According to the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and the account in John, the crowd chose Barabbas to be released and Jesus of Nazareth to be crucified .
Contrary to the depiction of Pilate as a merciless ruler by Philo and Josephus, all four Gospels portray him as a vacillating judge. According to the Gospel of Mark, Pilate came to the defense of Jesus before yielding to the desire of the crowd.
Barabbas , in the New Testament, a prisoner mentioned in all four Gospels who was chosen by the crowd, over Jesus Christ, to be released by Pontius Pilate in a customary pardon before the feast of Passover.
Antipas reluctantly beheaded John, and later, when Jesus ‘ miracles were reported to him, he believed that John the Baptist had been resurrected.
The Roman emperor Constantine, a Christian, banned crucifixion in the 4th Century AD. More than 1,000 years later, however, it resurfaced as a way of killing Christians in Japan.
For them the death of Jesus was part of a divine plan to save humanity. The death and resurrection of this one man is at the very heart of the Christian faith. For Christians it is through Jesus’s death that people’s broken relationship with God is restored. This is known as the Atonement.
Jewish tradition forbade burial within the walls of a city, and the Gospels specify that Jesus was buried outside of Jerusalem, near the site of his crucifixion on Golgotha (“the place of skulls”).
Jesus was crucified between two thieves in an attempt to degrade Jesus to a thief and a rebel. In short, Jesus took upon Himself the worst of everything (on the cross) as He was being substituted for the sins of humanity, so that all those who believe in Him can inherit all His richness!
Golgotha , (Aramaic: “Skull,”) also called Calvary , (from Latin calva: “bald head,” or “skull”), skull-shaped hill in Jerusalem, the site of Jesus’ crucifixion. It is referred to in all four Gospels.
In the Gospels, Barabbas is a prisoner, accused of rebellion against the Roman occupation of Judea. When Jesus is brought before Pilate, Pilate asks the crowd if he should free Jesus or Barabbas , and the crowd chooses Barabbas , resulting in Jesus’ crucifixion. Yes, Barabbas was a real person.
Hebrew was the language of scholars and the scriptures. But Jesus’s “everyday” spoken language would have been Aramaic . And it is Aramaic that most biblical scholars say he spoke in the Bible.
And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This is the only saying which appears in more than one Gospel, and is a quote from Psalm 22:1 (or probably Psalm 42:9).
The reason Jesus stayed silent was because Jesus was expressing his strength, power, and authority. The timeline of Jesus ‘ trials before the crucifixion started with the Jews, then went to Pilate, who then sent Jesus to Herod , who then sent Jesus back to Pilate, who then ordered the crucifixion.
Herod had planned to make the Magi tell him of the whereabouts of the Christ child. When he heard of the Magi’s change in course, he grew angry and tried to kill the infant messiah by killing all the young children in the area, an event known as the Massacre of the Innocents.
“I having examined him before you, found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: no, nor yet Herod : for he sent him back unto us; and behold, nothing worthy of death hath been done by him.”