Barabbas

The Terrorist             

                From the time Jesus was taken into custody until he was finally affixed to a cross on which he died, a lot would have happened. Had this happened in 2016, the news media with their  journalists each accompanied by the most recent recording gadgetry, government record keepers and the general inquisitive public with smart phones and tablets would have recorded for posterity all possible angles of the event.

                Sure, various lines would have been blacked out because of national security. Some discussions would have remained within the four cabinet walls. Some information could not be divulged because it was part of an ongoing investigation. Some memories , interpretations and comments would have been very scrambled. But in spite of all of this, a fairly comprehensive and generally accurate report would have been aired to the public.

                But Jesus was not executed last year!

                In the early first century news dissemination such as we have here today did not exist. This fact causes many to ask, "How accurate are the details which we find in the Gospels?" And I suppose we can't blame people for asking, for example :"How was John able to report Jesus' specific words when he was being questioned by Annas after his arrest (John 18:19-23), or the conversation between Pilate and Jesus inside the palace (John 18:33-38)?"

                Similarly the more general proceedings surrounding Jesus' trial often attract a certain amount of scepticism. Many question their historicity. Hence one reads statements such as: "I judge that narrative (referring to the account of events surrounding Barabbas) to be absolutely unhistorical, a creation most likely of Mark himself." This from a biblical studies scholar, John Dominic Crossan. He details the arguments which have lead to his conclusion.

                A conclusion such as this would jar greatly on those who cannot regard anything in the Bible as other than the divine statements of God. For these people the appearance of Barabbas in the passion story, especially the nature of his appearance, is not open for questioning. One must accept as "gospel truth" what is written there. I do not intend to argue whether the Barabbas incident is historical or not. Each of the four evangelists has recorded it. Professor Crossan suggested that Barabbas was Mark's creation. The others followed Mark's lead using the story for their own purposes.

                Mark wrote the following (15:6-15): ⁶Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. ⁷A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. ⁸The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. ⁹"Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate, ¹⁰knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. ¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. ¹²"What shall I do then with the one you call the king of the Jews?" Pilate asked them. ¹³"Crucify him!" they shouted. ¹⁴"Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!" ¹⁵Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

                We note from this account that -

1. Releasing a prisoner of the peoples' choice at Passover was an established custom.

2. These were volatile times and a number of terrorists were in prison at the time awaiting execution.

3. The crowd (the chief priests' a rent-a crowd) asked for the release of the terrorist Barabbas.

4. Pilate was not convinced of the guilt of Jesus. He gave the crowd a choice.

5. Pilate succumbed to the wishes of the crowd, released Barabbas and had Jesus flogged prior to being crucified.

                Matthew followed Mark's lead, however he added a number of unfortunate details. These have resulted in so much hatred throughout the centuries.

                Luke in his account does not mention the custom but has the crowd demanding the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus. Pilate was unable to convince the people that Jesus was innocent. He granted their wish, released Barabbas and handed Jesus over to be Crucified.

John's account varies considerably from the three synoptic Gospels.

1. He writes that Pilate suggests the release of one prisoner as was the custom and proposed Jesus.

2. He makes much less of the choice between Barabbas and Jesus.

3. He does not specifically say that Barabbas was released, only that he had taken part in a rebellion.

                Mark and subsequently the other three evangelists chose to include this Barabbas episode out of all the other aspects of the "trial" which would have occurred. Why was this?  It is not there to satisfy our curiosity about what may have happened there those many years ago. Nor to satisfy the curiosity of their readers at that time. Was it such an important aspect that readers would have been denied a full understanding of what eventuated had it not been included? It has probably been included for us (and their readers) to draw some lessons from it. Looked at from this point of view it is immaterial whether the episode is historically correct or not.

                Here are a few possibilities -

1. Barabbas could truly say, "Jesus died for me." Each of us is a Barabbas in that we are sinners and so we can also say, "Jesus died for me."

2. There is a similarity here to the sacrifice of the two animals on the Jewish Festival of the Day of Atonement. Here one perfect animal was sacrificed and the other, burdened with the sins of the nation, was released.

3. Mark's Gospel was written after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Leading up to its final destruction the city chose rebellion over unarmed protest. They chose Barabbas, the terrorist, over Jesus who preached a different approach. This story then is a symbolic dramatisation of Jerusalem's fate.

                So what does Barabbas mean? No, it's not just a story . Am I Barabbas? Am I Pilate and must, like him, make a decision? We must choose what to make of this story.