John 18:40Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Those who shone with the priesthood under the law, and greatly boasted in it, disregarded and rejected as nothing the command, “Judge with righteous judgment” (Zech 7:9). They justify the robber by condemning Christ. With the whole assembly they say, “Not this Man, but Barabbas.” The Jews certainly must undergo punishment for this impiety. Yet one must marvel that God-inspired Scripture, as if from the person of Christ, gives indication of this desperate cry. The prophet Jeremiah says: “I have forsaken My house; I have abandoned My inheritance; I have given My beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become to Me like a lion in the forest. It has uttered its voice against Me” (Jer 12:7-8). It seems necessary to say what a lion does in the forest. They say that when this great and most terrible beast wishes to seize some animal in the forest, it climbs some rock in the mountains. It then emits an exceedingly powerful roar and implants such terror in those who hear it that they cannot endure so strong and threatening a sound. At once they fall down, whether man or other animal. The fall of the animal is the work of the beast’s voice. God Himself, as it were, confirms this through the prophet when He says, “The lion will roar; who will not fear?” (Am 3:8). Therefore the Jewish assembly was for Christ the Savior like a lion in the forest by the boldness of its tongue against Him. The divine nature, of course, admits no fear or terror. Yet the assembly demanded that He be killed, though Pilate offered a choice of release. Thus those who had not yet known the divine law proved higher in their deeds than those taught by the law.

From these words of the Evangelist, “and destroy Jesus,” it is clear that the chief priests and their accomplices incited the people not only to ask for Barabbas’ release, but also to demand Jesus’ death. Having thus stirred up the people against Jesus, and having gained a strong ally in this crowd, the chief priests and the other members of the Sanhedrin again approached the Lithostrotos with triumphant faces. Then Pilate asked the crowd a second time, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” With one voice the crowd cried, “Barabbas” (Mt 27:21).

"The works He performed are strange. But who does not see that dark powers helped Him, and that He is a messenger of Beelzebul (Mt 9:34)?"

"For when did He perform them? On the Sabbath, contrary to the law of Moses, in mockery of our religion (Mt 12:2-8)."

"And what does He teach? He destroys all traditions (Mt 15:2), threatens to destroy the temple itself (Mt 26:61), and reviles everything sacred, not excluding us, the chief priests."

"And how does He live? He eats and drinks with publicans and sinners (Mt 9:11; 11:19). He keeps friendship with Samaritans (Jn 8:48). All contemptible people are of one mind with Him."

"And such a Man calls Himself the Son of God. If He were truly the Messiah, would He have come to His present condition?"

"Would He have allowed Himself to be treated like a slave? Would He have agreed to become a laughingstock for Herod's servants?"

"Where are the prophets Moses and Elijah, who must announce to all the coming of the Messiah (Jn 1:21)? On the contrary, this man was betrayed by His own disciple. His own friends value Him so little."

"And who expects the Messiah from Nazareth (Jn 1:46), from a carpenter's house? No, foolish and insolent Galileans will not give us a king. Jerusalem will not bow down to Nazareth."

"What is joyful in the coming of the Messiah? Is it not that He will free the Jewish people from His enemies and restore the throne of David (Lk 19:11)?"

"But look at this Man. Is this the victorious descendant of David, who tremblingly awaits mercy or death from the sentence of a Roman equestrian?"

"Even when He was free, He kept repeating: give tribute to Caesar. He is the Messiah, but not the Jewish one. He is the Roman one."

"The honor of the people demands that we obtain for Him the most shameful execution. Do you not notice that Pilate is mocking us, calling Him our king and asking freedom for Him?"

"If only the Lord had not humbled us for the sins of our fathers, we would show the uncircumcised how one reviles Israel. At least preserve the honor of the Sanhedrin, the temple, and the name of the God of Israel, you Israelites."

"Cursed is anyone who says even one word in favor of the Son of Joseph."

The crimes of Barabbas also could be excused and diminished. Nothing prevented the Pharisees from portraying the disturbance he caused as patriotic zeal for the law of Moses and the traditions.

