Bible Study series: Luke 23:13-25. He releases Barabbas, an insurrectionist, instead.
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I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 23:13-25
13 Then Pilate summoned the chief priests, the rulers, and the people 14 and said to them, “You brought me this man as someone misleading the people. And look! I have examined him before you and found in this man no legal cause of which you have accused him! 15 But then neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us! Look! I have found that there is nothing deserving of death done by him! 16 Therefore, after I have punished him, I will release him! 17 [For it was a requirement to release one person to them during the Passover festival.] 18 But they yelled in unison, saying, “Away with that one! Release Barabbas to us! 19 (Because of an insurrection that happened in the city and a murder, he was the one thrown in prison.) 20 But Pilate again addressed them, wanting to release Jesus. 21 But they shouted, saying, “Crucify, crucify him!” 22 A third time he said to them, “But what wrong has he done? I have found no legal cause for death in regards to him. Therefore, after I punish him, I will release him!” 23 But they pressed the matter with a loud voice, demanding that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. 24 Then Pilate decided that their demand be done. 25 He released the one who had been thrown in prison because of the insurrection and murder, whom they were demanding, but he handed Jesus over to their will. (Luke 23:13-25)
Comments:
13-25:
This scene is tragic and awful, full of injustice and bitterness and blindness against the most just man–the Messiah–who ever lived. It was a wrong decision based on a shouting match. Pilate was weak, but the Father was behind the scenes, orchestrating the push for his Son to die. But none of this exonerates the foolish mob (or him). Their hearts had been hard and filled with injustice and moral blindness. God simply allowed their hearts to drink the full cup of their preconditioned unrighteousness. In other words, they were unrighteous before the trial began and were part of the opponents. For all we know, they may have been part of the temple complex, including the families of the money-changers whose tables he had overturned.
The crowd was mixed with the people of Jerusalem and Judea in the south and the people of Galilee in the north. Generally, the southerners did not like the Galileans. This explains why some of the crowd turned against Jesus—they were likely from the south.
This leads us to the question: How many were shouting in favor of crucifixion? It was not the whole city, for the people liked Jesus, but it was enough of a crowd to shout so loudly that they prevailed or dominated the outcome.
The guilty man (Barabbas) goes free, while the innocent one (Jesus) suffers for the guilty one. This is a perfect picture of penal substitution of the atonement.
Christ’s Death on Cross = Cosmic Child Abuse?
“After I have punished him” means after Jesus was flogged. Matt. 27:26 and Mark 15:15 say that Pilate did have Jesus scourged or flogged. So here in Luke the clause could be translated as “after having flogged him,” as if it had already been done.
A sidebar comment on verse 17. It is in brackets because apparently it is not in the best manuscripts or because the text editors decided it was an explanatory gloss that was not original at that spot in the manuscripts. But I translated it anyway. You can decide what to do with it.
To wrap up this section, Pilate was weak probably because, as noted, his superior Sejanus, who was anti-Jewish, had died recently, and Pilate softened up a little towards the Jews. He wanted to please them, and right now what pleased them was Jesus’s execution, or so it seemed to Pilate.
Bock reminds us that there are four stages of crucifixion: (1) carrying the crossbeam on the way to the main stake already embedded in the ground, so when the crossbeam was fixed to it, the horizontal and vertical beams were shaped either as a capital T or the more common depiction: ┼. (2) The condemned person would be fixed to the crossbeam either by a rope or by nails (or spikes). John 20:25 says nails or spikes, and Luke 24:40 implies it. (3) The cross was raised by forked poles and fastened to the vertical pole. It thudded into the hole, and the accused man was raised high enough to get no support from his feet. (4) A tablet (titulus in Latin) was fastened to the pole or even hung around the neck of the accused, to expose his crime and teach the passersby a lesson. Jesus’s tablet revealed his “crime”: “king of the Jews”; that is, he was a rebel against Rome. (p. 1831).
GrowApp for Luke 23:13-25
1. Barabbas the guilty one went free, while Jesus the innocent one paid the penalty. Study 2 Cor. 5:21. How does this speak of the Great Exchange?
RELATED
11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
