Barabbas
E117424
Barabbas is a figure in the New Testament Gospels who was imprisoned for insurrection and released by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus at the crowd’s demand.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Barabbas canonical | 14 |
| Madame Barabbas | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T992966 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Barabbas Context triple: [Trial of Jesus, hasParticipant, Barabbas]
-
A.
Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur is a 1959 epic historical drama film renowned for its grand scale, record-setting 11 Academy Awards, and iconic chariot race sequence.
-
B.
King of the Jews
King of the Jews is a royal title historically associated with the ruler of Judea, most notably used for Herod the Great in the late first century BCE.
-
C.
The Taking of Christ
The Taking of Christ is a dramatic Baroque painting by Caravaggio depicting the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, renowned for its intense chiaroscuro and emotional realism.
-
D.
Crowning with Thorns
Crowning with Thorns is a scene from the Passion of Christ in which Jesus is mockingly crowned with thorns, forming the third Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary in Christian tradition.
-
E.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand
Spartacus: Blood and Sand is a stylized, graphic historical drama television series that follows the rise of the gladiator Spartacus in ancient Rome.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Barabbas Target entity description: Barabbas is a figure in the New Testament Gospels who was imprisoned for insurrection and released by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus at the crowd’s demand.
-
A.
Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur is a 1959 epic historical drama film renowned for its grand scale, record-setting 11 Academy Awards, and iconic chariot race sequence.
-
B.
King of the Jews
King of the Jews is a royal title historically associated with the ruler of Judea, most notably used for Herod the Great in the late first century BCE.
-
C.
The Taking of Christ
The Taking of Christ is a dramatic Baroque painting by Caravaggio depicting the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, renowned for its intense chiaroscuro and emotional realism.
-
D.
Crowning with Thorns
Crowning with Thorns is a scene from the Passion of Christ in which Jesus is mockingly crowned with thorns, forming the third Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary in Christian tradition.
-
E.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand
Spartacus: Blood and Sand is a stylized, graphic historical drama television series that follows the rise of the gladiator Spartacus in ancient Rome.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (40)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
New Testament person
ⓘ
biblical figure ⓘ prisoner ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs | Jesus Barabbas ⓘ |
| appearsInChapter |
John 18
ⓘ
Luke 23 ⓘ Mark 15 ⓘ Matthew 27 ⓘ |
| associatedWithEvent | Passover pardon ⓘ |
| associatedWithPlace | Jerusalem ⓘ |
| crowdAction |
crowd asked for Barabbas to be released
ⓘ
crowd rejected Jesus in favor of Barabbas ⓘ |
| detainedBy | Roman authorities ⓘ |
| genreContext | passion narrative ⓘ |
| imprisonedFor |
insurrection
ⓘ
murder ⓘ rebellion ⓘ |
| languageOfName | Aramaic ⓘ |
| legalStatus |
insurrectionist and murderer in Luke
ⓘ
insurrectionist in Mark ⓘ notorious prisoner in Matthew ⓘ |
| mentionedIn |
Gospel of John
ⓘ
Gospel of Luke ⓘ Gospel of Mark ⓘ Gospel of Matthew ⓘ |
| moralTheologicalTheme | choice between Jesus and Barabbas ⓘ |
| nameMeaning | son of the father ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction | illustrates substitution motif in Christian theology ⓘ |
| releasedBy | Pontius Pilate ⓘ |
| releasedInsteadOf |
Jesus
ⓘ
linked to:
Jesus Christ
|
| releasedOnDemandOf | crowd ⓘ |
| religiousTradition | Christianity ⓘ |
| roleInNarrative |
contrast figure to Jesus
ⓘ
prisoner chosen to be released ⓘ |
| scripturalStatus | no further canonical information after release ⓘ |
| selectionMethod | customary Passover amnesty ⓘ |
| sourceType | canonical gospel accounts ⓘ |
| textualVariant | some manuscripts of Matthew call him Jesus Barabbas ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 1st century CE ⓘ |
| trialContext | Roman trial before Pontius Pilate ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Barabbas Description of subject: Barabbas is a figure in the New Testament Gospels who was imprisoned for insurrection and released by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus at the crowd’s demand.
Referenced by (15)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.