Disturbances in Palestine were then a common matter. Despite all the calamities arising from them, a people inclined to political dreaminess looked upon rebels as men in whom the spirit of freedom breathed.

For that reason they regarded them as worthy of a better fate. By contrast, a Messiah who had not made a single attempt to overthrow the Roman yoke already seemed false to many for that very reason.

The incited crowd drew near to the lithostrotos. "Therefore, which of the two do you want me to release to you?" asked Pilate. "Do you want me to release the King of the Jews?"

He very inopportunely uses this title again, which seemed to the incited people a stinging mockery. "Not Him," rang out from every side, "not Him, but Barabbas!"

But this Galilean overthrew the Law, violated sacred rites and customs, and reviled the most zealous guardians of the ancestral traditions, the Pharisees and scribes.

In a word, He undermined the faith of the fathers and was fully worthy of exemplary punishment.

Having thus prepared the ground, the elders shouted the name of Barabbas. They repeated these cries with such force and persistence that the surrounding crowd took them up as well.

The crowd also began to demand that not Christ but Barabbas be released to them.

The voice of the people, when it serves as a direct expression of its inner conscience, is as though the voice of God Himself, vox populi vox Dei.

But that same voice of the people, when it arises from false enthusiasm produced by the violence of passions, becomes as though the voice of Satan himself.

He often uses that very popular voice to attain his darkest aims. He makes it his instrument, and it often appears under the respectable mask of so-called public opinion.

So it was in this case. As Pilate listened to this enraged roar of voices, he could at once become convinced that his plan had failed.

The wave of popular cries, usually supported in the East by the most desperate gestures and bodily movements, by waving hands and stamping feet, rose higher and higher.

The matter threatened to become a popular riot. Pilate was already acquainted with such scenes.

Several years earlier, when he had thought to bring Roman standards with their pagan symbols and emblems into Jerusalem, a deputation was sent to him at Caesarea over this matter.

Supported by the crowd, it raised such rebellious cries that they could not be stopped even by the threat of death. The procurator had to yield. Josephus, Antiquities 18.3.1.

Now the matter threatened to take the same turn. Pilate began to waver.

His Roman sense of legality concerning innocence, and his sense of personal dignity in defending a sentence once pronounced, began to give way. He wanted somehow to finish this very unpleasant affair as quickly as possible.

Of course, the interest of his own position stood first for him. Better to yield to these contemptible Jews, whom the most famous Roman philosopher Seneca had not without reason called "the most criminal and accursed nation," sceleratissima gens.

At the same time, he could not fail to know the famous provision of the laws of the Twelve Tables. It declared that the empty cries of the people must not be heeded.

This applies when they demand either the acquittal of the guilty or the condemnation of the innocent. The procurator's position was truly difficult.

Then another circumstance occurred, which threw him into still greater perplexity. Having allowed the people's voice to become clear, perhaps he was about to sit again on his curule chair.

He may have intended to pronounce a final sentence in accordance with the demand of the assembly. Then from the depths of the palace a servant appeared with a message from his wife, Claudia Procula.

According to Roman law, wives were not properly supposed to accompany their husbands when they were appointed to service in the provinces. But this strict ordinance from the time of the republic was abolished under Augustus.

Although it still found ardent defenders, such as Caecina Severus, who said that "this sex, if given free rein, is cruel, loves intrigue, and is greedy for power," time took its course.

The senate agreed with the opinion of Valerius Messalinus. He eloquently argued that it was not right, because of one or two feeble-minded husbands, to deprive others of companions in happiness and misfortune.

This last statement seems to have been fully justified in the case of the procurator of Judea. His wife clearly did not treat her husband's affairs with indifference.

She tried to help him in the case of especially important difficulties. According to tradition, she was a proselyte to Judaism.

As a pious Roman woman, free from petty Pharisaic ritualism and casuistry, she was fully open to higher religious influences. Therefore, one may suppose that she followed with great interest the teaching and deeds of the Galilean Prophet.

