Horace Abram Rigg, Jr. Source: Journal of Biblical ... - YoYo.pl

RIGG: BARABBAS
III
433
What is known about the person and the name Barabbas?
Absolutely nothing is known about any such person beyond
the mention of him in the Gospels.58 In fact, so far as I know,
no allusion to any such person or to the incident connected with
the name is ever made in Christian or any other literature until
the time of Origen. This complete silence (nothing has ever
since been discovered about him) is most unusual - if the
Passion story, as seems possible, was the earliest Gospel unit to
circulate among Christians.59
The name itself turns up variously in the extant Mss. The
name Jesus (Hebr. Joshua), of course, is a quite appropriate one
for a Jew at this time. It may have been even a commonly used
one (cf. Burkitt, Evangelion Da-Mepharreshe II. 278).60 The
Bertram, Goguel, to mention a few) and some, such as Klostermann, Matthdusevangelium
2nd ed. (Tiibingen, 1927) 345, make it effective even for Mark.
Otherwise, the reluctance - part of it, surely, is inertia - involves the
question of the primary position of some of the traditional uncials against
evidence, for example, in the versions which may be different. Cf. F. W.
Green, Gospel acc. to St. Matthew (Clarendon Bible. Oxford, 1936) ad 27 16. But
a discussion of what is fashionable (for example, not to speak well of D)
would not here be relevant. Against underestimating certain of the versions,
however, see Allen, Matthew, lxxxvii, and for evidence that the papyri are
beginning to show that the last word has not yet been said, see, for example,
F. W. Beare, JBL 63 (1944) 393.
58 There are two other references, which add nothing. According to Jerome
(in Matt.), "in evangelio quod scribitur iuxta Hebraeos filius magistri eorum
(see Tischendorf, ed. VIII, ad Matt. 27 16). For its genuineness, see Westcott-
Hort, loc. cit. and now 0. Stahlin, in Christ-Schmid-Stahlin, Geschichte
d. Griech. Litteratur (Hdbh. d. Altertumswissenschaft VII, II, 2, 6th ed.
Munchen, 1924) 1188-9. For the reading see esp. J. Wellhausen, Einleitung
in d. drei Ersten Evangelien 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1911) 117. The other: Acta
Pilati (ed. James, 103; for the Armenian, see F. C. Conybeare, Studia
Biblica et Ecclesiastica IV [Oxford, 1896] 99).
59 Whether this was really so is not certain; see Guignebert, op. cit. 450 ff.
and then Goguel, op. cit. 463 ff.
60 See Foerster, Theologisches Worterbuch (hereafter cited as TWNT) s. v.
(with full literature). It occurs in Greek epigraphy as early as the reign of
Augustus: 'Ir/aovs 2a,u,aiov a&ope &TrKVE XPr1oTr Xa-l in S. de Ricci,
"Inscriptions Grecques d'lgypte" (Revue t?pigraphique N. S. I [1913] No. 12);
cf. Goguel, op. cit. 189 ff. and Guignebert, Jesus 78 ff. Some works rather