seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Matthew 27:20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.
The commentary explains how the chief priests manipulated Pilate into doing what they wanted him to do.
The religious leaders knew the best way to influence Pilate. Not through his own judgment of Jesus, not through his wife, and not through the religious leaders themselves directly. The best way to push Pilate in a certain direction was by the voice of the multitudes.
Here is a man who knows the right thing to do - and knows it by many convincing ways. Yet he will do the wrong thing, a terrible thing, in obedience to the multitudes.
"But this it appears they did at the instigation of the chief priests. We see here how dangerous wicked priests are in the Church of Christ; when pastors are corrupt, they are capable of inducing their flock to prefer Barabbas to Jesus, the world to God, and the pleasures of sense to the salvation of their souls."
"But this it appears they did at the instigation of the chief priests. We see here how dangerous wicked priests are in the Church of Christ; when pastors are corrupt, they are capable of inducing their flock to prefer Barabbas to Jesus, the world to God, and the pleasures of sense to the salvation of their souls."
In easy english it says this.
A crowd can be dangerous. Someone can easily encourage them to cause trouble. The priests and other Jewish leaders may have found ways to make the crowd excited. Some of Barabbas’s friends could have been in the crowd to cause trouble. Some people would have supported anyone who opposed the Romans.
God http://www.godvine.com/bible/matthew/27-20 says this.
The rulers, therefore, in order to secure the condemnation of Jesus, urged on the people to demand Barabbas. The people were greatly under the influence of the priests. Galileans among the citizens of Jerusalem were held in contempt. The priests turned the pretensions of Jesus into ridicule. Hence, in a popular tumult, among a flexible and changing multitude, they easily excited those who, but a little before, had cried Hosanna, to cry, Crucify him.
I would say, in today's lingo, the chief priests made choosing Barabbas politically correct.
Remember, these were not priests anointed by God. These were priests who had bribed their way into the position.
Jesus knew what was going to happen.
