Mattheüs 27:16

16 En zij hadden toen een welbekende gevangene, genaamd Bar-abbas.

Mattheüs 27:16 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 27:16

And they had then a notable prisoner
The Vulgate Latin reads, "he had"; that is, Pilate, who had committed him to prison, and under whose power he was: for the Jews had lost all authority of this kind, at least in capital cases. This prisoner is called a "notable" one; that is, a famous, or rather an infamous one: he was a thief, and a robber, and had been guilty of sedition; had made, or joined with others in an insurrection, and had committed murder in it; and so, on more accounts than one, was deserving of death: nor could it be otherwise expected by himself, or others, but that he should die: his name was

called Barabbas;
that is, as the Syriac version reads it, (aba rb) , which signifies "the son of a father": a father's child that was spoiled and ruined, and a child of his father the devil. This was a name common among the Jews. Frequent mention is made of R. Abba ^F8, and Bar Abba is the son of Abba: hence we read of Abba Bar Abba ^F9, and of R. Samuel Bar Abba ^F11 and of R. Simeon Bar Abba ^F12, and of R. Chijah Bar Abba ^F13. In Munster's Hebrew Gospel it is read (hbr) (rb) , "Bar Rabbah, the son of a master"; and so Jerom says, that in the Gospel according to the Hebrews it is interpreted, "the son of their master"; but the former is the right name, and the true sense of the word. The Ethiopic version adds, "the prince", or "chief of robbers, and all knew him"; and the Arabic, instead of a "prisoner", reads, a "thief", as he was.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 Juchasin, fol. 70. 1
F9 T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 18. 2. & Hieros Pesachim, fol. 32. 1. & Juchasin, fol. 104. 1.
F11 T. Hieros. Pesachim, fol. 32. 1.
F12 T. Hieros. Succa, fol. 53. 3. Juchasin, fol. 105. 1.
F13 T. Hieros. Succa, fol, 55. 3. Juchasin, fol. 91. 2.

Mattheüs 27:16 In-Context

14 Maar Hij antwoordde hem niet op een enig woord, alzo dat de stadhouder zich zeer verwonderde.

15 En op het feest was de stadhouder gewoon den volke een gevangene los te laten, welke zij wilden.

16 En zij hadden toen een welbekende gevangene, genaamd Bar-abbas.

17 Als zij dan vergaderd waren, zeide Pilatus tot hen: Welken wilt gij, dat ik u zal loslaten, Bar-abbas, of Jezus, Die genaamd wordt Christus?

18 Want hij wist, dat zij Hem door nijdigheid overgeleverd hadden.