Today is VICTORY.

Each of the gospels describes Barabbas differently. John contains the least detail concerning Barabbas (John 18:40), referring to Barabbas as a robber or revolutionary. In Matthew 27:16, Barabbas is a notorious prisoner. In Mark 15:7 Barabbas is a rebel or insurrectionist (An insurrectionist is a person who takes part in an armed rebellion against the constituted authority). Y'all should remember not too long ago there were a bunch of ignorant clueless folk to storm our nation’s capital and the encouragement of an insane leader. They desacrated, denigrated and destroyed many artifacts and even killed innosant folk. They were insurrectionist. and in Luke 23:19 he has been part of an insurrection. Mark and Luke both mention that Barabbas has committed murder.

Pilate may have used Barabbas to gauge how unpopular or dangerous Jesus was. Barabbas is an alternate name for Jesus. Barabbas means “son of the father”—and he is called Jesus Barabbas in some ancient copies of Matthew. The gospel writers could have used the similar names to contrast the two characters: Jesus is the true Son of the Father, and the true liberator and revolutionary.

The gospels may also use Barabbas to lessen Pilate’s guilt for crucifying Jesus. Mark and Luke portray Barabbas as an insurrectionist and murderer, but they do not show Pilate trying to determine how dangerous Jesus is—Barabbas is clearly the more dangerous. Pilate reduces his responsibility when he asks, “Why, what evil has [Jesus] done?” (Mark 15:14; Luke 18:22; Matt 27:23 NRSV). The crowd takes responsibility for Jesus’ death, and Pilate can claim that he is “innocent of [Jesus’] blood” (Matt 27:24b NRSV). The gospels mention the tradition of releasing a prisoner in honor of the Passover. Thus, Pilate gives the Jewish crowd an opportunity to free Jesus; they choose a criminal instead. (No other ancient source mentions this tradition.) The gospels disagree as to whether the tradition is Roman (Matt 27:15; Mark 15:6) or Jewish (John 18:39).

Parallels in Other Ancient Literature

The Barabbas storyline may serve as a scapegoat narrative—one is set free and another (in this case, Jesus) carries the burdens of the community. Such narratives were present in both Jewish and Greek traditions (Maclean, “Barabbas, the Scapegoat Ritual,” 312–13). Roger David Aus proposes that this story parallels Josephus’ account of Archelaus’ release of a prisoner, or the story of Esther in the Hebrew Bible (Aus, Caught in the Act; Aus, Barabbas and Esther). However, this interpretation is criticized for putting Judaism in service to Christianity (Tromp, “Review of Caught in the Act“).