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thorns had torn the flesh, and blood was trickling down. When the people saw him, many cried out, "Not this Jesus, but Jesus Bar Abbas." And one man among the crowd called out, "Better Jesus Bar Abba^[1] than Jesus Bar Amma;"^[2] and laughter and jeers followed. Then Pilate seemed puzzled, and called to him one of his lictors, who spake earnestly to him for a time, and then received an order from him. And going up the steps, he entered the palace. And shortly afterwards there came forward the man Jesus Bar Abbas of Jerusalem, of whom I have spoken to thee before. Now, he had been very popular among the folk, and had lost his liberty in a rising against the Romans, in which a Roman sentry had been slain. And there stood the two Jesuses—the one that had risen against the Romans, and the one that had told the people they should pay tribute to their Roman lords. It was manifest that the new-comer, who had done naught against the Romans, was more in favor with Pilate the Procurator,

1. Bar Abba means "son of his father."
2. Bar Amma means "son of his mother."—Ed.