. </p>

<p> ("son of the father.") A contrast to the true Son of the Father! The Jews asked the murderous taker of life to be given as a favor to them (it being customary to release one prisoner at the passover), and killed the Prince of life! (&nbsp;Acts 3:14-15.) A robber (&nbsp;John 18:40) who had committed murder in an insurrection (&nbsp;Mark 15:7) and was cast into prison (compare &nbsp;Matthew 27:15-26). (See [[Pilate]] for the probable reason of the Jews' keenness for his release.) </p>

<p> '''Barab'bas.''' ''(Son Of Abba).'' A robber, &nbsp;John 18:40, who had committed murder in an insurrection, &nbsp;Mark 15:7; &nbsp;Luke 28:18, in Jerusalem and was lying in prison, at the time of the trial of [[Jesus]] , before Pilate. </p>

<p> A noted robber in Christ's time, who was imprisoned and awaiting death for the crimes of sedition and murder. It was a custom of the Roman government, for the sake of conciliating the Jews, to release one Jewish prisoner, whom they might choose, at the yearly Passover. Pilate desired thus to release Jesus, but the Jews demanded Barabbas, &nbsp;Matthew 27:16-26 . </p>

<p> A well-known name, rendered memorable from being preferred by the Jews to the Lord Jesus Christ, though a murderer and a thief. His name signifies; son of the father, from Bar, son; and Ab, father. </p>

<p> (βαραββας, for the Chald. בִּר אִבָּא, ''Son Of Abba,'' Simonis, ''Onom. N.T.'' p. 38; a common name in the Talmud, Lightfoot, Hor. Hebrews p. 489), a robber (λῃστής, &nbsp;John 18:40) who had committed murder in an insurrection (&nbsp;Mark 15:7; &nbsp;Luke 23:19) in Jerusalem, and was lying in prison at the time of the trial of Jesus before Pilate, A.D. 29. The procurator, in his anxiety to save Jesus, proposed to release him to the people, in accordance with their demand that he should release one prisoner to them at the Passover. As a rebel, he was subject to the punishment laid down by the Roman law for such political offenses, while as a murderer he could not escape death even by the civil code of the Jews. But the latter were so bent on the death of Jesus that, of the two, they preferred pardoning this double criminal (&nbsp;Matthew 27:16-26; &nbsp;Mark 15:7-15; &nbsp;Luke 23:18-25; &nbsp;John 18:40), who was accordingly set free (&nbsp;Acts 3:14). There appears to have been a usage in Jerusalem, at the paschal feast, for the governor to release to the people a prisoner whom they might particularly desire. This custom does not appear to have been ancient; it was probably derived either from the [[Syrians]] or from the [[Greeks]] and Romans, the former of whom had such a custom at their Thesmophoriae, the latter at their Lectisternia. Some think the policy of this provision was obviously to conciliate the favor of the Jews toward the Roman government. (See Passover). </p> <p> Origen says that in many copies Barabbas was also called Jesus (Ι᾿ησοῦν Βαραββᾶν; see the ''Darmst. Lit. Bl.'' 1843, p. 538). The Armenian Version has the same reading: "Whom will you that I shall deliver unto you, Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus that is called Christ?" Griesbach, in his ''Comment.,'' considers this as an interpolation, while [[Fritzsche]] has adopted it in his text (so also Tischendorf in &nbsp;Matthew 27:16-17, but not his last ed.). We can certainly conceive that a name afterward so sacred may have been thrown out of the text by some bigoted transcriber. On the other hand, the contrast in &nbsp;Matthew 27:20, "that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus," seems fatal to its original position in the text. (See Jesus). </p>