Barabbas
15 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release to the multitude one prisoner whom they desired. 16 They had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas. 17 When therefore they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18 For he knew that because of envy they had delivered him up. 19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him.” 20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. 21 But the governor answered them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!” 22 Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do to Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let him be crucified!” 23 But the governor said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they cried out exceedingly, saying, “Let him be crucified!” 24 So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous person. You see to it.” 25 All the people answered, “May his blood be on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released Barabbas to them, but Jesus he flogged and delivered to be crucified.
A governor who knows better tries three exits, washes his hands, and does it anyway.
They had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas.
The custom of releasing a prisoner at the feast gives Pilate what he thinks is a way out, and the choice he offers is between a man held for insurrection and a man accused of claiming a kingdom. He expects the crowd to take the harmless one.
For he knew that because of envy they had delivered him up.
Matthew states the governor's private assessment. Nothing that follows can be read as a mistake; he knew.
While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him.”
Only this Gospel records the message from Pilate's wife, and it is the last warning he gets. This is also the book that opened with a series of dreams steering a family to safety Matthew 2:12–13; the same means arrives at the judgment seat, and is set aside.
Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.
The crowd is worked. The people shouting are not necessarily the people who shouted on Sunday, and either way the account says plainly who organized them.
"Why? What evil has he done?" Matthew 27:23. Three times Pilate looks for an exit — the custom, his wife's warning, and now a direct appeal to the charge — and every time he asks the crowd instead of ruling. A judge with the authority to release a prisoner is taking a vote.
So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous person. You see to it.”
The gesture is Matthew's, and it is the exact phrase the chief priests used to Judas an hour earlier. Everyone in this chapter is handing the responsibility to somebody else, and the water changes nothing: the man who says he is innocent of the blood then orders the flogging and the cross.
All the people answered, “May his blood be on us and on our children!”
The sentence has been quoted through the centuries to justify atrocities against Jewish people, and every such use runs against Scripture. It is the shout of one crowd in one courtyard, taking on itself what Pilate disclaimed; Scripture states as a rule that guilt is not inherited and that each dies for his own sin Deuteronomy 24:16 Ezekiel 18:20, and the whole cast of this scene is Jewish, including the man on trial, the women at the cross and the eleven sent to the nations. There is also a bitter mercy in the wording they chose. His blood was described the previous night as poured out for many for the remission of sins Matthew 26:28 — what they call down on themselves is the one thing that could answer it, and three thousand of that city took it on those terms within two months Acts 2:41.
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