What Does John 18:40 Mean?
So they cried out again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.THE KEY
The word translated “robber” names a violent plunderer, making the crowd’s choice a public preference for force over the man it rejects.
THE MEANING
The verse sets a choice before you now: the crowd rejects this man and calls for Barabbas, whom it names as a robber. The Greek word points to a bandit who takes by force, so the crowd asks that the plunderer be released. Its unanimity does not make that choice just.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a choice becomes just because everyone voices it together is undone here: the crowd is unanimous, yet calls for the robber.
THE ROOT
λῃστής
lēstēs
GROWS FROM
λῃστ-
The Greek stem for a robber or bandit who takes by force.
English “robber” can sound like any thief, but λῃστής (lēstēs, robber) names a bandit who takes by force. Its related forms λῃστεύω (lēsteuō, to rob) and λῃστεία (lēsteia, robbery) keep the actor, action, and act of plunder in one word family; the crowd asks for the plunderer himself to be released.
ALSO GROWS
lēsteuō: to rob, act as a bandit
λῃστεύω
The verb shares the λῃστ- stem and makes the robber’s taking an action, not just a label.
lēsteia: robbery, banditry
λῃστεία
This noun shares the stem and names the act associated with the person the crowd chooses.
THE PATTERN
Public agreement can invert judgment, condemning the just while preferring the violent.
They gather together against the living soul of an aligned one, and condemn the innocent blood.Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who set darkness for light, and light for darkness, who set bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!But you turned away from the Set-Apart One and the Aligned One, and you asked for a man of blood to be given to you as favor.THE THREAD
All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear and respond to them.John 10:8 uses the Greek plural λῃσταί (lēstaí, robbers), from the same word family as Barabbas’s λῃστής (lēstēs, robber). That shared root links the released robber to Jesus’ image of voices that take, sharpening the contrast in the crowd’s choice.
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