Why did the people save Barabbas instead of Jesus?

Answer 1

A:In the crucifixion story, the Jews were asked to choose between Jesus, the Son of the Father, and Barabbas, whose name also means, in Hebrew, Son of the Father. They chose to release Barabbas and to crucify Jesus.

John Shelby Spong (Jesus for the NonReligious) says that in his research, Spong has been able to find no evidence that there was a custom of releasing a prisoner at the time of the Passover. He says the original crucifixion story could have been related to a Jewish tradition at Yom Kippur. One lamb or goat was killed for our sins and one had the sins of the people symbolically transferred to him, after which he was chased away. Mark simply transferred the imagery from the Yom Kippur festival and applied it to the trial of Jesus. in the Passover season.

On Shelby's reading, supported by others such as MacDonald, Jesus and Barabbas represented the two sheep of the Jewish tradition, one of which must be released and the other must be sacrificed. By releasing Barabbas, the Jews chose the wrong 'scapegoat'.

Answer 2

Barabbas might have been a well-known criminal at the time, most likely because of his involvement in uprisings against the ruling Romans. The Jewish religious authorities stirred up the crowd to demand his release because of their hatred for Jesus, who had been openly critical of their hypocrisies and in their eyes threatened their authority.

Answer 3

Dennis R MacDonald (The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark) believes the name, Barabbas, was a play on words that originated in Mark's Gospel and was, in due course, copied by the authors of the other three New Testament gospels.

The gospels tell us that Jesus was the Son of the Father. 'Barabbas' is also a word that means Son of the Father. By calling to Barabbas to be released, the Jews simply released the wrong Son of the Father.