Barabbas

Barabbas was the criminal who was freed in place of Jesus as recorded in all four Gospels (Matt 27:15-26), (Mark 15:6-15), (Luke 23:13–25), (John 18:38-19:16). Slated to be crucified, he was released as was part of the Passover custom when the crowd chose him to be freed over Jesus.

Barabbas was a member of the sect of Zeolots, a resistance movement against Roman occupation branded as a terrorist group by the Romans. Barrabas was accused of murder, however it is unclear if the murder was committed against a Roman occupier or against a Jewish collaborator, such as a Publican - a Jew who collected taxes from other Jews to support the Roman occupation.

Though the name is simply stated in the Gospels, behind the Greek of the original Gospels stands the Aramaic of the day of Jesus. And there the irony can be seen. Barabbas means in Aramaic "Son of a (the) Father."

Barabbas is not mentioned again in the Bible. Different traditions exist for whether or not he became a Christian and what happened in his life, but there is no definitive record.

A critically acclaimed movie, Barabbas (1961), starred Anthony Quinn.^[1]

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