What Does Matthew 27:17 Mean?
So when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, Which one do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus, who is called the Anointed One?
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
Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?THE KEY
Pilate’s question makes release hinge on desire: the answer decides which of two men is unbound.
THE MEANING
You stand inside the question now: whom do you want released, Barabbas (Βαραββᾶς, Barabbas; Aramaic בַּר אַבָּא, bar ʾabbā, “son of the father”) or Jesus (Ἰησοῦς, Iēsous; from Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ, Yēshūaʿ, “deliverance”), named as the Anointed One (Χριστός, Christós)? The question makes desire decide which person leaves confinement while the other remains held. Freedom appears here as a choice with a human cost.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that release is costless: this question sets one man’s freedom beside another man’s continued confinement.
THE ROOT
ἀπολύσω
apolýsō
GROWS FROM
λύω
Loosen, unbind, release.
The form ἀπολύσω (apolýsō, “I release”) comes from ἀπολύω (apolýō, “release, dismiss”), whose core λύω (lýō, “loosen, unbind”) gives release a physical image of loosening. The related λύτρον (lýtron, “ransom”) adds the cost of opening confinement, making the choice in this question carry the weight of a human life.
ALSO GROWS
lýsis: Loosening; release.
λύσις
This noun grows from the same λύω root, showing release as the act of loosening what holds someone.
lýtron: Ransom; the price or means of release.
λύτρον
This related word carries the cost of release, deepening the human stakes of choosing whom to set free.
Χριστόν
Christón
GROWS FROM
χρίω
Anoint, apply oil; mark or appoint through anointing.
Χριστός (Christós, “the Anointed One”) is formed from χρίω (chríō, “to anoint”), so the title names Jesus by an act and a status rather than as a family name. The question places this identity beside Barabbas, whose name means “son of the father,” as it asks whom you want released.
ALSO GROWS
Christós: The Anointed One.
Χριστός
This title derives from χρίω and identifies the one who has been anointed.
chrîsma: Anointing; an anointing substance.
χρῖσμα
This noun shares the χρ root and names the act or means from which the title Χριστός is formed.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, release opens confinement into restored freedom.
Who makes judgment for the pressed, who gives bread to the hungry. The LORD loosens the bound.The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
And I will give to you the keys of the governance of the heavens, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in the heavens.The Greek verb translated “loose” here, λύσῃς (lýsēs), comes from the same λύω root beneath Pilate’s “release.” In this verse, loosing is a concrete decision over two people; in Matthew 16:19, the same root names unbinding with reach on earth and in heaven.
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