Mark 15:6-15, Pilate Delivers Jesus to Be Crucified

Barnabas

⁶ Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. ⁷ And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas [who had yet to be condemned]. [The name Barabbas means “Son of Abbas,” which sounds like “Son of the Father.”] ⁸ And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. ⁹ And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” ¹⁰ For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. [Pilate knew the charges against Jesus were false, but he was rather inept in thinking that the crowd would choose Jesus over Barabbas for amnesty. After all Pilot represented the occupying power and Barabbas was likely a freedom fighter.] ¹¹ But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. [Before there was a distinction between the crowd and the leaders. Now they are united.] ¹² And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” ¹³ And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” ¹⁴ And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” ¹⁵ So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus , he delivered him to be crucified. [Scourged conceals a horrific reality of being flayed to the bone. Roman whips, made of several strips of leather with bits of bone and metal embedded at the ends, flayed their victims, who often did not survive the beatings. Yet after being scourged, Jesus faced crucifixion. Crucifixion was a violent Roman means of execution in which the victim was nailed to a cross with heavy, wrought-iron nails driven through the wrist and heel bones. Only slaves and base criminals were crucified. If they lingered too long, their legs were broken, leading to suffocation. Archeological evidence from AD 7 and 66 gives us the brutal picture. The crowd did not come to this demand on their own. They had been coached by their Jewish leadership—the one’s who have been planning Jesus’ death all along.]