Barabbas

The author obviously is steeped in knowledge of the Bible as it includes many biblical illusions. In addition, he has a great understanding of the history of this time period. He describes the world of Rome at a time following the death of Christ when Christianity is beginning to spread. He describes the ways in which Christians had to hide in order to worship God and how they were persecuted for their beliefs. The thread the ties the story together is a story of Barabbas, a man who struggles to believe and yet who has the symbols of Christ engraved upon the back of the disc which she wears as a slave.

I was originally intrigued when a fellow-believer told me of the existence of this fictional account of Barabbas, and what he did after he was set free by Pilate, and spared an expected and deserved crucifixion. What wonderful potential for a novel! Then, after ordering it, I found out that it won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1951! I couldn't wait to read it.My disappointment with what was written began immediately in the description as early as Page 5 when Barabbas, seeing from a distance the prisoner who was nailed to his cross to die in his place. He writes of Barabbas' impression of Jesus: "His body was lean and spindly, the arms slender as though they had never been put to any use. A queer man. The beard was sparse and the chest quite hairless, like a boy's. He did not like him."Jesus' physique would not have been "like a boy's." He had been trained, and worked as a carpenter for some 18 years, likely since He turned 12 if not younger. In ancient Israel, as a carpenter, Jesus worked outdoors as often with stone blocks as He did with lumber. His arms would not have been "slender as though they had never been put to any use." These details were readily available to the author in 1951.The disciples were all scared, despondent, and confused about Jesus' completely unexpected death. They originally saw no prophecies being fulfilled in it, and they certainly did not expect Jesus to be raised from the dead. Three days later, when eyewitnesses told them of an empty tomb, and the angels' words of His Resurrection, they did not believe the reports.Yet, on Page 27, there is a completely unlikely and borderline ridiculous chance meeting between Barabbas and a red-bearded and blue-eyed (?! ) Peter as they happened to both sit down at the base of a wall. Peter sighs and moans, and a conversation begins. Finally Peter, in an unscriptural "Ah ha!" moment, tells Barabbas, "You see, it's like this, he had to suffer all this, although he was innocent, he had to descend into hell for our sakes. But he shall return and manifest all his glory. He is to rise again from the dead! We are quite sure of it." Huh?! Peter's alleged blue eyes were closer to reality than this nonsense!A previous 5-Star Review no less mentioned that the author may not be a Christian. That possibility does not justify or explain away sloppy scholarship of this magnitude. A simple reading of just the details of Jesus' crucifixion, and His disciples' original response to it are covered in just a few chapters at the end of each Gospel Account. A complete overview of what actually happened could have... no should have been read, and in under thirty minutes! Clearly it was not.I am at Page 32; I don't know if I am going to invest any more time reading this drivel. I cannot imagine it getting any better. Nor can I imagine what moved the folks that award the Nobel Prize for Literature to select a book that a precocious 6th-Grader could have written.Obviously, my final word on this book is to save your money, unless you have a wobbly kitchen table.

Barabbas was a notorious criminal of some sort introduced by the gospel of Mark - possibly a fictional character. The other three canonical gospels and the gospel of Peter followed Mark's lead and also told the Barabbas story. According to a Roman or Jewish custom, depending on which gospel you read, the governor might allow the crowd to decide to release one of the condemned during the Passover celebration. This custom is mentioned only in these gospels - not in any other historical source of the time."Barabbas" is a fictional story that takes up the life of Barabbas after the crucifixion of Jesus, well-done and intense, though sparse. The Lagerkvist story of Barabbas (Amazon's stated author is translator from Lagerkvist's scandinavian language) was used as the basis for a 1961 movie called "Barabbas" starring Anthony Quinn.Barabbas becomes obsessed with Jesus as soon as he is pardoned. He attends the crucifixion and watches Jesus's death and burial. He observes the darkening and relightening of the sky, thinking it is due to eye problems related to his recent incarceration. He shows up on the third morning before dawn to see Jesus resurrected but the stone has already been moved and Jesus is not there. Barabbas thinks Jesus's friends have already moved him and that Jesus is still dead. Another at the tomb sees an angel perform some sort of resurrection function but Barabbas does not see it, although later he says he did.Barabbas wants to believe throughout the book but cannot. Even at the end his position is not entirely clear. One of the downsides of this book, for me, was the inability of the Barabbas character to ever communicate much with anyone. Since it's fictional anyway, the character of Barabbas could have been just as tragic and still managed to talk a little. It would have been a convenient stage for anything the author wished to say. Even with the fellow slave he was chained to for over 20 years and grew to care for through enforced proximity, Barabbas rarely ever talked.This book hints at the culture of the times and provides a little (if fictional) light on the organization of early Christianity in Jerusalem with Peter. Paganism is touched on as is the burning of Rome that Nero blamed on the Christians. It is a fascinating story that can be read in two hours or so. I like speculative stories of this sort. If nothing else, they reveal the superstition and primitiveness of the era and allow the author to present a point of view.

An imagined life of Barabbas, the criminal spared by Pilate when the crowds were braying for Christ's crucifixion. Pilate offered the people Jesus because His trial was held on a holiday when a criminal traditionally received a pardon. But the crowds cried, "We want Barabbas," and Pilate acceded.To the best of my knowledge, the author of this book was not a Christian, yet the book struck me as containing contain powerful insights into the life of the man spared in place of Jesus when I read it forty years ago.History doesn't tell us what happened to Barabbas after his pardon and Christ's crucifixion, but Lagerkvist imagines it powerfully in this bleak novel.This is not a Christian book. It's almost nihilistic. But it provides a striking picture of the despair and hopelessness that ultimately comes when Christ is rejected.

This was bought as a present. It is in perfect condition and the print is easy to read. I have read it myself and would recommend it highly.

A powerful retelling of a Biblical story by a master story-teller.

Interesting book. Would recommend.

Great story but some of the pages are damaged and one has even been torn