Is Yeshua Abba Father? |
| by Paul Sumner BARABBAS WAS A Jewish terrorist in the custody of the Roman police in Jerusalem at the time Jesus was arrested and tried for sedition. [1] It was customary at Passover that a prisoner be released by the Roman prelate. And since Pilate saw no valid capital guilt in Jesus, he offered to release him. At the instigation of Jesus' enemies among the Temple authorities, the crowds demanded Barabbas be freed instead. They got their wish. Pilate gave them Barabbas in place of Jesus of Nazareth. There are two ironies in the story that don't appear on the surface of English Bibles. The Missing Name At that time they were holding a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas So when they the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" Several manuscripts, however, name the terrorist "Jesus Barabbas" and quote Pilate as asking: "Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas orMany textual scholars believe the double name "Jesus Barabbas" was the original reading. They suggest that "Jesus" was omitted from Greek copies of Matthew out of reverence. The church father Origen (d. 254) said, "In the whole range of the scriptures we know that no one who is a sinner [is called] Jesus." [2] Father's Son
"Which one do you want me to release to you: Pilate gave up one Jesus for another Jesus, one "son of the father" in place of another. He exchanged an assassin for an innocent man who died in his place. This decision surely has the fingerprint of God.  [Top] Mark 15:7 says Barabbas "had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists [rebels; stasiates] who had committed murder in the Insurrection [uprising, revolt; stasis]. While Luke 23:19 reads: "He was thrown into prison for a certain insurrection stasis made in the city, and for murder [phonos]." John says he was a "robber" (lestes] (18:40), which also signifies a "rebel or insurrectionist." Josephus uses the term as a synonym for the Sicarii, a group of Jewish radicals who would use a "sica" (Latin, a long dagger) to assassinate both Roman and Jewish leaders, whom they considered to be apostate. They often did this during the festivals when Jerusalem was filled with worshipers. They would "mingle" in the crowds, strike their victims, then blend in and disappear. He callled them "murderers" [War 2:254-255]. Acts 21:38 uses the Greek term sikarios (dagger men) for an "Egyptian" rebel who led "four thousand men ... out into the wilderness" three years before. [Josephus, War 2:261-263; Antiq. 20:169-172.] Another such rebel/lestes was Shimon bar Giora, who led a group of men to the mountain fortress of Masada [circa 68 CE/AD]. Josephus says the fort was occupied by "robbers" [lestes] and "zealots" [zelotes]. Eventually, the occupants accepted bar Giora as trustworthy and allowed him to stay [Josephus, War 4:503-508, etc.]. Josephus says these "robbers" were "impostors" and "deceivers" who tried to mislead the Jewish public by pretending to "exhibit manifest wonders and signs ... [supposedly wrought] by the providence of God" [Antiq. 20:160, 167-168]. Based on these shared 1st century Greek terms among Jewish writers, our image of Barabbas is that of an assassin and murderer, rebel and deceiver — your basic charismatic, messianic warrior. That he is simply called a "robber" in our English Bibles is a euphemistic literalism. He robbed in numerous ways. 2 — Origen's quote and a discussion of the passage Matthew 27:16-17 are found in: Bruce M. Metzger, ed. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (2d ed., Stuttgart: German Bible Society, 1994), 56. The variant "Jesus Barabbas" in Matthew 27:16-17 occurs in only a few Greek and Syriac manuscripts. It is absent in the major 4th and 5th century uncials: Alef, Alpha, Beta, Delta, etc. However, the variant was chosen by the translators of the following NT versions: Israel Bible Society, Brit HaHadashah (Hebrew N.T.; 2d ed., 1991) Yeshua (Hebrew) —Yesous (Greek) — Jesus (English) The word bar appears in other NT names: Bar-Jesus — son of Yeshua (Acts 13:6: "they found a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus")[return to text] Abba, Av  Interestingly, Av is the first word in a Hebrew Bible dictionary and it consists of the first two letters of the alphabet: alef, beit. One could conclude that everything begins with Father.  In the Bible, av can refer to one's natural father, a grandfather, a spiritual leader, or to a teacher (as Elijah, 2 Kings 2:12, "my father, my father—avi avi"). Or it may refer to God himself (2 Sam 7:14; Isa 63:16; Jer 3:19; Ps 89:26). In later rabbinic Judaism, abba became a title for distinguished sages and teachers (rabbis) and even as a personal name (as in Abba bar Abba, a Babylonian Amoraic rabbi). In modern Jewish cultures abba often carries the more intimate connotation "daddy." [return to text] As recorded in the gospel of Mark, Yeshua called out "Abba! Father!" when he was in the olive orchard of Gethsemane and wanted God to "remove this cup from me" (Mark 14:36). The use of Abba and the Greek Pater suggests Mark's readers were Greek-speaking and needed a translation of the Aramaic. Similarly, when Paul addressed mixed Jewish-Gentile, Greek-speaking congregations, he alluded to Yeshua's cry to the God: "You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by which we [like Yeshua] call out, 'Abba! Father!" (Rom 8:15). "God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying 'Abba! Father!' " (Gal 4:6). [return to text] [Top] |
Is Yeshua Abba Father? |
