Matthew 27:16 — was Barabbas also named Jesus?
Matthew 27:16 is transmitted both as Jesus Barabbas and as Barabbas alone. The variant determines whether Pilate’s choice juxtaposes two men named Jesus or names only Jesus called Christ.
What the APB prints.
Every witness, on the record.
What a blind committee did here.
The APB's translation committee works blind: it is never told it is translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and it never sees the witnesses above. Whatever it did at this verse, it did on the language alone — and its record is public.
At this verse, the APB prints “They had then a notable prisoner called Jesus Barabbas.” The record supplies no rationale note for this crux, while the pericope’s audit verdict is 'clean'.
The case for each reading.
If “Jesus Barabbas”
Reading A is printed by NA28: Ἰησοῦν, yielding the double name supplied in the APB at this verse and in Pilate’s question. Its witness note says NA28 “prints the double name”; it also reports that Origen knew copies with it and objected. The packet gives a transcriptional consideration alongside the split: the absence of the name in WH, Treg, NIV, and RP could be understood as removal, since removal is described as easier to explain than invention. On this account, the shared first name sharpens the question between Jesus Barabbas and Jesus called Christ. The packet does not date or quantify the copies known to Origen.
If “Barabbas” alone
Reading B is the form printed by WH, where the name is absent. The apparatus line sets Ἰησοῦν in NA28 against the minus sign in WH, Treg, NIV, and RP. In this form, the prisoner is called Barabbas without the shared first name that appears in the APB wording. WH’s note also reports that “most manuscripts lack the name,” giving the shorter form a broad stated absence in the packet. That same note calls removal easier to explain than invention, however, a consideration that can be read in support of reading A rather than B. The apparatus records the disagreement but does not resolve why the forms differ.
What remains uncertain is whether the prisoner’s name included Jesus or whether that name was absent. The difference changes the wording and force of Pilate’s choice: two men may share a first name, or only Jesus called Christ is so named. It does not change that the APB presents a prisoner release choice or that Pilate names Jesus called Christ in the next printed line. No doctrinal conclusion is decided by this single naming variant; doctrines rest on many passages.
More places where the manuscripts argue.
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited as published scholarly fact with their sources linked above. Nothing on this page declares a winner — the evidence is the point.
Weigh it yourself.
The registry doesn't tell you which reading is true. It puts every witness on one page, shows what a blind committee did with the same language, and leaves the verdict where it belongs — with the reader.