Barabbas

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the biblical figure Barabbas. For other uses, see Barabbas (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Barnabas or Barrabas.
Barabbas, according to a representation in The Bible and Its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, from 1910

Barabbas (

Biblical Greek: Bαραββᾶς, romanized: Barabbās)[1] was, according to the New Testament, a prisoner who was chosen over Jesus by the crowd in Jerusalem to be pardoned and released by Roman governor Pontius Pilate at the Passover feast.[2]

Biblical account

According to all four

Judea, to commute one prisoner's death sentence by popular acclaim. In one such instance, the "crowd" (ὄχλος : óchlos), "the Jews" and "the multitude" in some sources, are offered the choice to have either Barabbas or Jesus released from Roman custody. According to the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew,[3] Mark,[4] and Luke,[5] and the account in John,[6] the crowd chooses Barabbas to be released and Jesus of Nazareth to be crucified.[7] Pilate reluctantly yields to the insistence of the crowd. One passage, found in the Gospel of Matthew, has the crowd saying (of Jesus), "Let his blood be upon us and upon our children."[8]

Matthew refers to Barabbas only as a "notorious prisoner".[9] Mark and Luke further refer to Barabbas as one involved in a στάσις (stásis, a riot), probably "one of the numerous insurrections against the Roman power"[10] who had committed murder.[11] Robert Eisenman states that John 18:40 refers to Barabbas as a λῃστής (lēistēs, "bandit"), "the word Josephus always employs when talking about Revolutionaries".[a]

Three

gospels state that there was a custom that at Passover the Roman governor would release a prisoner of the crowd's choice; Mark 15:6, Matthew 27:15, and John 18:39. Later copies of Luke contain a corresponding verse (Luke 23:17), although this is not present in the earliest manuscripts, and may be a later gloss to bring Luke into conformity.[12]

The custom of releasing prisoners in Jerusalem at Passover is known to theologians as the Paschal Pardon,[13] but this custom (whether at Passover or any other time) is not recorded in any historical document other than the gospels, leading some scholars to question its historicity and make further claims that such a custom was a mere narrative invention of the Bible's writers.[14][15]

Name

Representation of Barabbas by James Tissot (1836–1902)

There exist several versions of this figure's name in

Biblical Greek: Ἰάσων, romanized: Iásōn from 2 Maccabees 4:13, whose name seems to transliterate the same Aramaic name into Greek, as well as other bearers of the name Jesus mentioned by Josephus.[17] It is possible that scribes when copying the passage, driven by a reasoning similar to that of Origen, removed this first name "Jesus" from the text to avoid dishonor to the name of the Jesus whom they considered the Messiah.[22]

Etymology

Of the two larger categories in which transmitted versions of this name fall

Giv'at ha-Mivtar. Additionally it appears fairly often as a personal name in the Gemara section of the Talmud, a Jewish text dating from AD 200–400.[23]

Historicity

According to Max Dimont, the story of Barabbas as related in the Gospels lacks credibility from both the Roman and Jewish standpoint. The story, on its face, presents the Roman authority, Pontius Pilate, backed by overwhelming military might, being cowed by a small crowd of unarmed civilians into releasing a prisoner condemned to death for insurrection against the Roman Empire.[24] Further, Dimont argues against the believability of the Barabbas story by noting that the alleged custom of privilegium Paschale, "the privilege of Passover", where a criminal is set free, is only found in the Gospels. Raymond E. Brown argued that the Gospels' narratives about Barabbas cannot be considered historical, but that it is probable that a prisoner referred to as Barabbas (bar abba, "son of the father") was indeed freed around the period Jesus was crucified and this gave birth to the story.[25]

On the other hand,

Books from the Foundation of the City, Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews, Papyrus Florence, Pliny the Younger's Epistles and the Mishnah.[26]

The similarities of the name (

Biblical Greek: Ἰησοῦς Bαραββᾶς, romanized: Iēsoûs Barabbâs) in some manuscripts and the name of Jesus have led some modern scholars to argue that the counter-intuitive similarity of the two men's names is evidence of its historicity. They doubt a Christian writer would invent a similar name for a criminal, practically equating Christ with a criminal, if he were fictionalizing the story for a polemical or theological purpose.[1][22][24]

A minority of scholars, including Benjamin Urrutia, Stevan Davies, Hyam Maccoby and Horace Abram Rigg, have contended that Barabbas and Jesus were the same person.[27][28][29][30]

Antisemitism

See also: Blood curse

The story of Barabbas has played a role in historical antisemitism because it has historically been used to lay the blame for the crucifixion of Jesus on the Jews, and thereby to justify antisemitism – an interpretation known as Jewish deicide.[31][32]

Pope

Jewish people".[31][32]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Contemporaries combining insurrection and murder in this way were sicarii, members of a militant Jewish movement that sought to overthrow the Roman occupiers of their land by force (Eisenman 177–84, et passim).
  2. Biblical Greek: Ἰησοῦς Bαῤῥαββᾶν, romanized: Iēsoûs Bar-rhabbân with an emphazied gap between the two Rhos.[16]

Citations

  1. ^ a b "Barabbas : Facts & Significance". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2019-11-11.
  2. ^ "Barabbas | Facts & Significance | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  3. ^ Evans 2012, pp. 452ff.
  4. ^ Mark 15:6–15
  5. ^ Luke 23:13–25
  6. ^ John 18:38–19:16
  7. ^ Mark 15:6–15
  8. ^ Matthew 27:25
  9. ^ Matthew 27:16
  10. ^ "Mark 15". Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  11. ^ Mark 15:7, Luke 23:19
  12. ^ Brown 1994, pp. 793–795.
  13. ^ Merritt 1985, pp. 57–68.
  14. ^ Cunningham, Paul A. "The Death of Jesus: Four Gospel Accounts". Center for Christian–Jewish Learning at Boston College. Archived from the original on 2012-11-05. Retrieved 2012-03-25.
  15. ^ Ehrman 2016.
  16. OCLC 979784188.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  17. ^
    OCLC 979784188.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  18. ^ Evans 2012, p. 453.
  19. ^ Lagrange, Marie-Joseph (1923). ÉVANGILE SELON SAINT MATTHIEU (in French). Paris: V. Lecoffre. p. 520.
  20. S2CID 170230969
    .
  21. ^ Origen, Commentary on Matthew, Chapter 27, paragraph 17
  22. ^ a b Warren 2011, p. 118.
  23. ^ Brown 1994, pp. 799–800.
  24. ^ a b Dimont 1999.
  25. ^ Brown 2008, pp. 815–820.
  26. ^ Evans & Wright 2009, p. 21.
  27. ^ Rigg 1945, pp. 417–456.
  28. ^ Maccoby 1969, pp. 55–60.
  29. ^ Davies 1981, pp. 260–262.
  30. ^ Maccoby 1973.
  31. ^ a b Pope Benedict XVI 2011.
  32. ^ a b Reynolds 2011.

Sources

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barabbas&oldid=1218477843"