Matthew Chapter 27 verse 16 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 16. - They had then a notable prisoner. The plural verb must refer to the multitude, to whose class the man belonged. The Vulgate, with Origen, reads, "he had," habebat, referring to Pilate, whose prisoner he was. The man was notorious; as St. Mark tells us, "He lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, men who had committed murder in the insurrection." We have no account elsewhere of this particular rising, nor of its leader, but such commotions were very common, and under the guise of political aims were utilized for purposes of robbery and assassination. Called Barabbas. The word means "Son of the father," which some explain "Son of a rabbi," which is improbable; and it is a question whether this was his real name, or one applied to him with reference to his pretensions to being "a political anti-Christ" - "a hideous caricature of the true Jesus, the Son of the eternal Father." It is a strange fact that in some (not very trustworthy) manuscripts the name is given as Jesus Barabbas, which affords a remarkable antithesis in Pilate's question in the following verse, "Wilt ye that I release Jesus Barabbas or Jesus called Christ?" There can be no reasonable doubt that the prefix is not genuine, but has crept into some texts inadvertently.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(16) A notable prisoner, called Barabbas.--There is considerable, though not quite decisive, evidence in favour of the reading which gives "Jesus Barabbas" as the name of the prisoner. The name Bar-abbas (=son of Abbas, or of "a father"), like Bar-timseus and Bartholomew, was a patronymic, and it would be natural enough that the man who bore it should have another more personal name. We can easily understand (1) that the commonness of the name Jesus might lead to his being known to his comrades and to the multitude only or chiefly as Barabbas; and (2) that the reverence which men felt in after years for the Name which is above every name, would lead them to blot out, if it were possible, the traces that it had once been borne by the robber-chief. Of Barabbas St. John (John 18:40) tells us that he was a robber; St. Luke (Luke 23:19) and St. Mark (Mark 15:7) that he had taken a prominent part with some insurgents in the city, and that he, with them, had committed murder in the insurrection. The last recorded tumult of this kind was that mentioned above (Note on Matthew 27:2), as connected with Pilate's appropriation of the Corban. It is so far probable that this was the tumult in which Barabbas had taken part; and the supposition that he did so has at least the merit of explaining how it was that he came to be the favourite hero both of the priests and people. As the term Abba (=father) was a customary term of honour, as applied to a Rabbi (Matthew 23:9), it is possible that the sobriquet by which he was popularly known commemorated a fact in his family history of which he might naturally be proud. "Jesus, the Rabbi's son "was a cry that found more favour than "Jesus the Nazarene."