What Old Testament prophecies align with the events in John 18:40?

John 18:40: “They shouted back, ‘Not this Man, but Barabbas!’ (Now Barabbas was an insurrectionist.)”

Setting the scene

- The crowd exchanges the sinless Messiah for a violent rebel, fulfilling long-standing prophetic patterns of rejection and substitution.

Prophecies of Messiah’s rejection

- Isaiah 53:3 — “He was despised and rejected by men… and we esteemed Him not.”

- Psalm 118:22 — “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

- Psalm 69:4 — “Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head…”

- Psalm 35:19 — “Let not my enemies gloat over me without cause, nor those who hate me without reason wink in malice.”

These passages anticipate a moment when the Righteous One would be spurned by the very people He came to save.

Prophecies and patterns of substitution

- Isaiah 53:5-6, 12 — The Servant is pierced for others’ transgressions and “numbered with the transgressors,” a criminal’s fate assumed so the guilty may go free.

- Leviticus 16:21-22 — The scapegoat bears Israel’s sins into the wilderness while the people remain unharmed; Barabbas walks away as Jesus heads to the cross.

- Exodus 12:13 — At Passover a spotless lamb dies in place of the firstborn; in Jerusalem the spotless Lamb of God dies and the guilty man is spared.

Key threads to notice

- Rejection without cause: foretold hatred of the Messiah surfaces as the crowd prefers a felon.

- Substitutionary exchange: the innocent is condemned, the guilty released—exactly what the sacrificial system foreshadowed.

- Divine sovereignty: even human injustice fulfills Scripture, underscoring that Christ’s path to the cross was foreknown and unavoidable for our redemption.