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 Pontius Pilate tries to get Joseph Kaifa, 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.