BARABBAS (PERSON) . The name “Barabbas” appears in all four Gospels for the criminal chosen by the crowd – at the behest of the priests, instead of Jesus Christ – to be released by Pilate at the Passover feast. His name does not appear anywhere else in the NT, and there is no extrabiblical account of his activities leading up to the biblical account, nor of his later history.
-Barabbas- is evidently the Greek translation of an Aram name, although the exact origin is debated. Most scholars suggest that it is a patronymic derived from Bar Abba, “son of Abba”. Some suggest that Barabbas’ father was named “Abba.” Although there is no written evidence for the use of Abba as a personal name at the time of Jesus, a contemporary of Johanan ben Zakai (ca. AD 75) was so named (d. PEA II. E), and thereafter evidence of the use of Abba as a personal name is quite conclusive (Abrahams 1924: 201-2). Others suggest that Barabbas was the son of a well-known rabbi, because “Abba” was used for distinguished scholars and rabbis. There are even some codices with double “r-” in the name, suggesting the possibility that Barabbas is derived from Bar Rabba(n), meaning -son of a master-. A less likely suggestion is that Barabbas finds its origin as a covert abbreviation of the revered name Abraham (“son of Abraham”).
An interesting variant is found in Matthew 27:16-7, where he is called “Jesus Barabbas.” While extant manuscript evidence is weak, Origen implies that most manuscripts in his day (ca. AD 240) include the full name. Many scholars today accept the full name in Matthew as original and suggest that it was probably omitted by later scribes due to reluctance that Barabbas shared the name of Jesus Christ (TCGNT 67-8). It is not unlikely that Barabbas has the very common name of Jesus. Matthew’s text reads more dramatically with two headlines of the same name: -Which Jesus do you want; the son of Abba, or the self-styled Messiah – (cf. Albright and Mann Matthew AB, 343-4). There is some evidence that the full name – Jesus Barabbas – also originally appeared in the Gospel of Mark (Mann Mark AB, 637).
Barabbas is called “one of the rebels who had committed murder in the insurrection” (Mark 15:7; Luke 23:19; cf. Acts 3:14), a “notorious prisoner” (Matthew 27:16), and a ” thief” (John 18:40). These terms closely resemble features of social banditry uncovered in recent studies of the social history of first-century Palestine (eg Horsley and Hanson 1985: 48-87). As a bandit (lēstēs, the same term used for the two criminals between whom Jesus was crucified), Barabbas may have belonged to one of the rural bandits. These bandits were popular with the common people because they preyed on the wealthy establishment of Israel and wreaked havoc on the Roman government. Barabbas was a prisoner of the Roman authorities at the time of Jesus’ trial, and Pontius Pilate released him to carry out the customary Paschal pardon (Mark 15:6-15). The reason given for the crowd choosing Barabbas over Jesus is said to have been at the instigation of the chief priests and elders (Matthew 27:20; Mark 15:11), but it is very likely that the Jerusalem crowds also preferred the active methods of Roman resistance from Barabbas to Jesus’ Way of Nonresistance.
The absence of extra-biblical historical verification for the Easter forgiveness custom remains a problem. Some scholars have attempted to resolve the difficulty by suggesting that the entire incident, including Barabbas himself, is an apologetic creation of the Evangelists (eg, Rigg 1945; Maccoby 1970; Davies 1980). But recent scholarship has produced evidence for widespread customs of prisoner release at festivals in the ancient world (eg Merritt 1985:53-68). The Gospel account of a custom of pardoning a prisoner at Easter echoes the practice of the ancient world.
The portrayal of Barabbas in the gospel account remains unclear. By contrast, the portrait of the innocently laden Jesus is in sharp focus. Such seems to be the purpose of the evangelists.
Bibliography
Abrahams, I. 1924. Barabbas. Pages. 201-2 in Studies on Pharisaism and the Gospels. 2d series. New York. Rep. 1967.
Bruce, F.F. 1969. New Testament History. Anchor Books. Garden City.
Davies, SL 1980. Who is called Bar Abbas? NTS 27: 260-2.
Horsley, RA and Hanson, JS 1985. Bandits, Prophets and Messiahs. Minneapolis.
Maccoby, HZ 1970. Jesus and Barabbas. NTS 16: 55-60.
Merritt, RL 1985. Jesús Barrabás and the Easter forgiveness. JBL 104: 57-68.
Rigg, H.A., Jr. 1945. Barabbas. JBL 64: 417-56.
MICHAEL J. WILKINS