Thursday, March 30, 2006
Lenten Reading for Thursday, Fourth Week in Lent
Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 23, verses 13-18:
Pilate then summoned the chief priests, the rulers, and the people and said to them, "You brought this man to me and accused him of inciting the people to revolt. I have conducted my investigation in your presence and have not found this man guilty of the charges you have brought against him, nor did Herod, for he sent him back to us. So no capital crime has been committed by him. Therefore, I shall have him flogged and then release him."This is an interesting bit of prose in all four gospels, and one which, I believe is harmed by the writers' attempt to either cloud the true nature of this incident or to recount an event he did not understand himself. Sometimes we are told that there was a Passover tradition of releasing one prisoner held by the Romans back to the Jewish people. This is not recounted here, and it must be understood that such a claim is entirely non-historical. It makes no sense that an occupying force, which found the Jews' insistantly monotheistic beliefs and rebellious attitude a growing nusance, would release a political prisoner in honor of the Jews' religious holiday. In other Gospel translations, this Barabas is simply referred to as a murderer or as a thief. Reading these passages, we cannot immagine why the Israelites would want such a terrible person released over the peaceful, compassionate Jesus.
But together they shoulted out, "Away with this man! Release Barabas to us." (Now Barabbas had been imprisoned for a rebellion that had taken place in the city and for murder.)
The translation quoted above gives us a hint at what could be the deeper truth behind this event. It hints that the man whose release the mob was calling for in place of Jesus' was not a "common criminal" or a simple crazed murderer. He was a political prisoner, condemed to die for inciting a riot against the Roman occupiers. When we understand that the name (more accurately, the title) Barabas means "Son of God," (Bar in Aramaic means "Son of", Abbas is closely related to Abba, and means "God the Father.") we see that this man was no less than a competitor with Jesus for the title Messiah. In some translations of Mark's Gospel, this man is even called Jesus Barabas. In the Palistine of the 1st century, there were many people before and after Jesus of Nazareth claiming the title of Messiah. Jesus' falling out of favor with the people could have been due to the fact that his mission did not fit with what the people were expecting in a Messiah. They wanted a conquering hero, a G0d-man who would overthrow the Romans and the Herods, reinstitute the Kingdom of David and Solomon, and restore the Levites to the administration of the temple. Barabas, who had been arrested, Luke admits, for inciting rebellion, fit better with the mob's vision of how their Messiah should behave. Plate says he will release Jesus, and the people say "We don't want that Messiah, give us the real one back." In essence, they were asking to trade Jesus' life for the life of the man they thought was the real Messiah. In this passage, we can see that even before he died, Jesus gave his life up for the sake of others'.
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very interesting and informative analysis. i can't wait to learn from you after actually *start* school. =)
Is it possible that the crowd called for Jesus Barabbas to be released, meaning the Jesus known now as Christ.
Obviously they wouldn't use the greek Christ(os) they would use the Aramaic equivalent- Bar Abbas. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus sometimes prayed to God as Abba.
Many think that there was only one Jesus to be crucified an the crowd did indeed call for him to be released.
It is possible that the Pauline church in Rome required a little 'spin' on this, Pilate was not exactly a good guy!
Obviously they wouldn't use the greek Christ(os) they would use the Aramaic equivalent- Bar Abbas. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus sometimes prayed to God as Abba.
Many think that there was only one Jesus to be crucified an the crowd did indeed call for him to be released.
It is possible that the Pauline church in Rome required a little 'spin' on this, Pilate was not exactly a good guy!
# posted by 
: 4/08/2006 5:44 PM
: 4/08/2006 5:44 PM
This is a good point! This is also a totally valid interpretation of the scripture. It's good to think about the motivations of the people writing these gospels. We must remember, however, that dispite what Dan Brown would like us to believe, the four canonical gospels were written LONG before the church became entrenched into the Roman government and would have required a whitewashing of the Roman (Pilate's) role in Jesus' death.
It is clear, however, that blame is being shifted, in all four gospels, away from the Roman athority (who would have been the only ones with athority to crucify--and only did so to political criminals) and onto the Jewish temple leadership. The "Paluine" (Gentile) Christians were attempting to create a faith with a wider appeal. A poltical criminal, executed for trying (or being accused of trying) to lay claim to the royal throne of David does not a universal savior make.
By the time the four Gospels of the cannon were transferred from oral tales to written material, the growing majority of "Christians" were no longer Jews in Palistine, but Jews in the Diaspora (outside Israel) and Gentiles who had no prior knowledge of Jewish customs and politico-religious history. Making the struggle that took Jesus' life a *spiritual* one rather than a poltical one makes Jesus' death more universal. A Martyr for the masses instead of a Martyr for the Jewish cause.
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It is clear, however, that blame is being shifted, in all four gospels, away from the Roman athority (who would have been the only ones with athority to crucify--and only did so to political criminals) and onto the Jewish temple leadership. The "Paluine" (Gentile) Christians were attempting to create a faith with a wider appeal. A poltical criminal, executed for trying (or being accused of trying) to lay claim to the royal throne of David does not a universal savior make.
By the time the four Gospels of the cannon were transferred from oral tales to written material, the growing majority of "Christians" were no longer Jews in Palistine, but Jews in the Diaspora (outside Israel) and Gentiles who had no prior knowledge of Jewish customs and politico-religious history. Making the struggle that took Jesus' life a *spiritual* one rather than a poltical one makes Jesus' death more universal. A Martyr for the masses instead of a Martyr for the Jewish cause.
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