Claudia et Pontius

Jesus visits Jerusalem to attend the great Spring festival of the Passover. He is optimistic that his teachings and the weight of his following will be able to persuade the Jewish leadership to modify their overtly legalistic view of the practice of their religion towards a more compassionate expression of morality. Although he is welcomed as a conquering hero, it soon emerges that his teachings are regarded as a threat to Jewish unity and the leadership plots to eliminate him, fearing Roman retribution if public disorder breaks out during his visit. Jesus discovers prostitutes and children being sold into slavery when he visits the money changers in the Temple, and angrily disperses all of them with a whip. From that point on, his fate is sealed with the temple leadership.
Pilat, the military administrator of the rebellious province of Judea already knows what is happening through his spies and tax collectors, led by the trusted Centurion soldier Petronius, who had fought alongside Pilat, and who speaks the language of Galilee, the main source of the Christian following. The Centurion has met Jesus in person and is also a secret believer in and follower of his teachings.
Pilat fears instability, as he has been appointed by the traitor Sejanus, executed by Tiberius who has resumed the Throne as Emperor. He fears that an outbreak of disorder in Jerusalem might see him recalled and executed. His wife Claudia, the granddaughter of Augustus Caesar, is a secret follower of Jesus’s teachings and wants Pilat to get Jesus taken to Rome to create a new Pax Romana through his radical teachings. Pilat’s invited guest, Herod puts additional pressure on the Prefect by refusing to judge Jesus after his arrest by the Temple authorities. The angry Hebrew mob is yelling ever louder for the execution of Jesus whom they regard as a blasphemer worthy of death. Pilat is pressured for a just decision from every side.
Pilat addresses this dilemma during a soliloquy, where he begins to understand what Jesus is teaching, but feels insulted by his claim to be King of the Jews, a title he believes only he is entitled to. The play then develops a theme whereby Jesus is not killed, but instead humiliated on the cross. His followers, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, aided by the Centurion and Claudia, both Believers – rescue Jesus from the cross and find him still alive. He is taken to Emmaus and rehabilitated by Cornelius, an old soldier friend of Petronius, and eventually is strong enough to confront the chief prosecutor of Christians, Saul of Tarsus, on the road to Damascus.