Was Barabbas named “Jesus Barabbas” against Marcion?

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Giuseppe
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Was Barabbas named “Jesus Barabbas” against Marcion?

Post by Giuseppe »

Only in some manuscripts of Matthew we read “Jesus Barabbas”.

I wonder why Matthew added the name “Jesus” to only “Barabbas”. My hypothesis is that by the addition of Jesus as name, Barabbas becomes a surname, meaning that the emphasis now is more on the same subject - the man who is named Jesus Barabbas - and not more on the person alluded by the name “Barabbas”: the Father of which that man is son.

i.e., Matthew wanted to transform an inevitable confrontation between two different Fathers - the father of Barabbas versus the Father of Jesus - in an inevitable confrontation between two different sons - a Jesus versus a Jesus.

It is clear the reason he did so. To compare two different Gods/Fathers was too much useful for Marcion's theology: the Jews prefer the Son of YHWH instead than the Son of the Alien God.

By adding Jesus as name for Barabbas, the Jews limit themselves to prefer the true Son of YHWH than the false true of YHWH.

Therefore the original reading - one more embarrassing for proto-catholic readers - was simply “Barabbas” and not “Jesus Barabbas”.

So Couchoud:
Bar-cocheba in 132 was accepted by a part of the Jews as the Christ and as the Star announced by Balaam (Numb. xxiv. 17). The Jewish Messiah will come under the name of the Christ, which also belongs to the Jews. There will also be false Jewish Christs; it is not therefore sure that Bar-cocheba was the true Jew Christ. This Christ “is destined by the Creator to restore the Jewish realm” (T. iv. 16), which Bar-cocheba attempted to do. He “promises to the Jews their former empire and the restoration of their country (T. iv. 24). He will bring his “gospel” with him (T. v. 2), but will bring no message as to the Kingdom of Heaven of which he knows nothing” (T. iii. 24).
315 Recognized as the Christ, Bar-cocheba declared the independence of Judæa and war against the Romans. Battles and revolutions accord with the “severe and atrocious god” (T. iv. 38). The Jewish Messiah is bellipotens (T. iii. 21) militaris et armatus bellator (iv. 18).
“In the late Jewish war, Bar-cocheba, the leader of the revolt, commanded that terrible punishments should be meted out to the Christians if they did not deny Christ Jesus and blaspheme his name” (Justin, I Apology, xxxi. 6). “The (Christian) apostles are ill treated by the Jews as heralds of another god” (T. iv. 39). “They have undergone all the iniquity of persecution from the men of the creator, enemies of the god they preach” (T. iii. 22); cf. vi. 22–23.
(The Creation of Christ, p. 418)
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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