BOOK REVIEW : Barabbas by Pär Lagerkvist

Barabbas, a novel by the Swedish Author Pär Lagerkvist written in 1950, tells the story of the man held captive at the same time as Jesus but released by Pontius Pilate at the Passover feast - thus avoiding crucifixion.

Through fifteen unnumbered chapters, we follow Barabbas from the point at which he witnesses Christ’s crucifixion on Golgotha to his own death on the cross outside Rome at the end of the novel. In between he encounters Mary, Mother of God, Lazarus and St Peter and the other disciples – none of whom are ever named – and is befriended by a number of Christians, including a girl with a hair lip who lives with the lepers and beggars on the edge of the city and is present, with Barabbas, at the resurrection – although only she is wiling to believe what she saw. She is betrayed by a blind man to the authorities and stoned to death for her faith.

Barabbas returns to the band of thieves he led before his imprisonment but, like Lazarus to whom he was taken by a believer after he asked for proof that Christ had power over death, he seems like the living dead in their world now. Whilst he was spared from the cross, Barabbas does not see the joy of life; his heart remains full of darkness; and now he is alone.

The story moves on several years. We find Barabbas chained to a slave called Sahak whose faith enables them both to escape from the hellish copper mines to a less oppressive life of slavery in the Governor’s court. Sahak is enthralled to meet someone who saw Christ on the cross. He carves a symbol onto the tag Barabbas wears around his neck. When questioned by the Governor why the name Jesus Christ is carved on the reverse of his tag, Barabbas replies ‘because he wants to believe’ – but, despite attempts to do so, he never truly understands the commandment to ‘love one another’ – perhaps because he finds it hard to allow anyone to love him. Sahak is put to death but Barabbas’s denial of faith saves him and he moves with the Governor to Rome.

Disorientated while following two slaves he suspects of going to a Christian meeting in the catacombs along the Via Appia, Barabbas begins to set fire to nearby houses and awakens to find himself in prison, along with a group of Christians, including Peter, who are wrongly charged with arson. As they are led to be crucified there is an uneven number in the group, so Barabbas walks to the cross alone. Like Jesus he is the last to die; but who hears his last words from the cross?

A short book telling a dark story with few words. Whilst his violent acts may be alien to us, is Barabbas’s struggle with faith anything like our own?


Barabbas by Pär Lagerkvist is published by Vintage International.