From Bar-Rabbas to Bar-Abbas: how the follower of a rabbi was transformed in the Marcionite Jesus

[Giuseppe]

The best place to be seen where the embarrassment for a confusion is evident is the Barabbas episode.

It is obvious to me that the Barabbas episode reflected the measure taken to avoid the confusion between the Jesus of the Judaizers ("Jesus called Christ") and the marcionite Jesus ("Jesus Son of Father").

But StephenGoranson talks about another confusion, the confusion between the Teacher of Righteousness and the Gospel Jesus.

Can the embarrassment for that confusion be seen in the Barabbas episode?

Sure. Bar-Rabbas means "son"/"follower" of the Rabbi.

In the Talmud Jesus is called "disciple" of the rabbi Joshua b. Perahiah:

What was the incident with R. Joshua b. Perahiah? — When King Jannaeus put the Rabbis to death, Simeon b. Shetah was hid by his sister, whilst R. Joshua b. Perahiah fled to Alexandria in Egypt. When there was peace, Simeon b. Shetah sent [this message to him]: 'From me, Jerusalem, the Holy city, to thee Alexandria in Egypt. O my sister, my husband25 dwelleth in thy midst and I abide desolate'. [R. Joshua] arose and came back and found himself in a certain inn where they paid him great respect. He said: 'How beautiful is this 'aksania'! Yeshu said to him, 'My master, her eyes are narrow!' He replied to him, 'Wicked person! Is it with such thoughts that thou occupiest thyself!' He sent forth four hundred horns and excommunicated him. [The disciple] came before him on many occasions, saying'Receive me'; but he refused to notice him. One day while [R. Joshua] was reciting the Shema', he came before him. His intention was to receive him and he made a sign to him with his hand, but the disciple thought he was repelling him. So he went and set up a brick and worshipped it. [R. Joshua] said to him, 'Repent'; but he answered him, 'Thus have I received from thee that whoever sinned and caused others to sin is deprived of the power of doing penitence'. A Master has said: The disciple practised magic and led Israel astray.

Now, relatively to this context, the term "bar" given to Jesus in "Bar rabbas" means "disciple of the rabbi" more than "son of the rabbi".

When Marcion entered on the scene, the Barabbas episode was used against his Jesus Son of an alien Father. But in a previous time, the confusion was between two datings of Jesus: one alternative to the other.

[Giuseppe]

Another trace of the same embarrassment for the confusion between a remote Jesus of the distant past and a recent (Gospel) Jesus:

"Bar Jesus" appears in Acts 13:6–7:

“They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God.”

Joshua b. Perahiah means: Jesus b. Perahiah.

Hence "bar Jesus", referred to that Jesus (b. Perahiah), means the same thing as "bar Rabbi": disciple of Jesus b. Perahiah.

Same confusion.
Same embarrassment.

[Giuseppe]

It is curious that the rival (Jesus) "disciple of the rabbi Jesus b. Perahiah" ("bar Rabbas", "bar Jesus") was reduced by Acts to be "an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus". A misunderstanding of the fact that the true Jesus hallucinated by Paul lived in the remote past.