(Barabbas was a man who had been put in prison for a riot that had broken out in the city and for murder.)
A man called Barabbas was in prison, with the rioters who had committed murder during a riot.
But they began to shout as one man: "Kill this fellow, but release Barabbas for us."
And they began to accuse him: "This is a man whom we found misleading our people, preventing them from paying taxes to the Emperor, and giving out that he himself is 'Christ, a King.'"
Pilate, however, wanting to release Jesus, called to them again;
But they insisted: "He is stirring up the people by his teaching all through Judea; he began with Galilee and has now come here."
"Are not you, then, the Egyptian who some time ago raised an insurrection and led the four thousand Bandits out into the Wilderness?"
You, I say, disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for the release of a murderer!