Matthew does not state the charge made against the prisoner; he merely states that he was a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. The Greek adjective translated notorious (Good News Translation “well-known”) is used elsewhere in the New Testament only in Romans 16.7, where it has a positive value. But in the present context the meaning may well be notorious (Moffatt, An American Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, Phillips), that is, widely but unfavorably known. Some translations say “a prisoner whom everyone knew about because of his bad deeds.” They had … a … prisoner can also be expressed as “there was a prisoner.”

In this and the following verse, the UBS Greek text has placed the name “Jesus” in brackets (see the RSV footnote), indicating its questionable position in the text. On the one hand, as TC-GNT states, the textual evidence for its presence in the text is “relatively slender,” but it is quite likely that the name was “deliberately suppressed in most witnesses for reverential considerations.” As one may suppose, translations are far from unanimous: “Jesus Barabbas” is the wording of Good News Translation, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, New English Bible, Moffatt, Luther 1984, and Barclay; only Barabbas is found in Revised Standard Version, New Jerusalem Bible, Phillips, New American Bible, New International Version, and An American Translation. Translators are free to include or exclude “Jesus,” but they may need to add an explanatory footnote.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .