Barabbas

Give Us Barabbas via Wiki (in the public domain)*

Today I saw for the first time, Barabbas, the movie, with Anthony Quinn in the starring role.

From Webster's Dictionary:

Main Entry:

Ba·rab·bas

Pronunciation:

\bə-ˈra-bəs\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

Greek, from Aramaic Bar-abba

Date:

before 12th century

: a prisoner according to Matthew, Mark, and John released in preference to Christ at the demand of the multitude

But many years ago, I read Pär Fabian Lagerkvist's, "Barabbas" a brilliant short novel, and certainly a book that contributed to Lagerkvist's winning of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Little is written about the Biblical Barabbas, and less is available on line, but his name was mentioned, albeit briefly in three or four of the Gospels.

His survival has prompted surmise in literature but little in the way of historical fact. Lagerkvist presents an adventure, then a search that is both a riveting drama and a conflict between good and evil that ultimately leads to Barabbas' redemption. The novel has more depth than the movie (based on his novel) as Lagerkvist poignantly describes Barabbas' inner dialogue and struggle between belief and disbelief.

Did he exist? And like Judas, another Biblical villain, is he portrayed accurately?

Later, in viewing part of the King of King, it appears Barabbas is given quite a different and more rounded role in the life of Jesus.

Both movies were made in the early 60s, at the time of Kennedy's Camelot.


* Illustrations from volume 9 of The Bible and its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, edited by Charles F. Horne and Julius A. Bewer, published in 1910.