The passion narrative carries several famous variants. Some early manuscripts call the released prisoner Jesus Barabbas. The critical text gives Jesus wine rather than vinegar at Golgotha, omits Matthew’s explicit fulfillment about divided garments, and removes the mocking if from “If he be the King of Israel.” A spear thrust copied from John appears in several of the very old codices but in neither the Textus Receptus nor the standard critical text.
“They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.” — Matthew 27:34
No single manuscript supplies an oracle here. The readings must be weighed one by one.
Jesus Barabbas
At verses 16–17 a part of the early tradition reads “Jesus Barabbas.” Origen knew the form and objected that the name Jesus should not belong to a sinner. Modern editors sometimes print or bracket it, arguing that reverent scribes removed the holy name from Barabbas.
The Textus Receptus reads simply Barabbas. The longer form has limited and unstable support; in some copies the name appears in one verse but not the other. A marginal clarification, a repeated Jesus from the nearby “Jesus which is called Christ,” or a local naming tradition can explain it. Reverence may explain omission, but a guessed motive cannot establish an uncertain name.
Vinegar, gall, and fulfilled Scripture
The received vinegar mingled with gall echoes Psalm 69:21: “in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” The critical reading “wine mingled with gall” may reflect Mark’s wine mingled with myrrh. Both describe a bitter offered drink; Matthew’s wording makes the scriptural echo plain without adding a formula.
After the soldiers divide Christ’s garments, the received text explicitly cites the prophet: “They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.” Critical witnesses omit the formula, and John 19:24 supplies an obvious source for addition. Yet the words come from Psalm 22, the psalm already sounding through the crucifixion scene. Similar endings around the casting of lots can cause loss, and fulfillment formulas are a mark of Matthew from the first chapter onward.
“If he be the King”
The received mockery is conditional: “If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross.” The critical text reads, “He is the King of Israel; let him now come down.” Critics prefer the biting irony of the declaration and explain if as an echo from verse 40.
The echo may be deliberate speech. Both taunts challenge Jesus to prove his claim by descent from the cross. The conditional form fits the mockers’ unbelief and the repeated “if” of the temptation narrative. They demand a sign that would cancel the saving work occurring before them.
The spear thrust that does not belong
After verse 49, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and other early witnesses add: “And another took a spear and pierced his side, and there came out water and blood.” The sentence comes from John 19:34, but it is placed in Matthew before Jesus yields up the ghost. That order creates a needless historical strain.
Here modern critical editors reject the addition despite its impressive codices. So does the received text. The case is a needed check on slogans. “Oldest” does not mean “original,” and an editor who follows Vaticanus in one verse may reject it in the next.
The received passion account should stand: Barabbas without the borrowed sacred name; vinegar and gall; the fulfillment from the Psalms; the mockers’ conditional taunt; no misplaced spear thrust. These judgments arise from different evidence, but they converge on a narrative whose words and order have been publicly read for centuries.
Barabbas already functions as a grim exchange without sharing Jesus’ name. The guilty prisoner is released while Jesus called Christ is condemned. Adding the name can make the contrast rhetorically sharper—Jesus son of the father versus Jesus the true Son—which is another reason a local expansion could appeal. The theology of substitution comes from the event, not the uncertain name.
Vinegar and wine need not describe chemically unrelated liquids in ancient speech. Sour wine could be called vinegar, and different stages of the crucifixion include more than one offered drink. The textual choice still matters because Matthew’s vinegar carries Psalm 69 into the scene while Mark’s wine and myrrh carries his own wording.
The spear addition is the cluster’s clearest methodological check. Its early codices, dramatic detail, and agreement with a true event in John cannot rescue its wrong location in Matthew. A fact can be canonical in one Gospel and corrupt in another. The received text preserves both the fact in John and the order in Matthew.
Sources and further reading
- Psalm 22:16–18; 69:21; Matthew 27:15–54; Mark 15:21–39; John 19:23–37.
- Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, notes on Matthew 27:16–17, 27:34–35, 27:42, and 27:49.
- John William Burgon, The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels.
- Frederick H. A. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament.
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