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

RIGG: BARABBAS
I
419
It is now customary to find the basic text for the Synoptic
Gospels in Mark. Mk 15 6-7 reads in Westcott-Hort, The New
Testament in the Original Greek I (Cambridge, 1890): KaTr be
EoprT?v arEXvev avTrols Eva ejayov ov 7rapr?Tovvro. X7v e
6 XEyoj6evos Bapa//a?s uLEraT TWPV aora aoITc&v 8EMeUevos
OlTLES Evy 7 To'ratEL tpovov TE7roL7KELoav. Such a text in the
Revised Version (Cambridge, 1881) is rendered: "Now at the
feast [Margin: or, a feast] he used to release unto them one
prisoner, whom they asked of him. And there was one called
Barabbas, lying bound with them that had made insurrection,
men who in the insurrection had committed murder."7 Essentially
the same story is given in the other Synoptics. Allusions to
the same "custom" are made in John.8 They all seem to bespeak
some sort of "custom" of the procurator9 at some sort of feast,I?
7 Given the text, there is probably one change that might here be suggested.
The present connotation of "insurrection" probably stretches the content of
the original Greek, which can mean simply "disturbance" or "riot". See,
on this point, H. Loewe, Render unto Caesar (Cambridge, 1940) 33 ff. et
passim. 2raats is used several times again in the N. T. - cf. C. H. Bruder,
Concordantiae (Leipzig, 1888) s. v. - where it clearly implies only a disturbance.
Cf. the usages in Acts in Lake-Cadbury, Beginnings of Christianity
IV (London, 1933) and the remarks of Lake, Introduction to the N. T. (New
York-London, 1937) 34. (In 1920, Beginnings I. 8, it was "the sedition of
Barabbas".) W. C. Allen, "Matthew" ICC, ad xxvii. 16, translates "revolt";
but see H. B. Swete, Mark, 3rd ed. (London, 1909) ad 15 7 and the admirable
treatment in Juster II, 182 ff.
8 At 18 39. Also Evangelia Apocrypha, rec. Tischendorf 2nd ed. (Leipzig,
1876): Acta Pilati=M. R. James, Apocryphal N. T. (Oxford, 1924) 103 and
probably in Acts 3 14.
9 Mt 27 15: EclwOeL o r?'jyucW'v; Mk 15 8: Ka0ows EroleL atrots (see here S. C.
E. Legg, Nov. Test. Graece [Oxon., 1935] ad loc.); J 18 39: eortv b (oavvOflOa
vbutv; likewise Tischendorf (preceding note) 240-241.
10 Kart r z opTrv; D ins. rqVv; cf. Legg, op. cit. ad Mt 27 15. For this
particular addition, note the enthusiasm of R. Eisler, IH MOTr BAZIAETZ OT
BAIIAET2AX, (Religionswissenschaftliche Bibliotek 9 [Heidelberg, 1929-30] II.
467 and n. 1). More particularly in Jn 18 39: &v ry 7r&axa "at the Passover";
cf. Evang. Apocr. (ed. cit.) 299, 358 and esp. J. Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et
Talmudicae (London, 1683) ad Mk 15 6. The exact meaning of this phrase