Sunday, June 14, 2009

On Barabbas

Jews did not use the names Abraham or Isaac at that time, as I remember. Again from memory, I think the use of Jesus's brother James = Jacob Ya'aqov is unusual for the period, but not unknown). Have a look in Jastrow. So although Abba can be a diminutive of Abraham later on, this can't be the explanation here. That leaves the meaning son of "The Father". In the Amoraic period, Abba "The Father" was a title given to the head of an academy. I don't know if it occurs this early. Look in Jastrow. Note that Jerome read Bar Rabba "son of the master or Bar Rabbana" "son of our master" deriving it from Rabba not Abba. Again, Rabba is a title, like Ribboni.

(Hebrew) or Rabbuni (Aramaic) "my master" or Marana (Aramaic) "our master", Martha (Aramaic) "the mistress". As to what might be meant by "the Father", remember that the Dositheans called Dositheos their father and the followers of Sakta called Sakta their father. (Sakta could easily be Dositheos himself. I think this highly likely, but the proof will have to be in another article, by me or by someone else). The Dositheans (or their leaders after Dositheos) called themselves "the sons and daughters of Dositheos" or "the children of the Apostle". On the other hand, the person called Abba by his followers could equally well be called Rabban (Aramaic) "their master" by outsiders, as Jerome implies by glossing Barabbas as "son of their
master".

Note the full form "Jesus who is Barabbas" Iêsous ho Barabbas in mss. in Matthew in the Western Text, which generally agrees with Markion's text. Origen says old mss. (not necessarily limited to Matthew) have this reading.

Aramaic bar = son. Hebrew ben = son. Aramaic and Hebrew av = a father. Aramaic abba = the father. Hebrew ha'av = the father. Aramaic bar ABBA (and bereh de'abba and bera de'abba) all mean the son of the father. Hebrew ben HA'AV means the son of the father. Aramaic is not Hebrew. Aramaic has no prefixed articles. They are suffixed. Hebrew has no suffixed articles. They are prefixed.

A sample of what appears in the Real Messiah order it here


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