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Isak with the iron beard and rugged body, a grim and surly figure of a man; ay, as a man seen through a flaw in the window-pane. His look was not a gentle one; as if Barabbas might break loose at any minute. It was a wonder Inger herself did not run away. She did not run away. When he had been out, and came home again, there was Inger at the hut; the two were one, the woman and the hut.
On all sides the crowds were mustered, and directed by the priests to assemble in the streets of the Sanhedrin, and from this to proceed to Pilate's house to demand the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus; from four sides the tumultuous mobs came pouring down to the place of assembly. Their hoarse cries of "To the cross with him!
Which will ye that I shall release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called the Christ?" Then the priests and people cried out together, "Let Barabbas go free." "Will ye not that I release unto you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate. Then the priests and people cried, "Away with him, release unto us, Barabbas." Then said Caiaphas, "Thou hast promised to release him whom the people demand."
Mark follows the same method of condensation and discarding of all but the essentials, as in the other parts of his narrative. He brings out three points the hearing before Pilate, the popular vote for Barabbas, and the soldiers' mockery. The contrast between appearance and reality was never more strongly drawn than when Jesus stood as a prisoner before Pilate.
Waking on the morrow of the "John" performance, my memory was principally filled with those hoarse, stormy, passionate roarings of an enraged mob. A careless reckoning shows that whereas the people's choruses in the "Matthew" Passion occupy about ninety bars, in the "John" they fill about two hundred and fifty. "Barabbas" in the "Matthew" is a single yell; in the "John" it takes up four bars.
I went along now, recalling long-neglected phrases and sentences; I had a new vision of that great central figure preaching love with hate and coarse thinking even in the disciples about Him, rising to a tidal wave at last in that clamour for Barabbas, and the public satisfaction in His fate....
Pilate hoped that they would ask for Jesus, and determined to give them to choose between him and a criminal called Barabbas, who had been convicted of a dreadful murder committed during a sedition, as also of many other crimes, and was, moreover, detested by the people.
The reply gave no ground for an accusation before the governor; but the popular feeling against Rome was so strong that it is not unlikely that it contributed somewhat to the readiness of the multitude a few days later to prefer Barabbas to Jesus.
A shudder went through Dismas's body. How he disliked this man! And yet, on account of his companion's strong will, and through the habit of years, he could not free himself. He had often fled away from him, but had always come back. Now he stood up, lifted his arms to heaven, and exclaimed: "Oh, Lord, in the holy heights, save me!" "Invoke the stars," said Barabbas, with a scornful laugh.
And so Pilate, wishing to please the people, released Barabbas, but Jesus he turned over to them to be crucified. The soldiers led Jesus to the courtyard of the governor's palace and called together the whole company. Then they clothed him in a purple robe and, making a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and began to salute him, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
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