Which prisoner was released instead of Jesus at the Passover festival? Barabbas was released instead of Jesus.
According to all four canonical Gospels, Pontius Pilate presented the crowd with a choice between Jesus and Barabbas during the Passover period. The crowd asked for Barabbas to be freed and for Jesus to be crucified. Pilate then released Barabbas and handed Jesus over for execution.
The Gospels describe Barabbas differently in detail. Matthew calls him a notorious prisoner, while Mark and Luke connect him with an insurrection and murder. John calls him a bandit. His name is often explained from the Aramaic bar abba, meaning “son of the father,” although the precise form and manuscript history are discussed by scholars.
The prisoner-release episode is often called the Paschal Pardon. The Gospels present it as a Passover custom, but independent historical evidence for such a Roman practice in Jerusalem is limited, so historians debate the event’s exact historicity. That debate does not change the answer within the Gospel narrative: the released prisoner is Barabbas.