In the canonical Gospels, Pilate proposes to the Jews to free either Jesus or Barabbas, an imprisoned activist. The name of bar-abbas , the "Son of the Father", tends to make him appear as the double of Jesus Christ, proclaimed "Son of God", and as a counter-model, which led the Fathers of the Church to correct this name in bar-rabbi , the "Master's Son".
Composed between 71 and 75, the Gospel according to Saint Mark presents him as a prisoner arrested with rioters for a murder committed during a mutiny. We deduce that this uprising, probably directed against Rome, had a lot of echo. Barabbas aroused the admiration of the people.
If everything seems plausible up to now, it nevertheless seems impossible that a man as inflexible as Pontius Pilate could allow himself to be guided by a custom which would compromise the security of the empire:freeing at Easter the prisoner designated by the people, a measure to give carte blanche to men considered "terrorists" by the Romans, but as "national heroes" by the Jews.
Moreover, neither in Jewish sources nor in Roman documents attests to the paschal privilege that Pilate would have wanted to use to pardon a prisoner on the eve of the feast.