Lagerkvist doesn’t even take a stand on whether Christ was the divine son of God or just a wise philosopher punished for his revolutionary teachings. This is a far cry from the glorified depictions of early Christianity in romantic novels like Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur or Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Quo Vadis. Rumors of Christ’s divinity and news of his death spread not like wildfire but in fits and starts, through second-hand testimony and overheard whispering in the streets. Everyone is looking for something or someone to believe in and a sense of belonging. Lagerkvist’s Jerusalem of two millennia ago is a free market of competing gods and prophets. Irreligious readers, however, can approach the book as a historical novel.

Devout Christians will likely gravitate toward the novel’s examination of faith and find meaning in its underlying morality. What makes the novel so powerful is the fact that it can be appreciated from either a religious or secular perspective. If adapted for film today, Barabbas would be an introspective art-house indie film rather than an epic blockbuster. The Jack Palance character doesn’t even exist in Lagerkvist’s novel, and he wouldn’t really belong in it.

In the movie, Barabbas is trained to be a gladiator, but nothing like that occurs in the book. Overall, the film is faithful to the general tone and message of the book, but it augments Barabbas’s interior conflict with sword-and-sandal action scenes designed to entertain. Having seen the 1961 film adaptation starring Anthony Quinn and Jack Palance, I approached the novel with some pre-conceived notions. This is not a simple repentant-man-turns-over-a-new-leaf story, but something far more complex. In many ways Barabbas is incapable of faith or religion. He seeks out information on Christ, and makes attempts to learn about the Christian faith, but he is not welcomed among the Christians. He undergoes a drastic personality change, no longer enjoying wine, women, and theft as he used to. Barabbas is tormented by the nagging thought that he should have been the one to die. He knows little about Christ or his teachings, but he finds the man strangely fascinating. Barabbas, a free man, witnesses the event, and can hardly believe his good fortune at having escaped the fate of the man who is dying before him. Lagerkvist’s novel begins with the crucifixion of Christ. They choose Barabbas, a convicted thief and murderer, leaving Jesus of Nazareth to be crucified. The Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate, gives the people of Jerusalem the choice of whom to set free. In the time of Christ, it was customary to pardon one prisoner during the holiday of Passover. The novel is based on the biblical story of Barabbas, who is briefly mentioned in each of the four Gospels. The following year Lagerkvist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, due in no small part to the critical acclaim this book received. Barabbas, a novel by Swedish author Pär Lagerkvist, was published in 1950.

Lagerkvist barabbas