18:40a

“Not this man,” they shouted, “but Barabbas!”: The Jewish leaders answered that they wanted Pilate to release Barabbas instead of Jesus. They rejected Pilate’s suggestion. In some languages it may be natural to make explicit the implied answer “no.” For example:

No, not this man, but Barabbas! (Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English)

In some languages it may be natural to supply one or more of the implied verbs. For example:

No, not him! Give us Barabbas! (New International Version)
-or-
Don’t free this man! Free Barabbas! (God’s Word)
-or-
No! Not this man. We want Barabbas! (New Living Translation (2004))

Not this man: This phrase is short for “We do not want you to release the king of the Jews.” The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as this man is more literally “this one.” Refer to Jesus in a way that is natural in this context. For example:

not him (New International Version)

they shouted: The pronoun they refers to the crowd of Jewish leaders. They shouted loudly to Pilate. The Greek text more literally says, “Therefore they cried out again, saying.” Here are other ways to translate this phrase:

So they cried out again, saying (New American Standard Bible)
-or-
Then they shouted back (NET Bible)
-or-
They answered him with a shout (Good News Translation)
-or-
The Jews shouted again (God’s Word)

but Barabbas!: This phrase indicates that the Jews wanted Pilate to release Barabbas instead of Jesus.

but: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as but here connects a negative statement (“Not this man”) to a positive statement (“Barabbas”). This kind of sentence emphasizes the positive statement. Languages have different ways to indicate this type of emphasis. Here are some ways to show the emphasis:

• Use the conjunction but as in the Berean Standard Bible.

Not this Man, but Barabbas. (New American Standard Bible)

• Use a conjunction other than but. For example:

Not him, but rather you release Barabbas! (Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)

• Do not use a conjunction. For example:

No, not him! We want Barabbas! (Good News Translation)
-or-
Don’t free this man! Free Barabbas! (God’s Word)

• Change the order of the clauses. For example:

We want Barabbas, not this man!

You should translate this emphasis in the way that is most natural in your language.

18:40b

(Now Barabbas was an insurrectionist.): The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Now here introduces some parenthetical background information. It is not a time word. The author John added this background information to explain who Barabbas was. This is not part of what the crowd said. Some translations, like the Berean Standard Bible, put this sentence in parentheses to show that this is background information.

Barabbas was an insurrectionist: This clause indicates that Barabbas had committed a crime. Luke 23:19 tells us that Barabbas had been part of a riot and had killed someone. That is why the Romans had put him in prison.

insurrectionist: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as insurrectionist means “robber” or “someone who rebels against the government.” It probably indicates that Barabbas was a rebel who got what he needed by robbing. Here are other ways to translate this word (an “uprising” is a violent act against the government):

robber (English Standard Version)
-or-
violent man
-or-
Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising. (New International Version)
-or-
terrorist (Contemporary English Version)

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.