Bar-Rabban is the criminal due to be executed alongside Yeshua Ha-Nozri and two others. Because it is Passover, it is customary for the Jewish leadership to set one man free. Though tries to get , the Jewish leader, to pardon Yeshua, he is insistent on choosing Bar-Rabban instead. The irony is that Bar-Rabban is certainly guilty of the crime which Yeshua is accused of—inciting rebellion—and, moreover, has killed a guard in trying to escape.