What Does Matthew 27:21 Mean?
The governor answered and said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release for you? They said, Barabbas.
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
The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas.THE KEY
The crowd chooses Barabbas (בר אבא, bar Abba, “son of the father”) for release, so the question becomes a mirror of which nature it welcomes.
THE MEANING
The question stands before you as a live choice: the crowd names Barabbas (בר אבא, bar Abba, “son of the father”) to be released. Its answer shows how a demand for freedom can reveal which nature a crowd is prepared to welcome.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The crowd’s choice does not prove its choice is just; here, the request for release exposes the preference being made.
THE ROOT
ἀπολύσω
apolysō
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
To loosen, untie, release.
The underlying verb λύω (lyō, “loosen”) holds the tactile image of untying someone free. The answer turns that act of release into a public preference.
ALSO GROWS
lysis: A loosening or release.
λύσις
This branch preserves the image of release as loosening, not merely ending a formal obligation.
lytron: A ransom; a price paid to free someone.
λύτρον
This related word joins release to the means of freeing someone, sharpening the weight of the freedom being requested here.
THE PATTERN
When public preference governs judgment, release can be requested for the wicked while the just are refused.
How long do you judge crookedness, and lift up the faces of the wicked? Selah.He who aligns the wicked, and he who convicts the aligned one, both are loathed by the LORD.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
But you have a custom, that I release one to you at the Passover. Do you want me to release the king of the Judeans to you?John repeats the governor’s release question and names the alternative left implicit here: Jesus, the King of the Jews. The shared verb ἀπολύω (apolýō, “release”) makes the choice unmistakable: the same public act frees Barabbas while refusing Jesus.
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