Literature. — Besides the authorities referred to above, see the Commentaries, ad loc. ; Hastings' DB, artt. ' Crimes ' and ' Prison ' ; Conybeare-Howson, Life of St. Paul, i. 357 f.; Farrar, Life of St. Paul, 1. 497, ii. 390 ff., 547.
D. A. MACKINNON. PRISONER.— The word 'prisoner' (Seo-Mtos) is found in the Gospels only in Mt 2V^- "*, Mk 15® (see also, however, Lk 23" RVm), where it is used of the prisoner whom the Roman governor was wont to release to the Jews at the Feast of Pass- over, and in particular of Barabbas, a ' notable prisoner' of the time. But, apart from the word, we read of other prisoners in the Gospels, and both there and elsewhere in the NT we learn something of the attitude of Christ to the prisoner, and the prisoner's relations and obligations to Christ.
1. Of actual prisoners there are two in the Gospels much more ' notable ' than Barabbas. The first is John the Baptist, who for righteousness' sake was ' cast into prison ' (Mt 14^, Mk Q^\ Lk 3» Jn 3^^), and whose imprisonment so afi'ected his .strong, free sinrit that for a time his faith in Christ appears to have faltered (Mt ll^^-). The other is Jesus Himself, who was arrested (Mt 26*) in the Garden, and taken in bonds (Jn 18^'' Sede- (jAvos [which is practically equivalent to 5^a-/j.ios ; cf. Mk 15'' with V.'']) first before the high priest and then before Pilate (Mt 2V, Mk IS^, Jn IS'^- 24).
2. The fact that the prisoners of the Gospels in- clude a robber (Jn 18^") and murderer (Mk 15'', Lk 23-^) like Barabbas on the one hand, and John the Baptist and Jesus on the other, .shows the necessity of discriminating between prisoners, and especially of distinguishing those who deserve their punish- ment (cf. the admission of the penitent robber, Lk 23^') from those who ' suffer wrongfully.' To the former class Barabbas certainly belonged. His imprisonment was the reward of his crimes (Lk 23-5) . g^jjj gQ long as crimes like his are committed against .society, imprisonment will still be neces- sary. With all His pity for the prisoner, Jesus recognizes that there are cases in which a just judge will cast the offender into prison (Mt 5-*). But there are wrongful imprisonments as well as merited ones ; and our Lord warned His disciples that a time would come when they themselves should be cast into pri.son for His name's sake (Lk 2V^) — a warning that was soon abundantly fulfilled in the experience of the Apostles and the early Church (Ac 4^ 5^^ 8^ 12^ 16^^ etc.).
3. In the Gospels Jesus comes before us as the prisoner's Friend. He jiroves His friendship (\) bij the deliverance He brings. In the sjTiagogue at Nazareth, at the verj- outset of His ministry (Lk
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'i^''^-). He applied to Himself tlie glowing words of the great Messianic prophet (Is 61"-), and so assumed the othce of one who came ' to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound/ There is, of course, a spiritual sense in wliich Christ fulhls this pronrise — by pulling down the dungeon walls of ignorance and error, by giving liberty to the human spirit, by striking ott" the fetters of sin. But in a more literal fashion Christ brought deliverance to the captives by destroying the very foundations of earthly tyrannies, and making it impossible that in any society which had learned to breathe the air of His gospel men should be cast into prison to gratify the pleasure of a desjiot or the rage of the persecutor. ' Christ died on the tree.' Carlj-le said to Emerson : ' that built Dunscore kirk yonder ' (Emerson, Works, ii. p. 8). And in a like sense we may say that it was Christ's hand on Calvary that tore down the walls of the Bastille, and abolished the iniquities of the Spanisii Inquisition.
(2) Again, Jesus proves His friendship for the prisoner by the sympathy He gives. AVe see an illustration of this sympathy in the message of consolation and blessing that He sent to John the Baptist (Mt IP"") when the forerunner's heart was like to faint in the gloomj' vaults of Machaerus. But above all we see it in those haunting words of self-identification with the prisoner: 'I was in prison, and ye came unto me' (Mt 25^); 'I Avas in prison, and ye visited me not ' (v.*). It is not merely with the righteous man who sutt'ers wrong- fully that our Lord here identifies Himself, but with the prisoner as such — the criminal, it may be, the pest of society, the man who deserves to die. It was Christ's love and pity for the prisoner that inspired the philanthropic labours of John Howard and Elizabeth Fry, and led to that great trans- formation in tlie prisoner's immemorial lot which is as much one of the ' Gesta Christi' as the modern missionary- movement.
4. In the letters of St. Paul's captivity we find the Apostle describing himself as ' the prisoner of Jesus Christ,' or 'tlie prisoner of the Lord' (Eph 31 41, PhilemS; cf. 2 Ti P). It is a striking ex- pression, which is bj' no means exhausted when understood to mean that Paul suft'ered imprison- ment for the sake of Christ. It means that, with- out doubt ; but it means much more (cf. Eph 3' ' the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you Gentiles,' where ' the dea-fxtos of Christ " rejiresents himself as suffering for the Gentiles' sake). The man who so describes himself believes that Christ has laid His arresting hand upon him, and jiut him wiiere he is, and shut to the door of his prison ; and that it is no other than the Lord Jesus who carries the key of that door at His girdle. St. Paul, in short, thought of Christ as the Keeper of tiie prison, and the thought filled him with profound content (cf. Ph 4"). Like St. Peter, he had learned in his own experience that the Lord conld unlock prison doors at His pleasure and set his servants free (Ac 16-*, cf. 12!^^-). And if some day the door should be opened only that the prisoner of Christ might be led forth to die, Paul knew that this would really mean his escape through Christ's gi-ace to a larger liberty than he could find on earth (2 Co 5^'^). And so, as tlie midnight hymns that he and Silas sang to God in the prison at Philippi compelled all the prisoners to listen (Ac 16-^''), the world has had to hearken ever since to those notes of wonder, love, and praise that turn St. Paul's prison -Epistles into prison-songs.