The eve of a great feast - and a great Event...

Jerusalem, the Holy City of a Chosen People, lies sleeping...

The full moon of the Passover, high in a cloudless sky, brings into cold and sharp relief the Temple... casts light and shadow on the narrow streets of the inner city....

Through these streets the elders of the Sanhedrin are hurrying to the house of Caiaphas, the High Priest...

While in the upper room of a private house the prophet from Nazareth sits down to break bread with his disciples...

In the upper city the cry of the watch rings out from the turrets of the Praetorium, the Roman fortress, symbol and sign of conquest... while beneath, in the dungeons, three men lie in chains, awaiting execution: Dismas, Gestas and their leader, Barabbas...