Barabbas
SynopsisPlot
Barabbas is the acquitted; the man whose life was exchanged for that of Jesus of Nazareth, crucified upon the hill of Golgotha. Barabbas is a man condemned to have no god. "Christos Iesus" is carved on the disk suspended from his neck, but he cannot affirm his faith. He cannot pray. He can only say, "I want to believe."
Story
About this book
Barabbas, by the Swedish writer Par Lagerkvist, takes up the biblical figure who was set free while Jesus of Nazareth was led away to be crucified on the hill of Golgotha. The novel begins where the Gospel account stops, following a condemned man whose sentence was exchanged for another death. Barabbas walks away alive, and that exchange stays with him afterwards.
Lagerkvist places his character between belief and refusal. The name of Christ Jesus is cut into a small disk hanging at his neck, yet the letters settle nothing inside him. He is drawn toward the followers of the executed man without being able to share their conviction. He cannot pray. He can only say that he wants to believe.
The book was written in Swedish and set in the Roman-ruled province where the crucifixion took place, a world of soldiers, public executions, and small gatherings of new believers. The prose is short and plain, closer to a parable than a detailed historical reconstruction, and the central question is left open: what does a man do with a life he did not choose to keep?