Now, having learned of the sorrowful fate threatening Him, she grieved deeply for Him. She even saw a dreadful dream that caused her much suffering.

She ordered her husband to be told, "Have nothing to do with that Righteous Man, for I have suffered much today in a dream because of Him" (Mt 27:19).

Thus the position of the governor-judge grew ever more complicated. Dreams, of course, can be deceptive. Yet sometimes they are directly "inspired by Apollo."

There was not a single Roman, even among the philosophically educated classes, who, while skeptical about everything, even truth itself, would not listen with superstitious fear to what dreams say.

Pilate was at a loss and did not know what to do. In any case, Roman dignity had to be upheld.

To yield to the cries of the rabble meant setting free a rebel zealot dangerous to public peace and Roman authority. In this excited time, he could cause a mass of trouble.

Meanwhile, the release of this harmless "dreamer" would be entirely lawful. It would be a triumph of justice and mercy over the envy and bloodthirstiness of those leaders of Judaism.

They were hateful to him, permeated to the marrow with malice and hypocrisy.

Listening to the enraged uproar of the crowd, amid which cries rang out in a confused roar, "Not Him, but Barabbas," Pilate decided to make one more attempt to appeal to the people's common sense.

"Which of the two," he asked, "do you actually want me to release to you?" But everything was in vain.

"Barabbas, Barabbas!" the crowd again roared in frenzy. It was incited by the chief priests and elders, who did not miss a single moment to strike while the iron was hot.

"Death to Him, and release Barabbas to us!" the maddened voices in the crowd shouted in every tone.

Yet in this whole episode Pilate's weakness of character stands out vividly. He turns to the crowd, hoping that it will give him the courage to withstand the wish of those who, as he knew for certain, "had delivered Jesus up out of envy" (Mt 27:18).

We ask: would an old Roman have acted this way, unspoiled by imperialism, rough but honest, a representative of the severe virtues of ancient Rome?

Pilate's appeal to the crowd was not only a mistake and a failure to understand the nature of a crowd, especially a Jewish crowd. It was also a shameful admission that he did not dare act according to conscience.

The chief priests, Pharisees, and members of the Sanhedrin who directed the people had, of course, already prepared the people to demand the Lord's death with frenzied cries.

It is very likely that they foresaw even the possibility that Pilate would propose releasing the Lord Jesus to the people according to the custom at the feast. On the custom of releasing one prisoner at Passover, see Mt 27:15 and Mk 15:11.

In all probability the Romans themselves introduced this custom, since it was also practiced among them on the pagan feast of the Lectisternia. They prepared the demand that Barabbas be released, whom the Evangelist characterizes as a robber, lestes.

Why Pilate, when coming out to the people, uses the title of king in speaking of the Lord is not entirely clear. Most likely he addresses the people subject to Rome with bitter irony.

Later he continues this same cruel mockery in the inscription he placed on the Cross (Jn 19:19).

But who was this Barabbas, for whom the people cried out so passionately? According to Luke the Evangelist (Lk 23:19), he "had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city and for murder."

Probably, as often happened, he concealed his crime under the mask of a political plan to liberate Judea from the yoke of foreigners. Compare Acts 5:36 and Acts 21:38.

For this reason, in Luke and Mark (Mk 15:7), the disturbance he caused is called a rising, stasis, or a rebellion against authority.

But it was complicated by murder, committed most likely for the purpose of robbery. Therefore John the Evangelist directly calls Barabbas a robber.

Lestes means a robber by armed force. This was the name chiefly given to pirates, for whom robbery was a regular trade.

The people crying before Pilate for Barabbas's release were vividly portrayed before the eyes of the Jews by the Apostle Peter in the temple after the healing of the lame man.

"You denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked that a murderer be granted to you, and killed the Author of life" (Acts 3:14-15).

The Lord accepted the repentance of those persons among the Jews who believed in the Lord Jesus, were baptized, and became sheep of His flock. But the Jewish people, as a people, were in those minutes passing through the last phase of their existence.