Barabbas is referenced in only 11 verses in the New Testament. What we know about him ends when this notorious prisoner, charged with treason against Rome and murder, is unexpectedly released, and Jesus is chosen to die instead.
What might have happened to him after that was a story that had me in its grip. Based on my own Bible study and research, I set about to imagine how, stunned and confused by this turn of events, he might have lived the rest of his life. How would his encounter with Jesus on Calvary, have changed him? I drew upon my knowledge of psychology to visualize how this man, recently a ruthless insurrectionary, may have experienced and understood first that moment, and then the tumultuous decades that followed.
The result is fiction – part adventure story, part history – but it closely follows Biblical events. I studied and researched ancient writings, and read extensively in books and manuscripts relating to the period, and I I have tried to see with the eyes of Christians living in the First Century and to grasp how they must have received some of Jesus’ core teachings.
A Life for Barabbas was published in 2020. Order it today – or ask for it at your favorite Christian bookstore.
You can read more about the story of this book in my post, Writing Barabbas.
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