I recently read Pontius Pilate by Paul L. Maier and I'm very interested in the historical account of Jesus. No one can really deny he existed and was crucified. Does anyone know anything about Barabbas, the man the Bible claims was released in favor of crucifying Jesus? What happened after he was (shockingly) released after the tradition of releasing a prisoner over Passover? Did he become a Christ follower or did he continue his life of crime? I believe he was a sorcerer (or claimed to be) to some extent.
Thanks for your answers.
There is no historical or independent information about Barabbas him outside of the Gospels and he is most probably an allegorical character. There is no external evidence for any tradition of the Romans releasing a prisoner at Passover, and the release of violent insurgents is historically very unlikely. Mark seems to have invented it as a plot device in the service of what what most scholars think was probably a scapegoat allegory. Even Christian apocryphal literature barely mentions Barabbas, which is unusual since they wrote stories about even the most minor characters in the Gospels. There is a book called The Martyrdom of Pilate which says that Barabbas was married to Judas' sister, but that's about as far as it goes in terms of extra-canonical claims about him.