What was the first name of Barabbas whom Pilate let off from the prison?

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What was the first name of Barabbas whom Pilate let off from the prison?

The Catholic Church has no traditions in regards to Barabbas.

Wikipedia does have the following to say about his name:

There exist several versions of this figure's name in gospel manuscripts, most commonly simply Biblical Greek: Bαραββᾶς, romanized: Barabbās without a first name. However the variations found in different manuscripts of the Matthew 27:16–17 give this figure the first name "Jesus", making his full name "Jesus Barabbas" or "Jesus Bar-rabban", and giving him the same first, given name as Jesus. The Codex Koridethi seems to emphasise Bar-rabban as composed of two elements in line with a patronymic Aramaic name. These versions, featuring the first name "Jesus" are considered original by a number of modern scholars. The Church Father Origen seems to refer to this passage of Matthew in claiming that it must be a corruption, as no sinful man ever bore the name "Jesus" and argues for its exclusion from the text. He however does not account for the high priest Biblical Greek: Ἰάσων, romanized: Iásōn from 2 Maccabees 4:13, whose name seems to transliterate the same Aramaic name into Greek, as well as other bearers of the name Jesus mentioned by Josephus. It is possible that scribes when copying the passage, driven by a reasoning similar to that of Origen, removed this first name "Jesus" from the text to avoid dishonor to the name of the Jesus whom they considered the Messiah.

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Jesus as Barrabas' first name does not appear in any Latin manuscripts. The reason it appears in the Critical Greek text - from which the CEV seems to have been derived - is explained in Bruce Metzger's A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament:

The reading preserved today in several Greek manuscripts and early versions was known to Origen, who declares in his commentary on the passage, “In many copies it is not stated that Barabbas was also called Jesus, and perhaps [the omission is] right.” (Origen discloses in what follows his reason for disapproving of the reading Jesus Barabbas; it cannot be right, he implies, because “in the whole range of the scriptures we know that no one who is a sinner [is called] Jesus.”)

In a tenth century uncial manuscript S 028 and in about twenty minuscule manuscripts a marginal comment states: “In many ancient copies which I have met with I found Barabbas himself likewise called ‘Jesus’; that is, the question of Pilate stood there as follows, Τίνα θέλετε ἀπὸ τῶν δύο ἀπολύσω ὑμῖν, Ἰησοῦν τὸν Βαραββᾶν ἢ Ἰησοῦν τὸν λεγόμενον Χριστόν; for apparently the paternal name of the robber was ‘Barabbas,’ which is interpreted ‘Son of the teacher.’ ” This scholium, which is usually assigned in the manuscripts either to Anastasius bishop of Antioch (perhaps latter part of the sixth century) or to Chrysostom, is in one manuscript attributed to Origen, who may indeed be its ultimate source.

Although the CT committee admitted the phrase Ἰησοῦν and Ἰησοῦν τὸν before Βαραββᾶν in Matthew 27:16 and 27:17, respectively, the Greek text was enclosed in square brackets. The reading was assigned certainty category "C", indicating that "the Committee had difficulty in deciding which variant to place in the text."

Augustine seems to have been the only Latin (pre-schism) Church Father to have commented specifically on these verses (On the Harmony of the Gospels, III.VIII.32) and he makes no mention of Barrabas' first name possibly being "Jesus".

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