Are you not the Egyptian who, awhile back, stirred up a revolt and led four thousand of the ‘Dagger Men’ out into the wilderness?”
Therefore, if people say to you, ‘Look, he [i.e., Christ. See verse 23] is in the desert,’ do not go out there. [Or if they say], ‘Look, he is in an inside room,’ do not believe him.
[though] we are slandered, we reply kindly. We have become [like] the scum of the earth, the dregs of all society, to this day.
You will be blessed when people speak against you and harm you and say bad things about you that are untrue, because of [your devotion to] me.
One prisoner, named Barabbas, was kept chained up in prison along with men who had committed murder during a rebellion.
[Now] Barabbas was a person who had been thrown into prison for [inciting] a rebellion in the city [of Jerusalem] and for committing murder.