The Lost Gospels of Mariam and Judas: The Screenplay

By Harry Lee and Reverend William Williams

This screenplay adaptation, formatted to the correct Hollywood feature-film standard, is a strikingly visual new interpretation of the story of Yeshua, who is better known as Jesus Christ. The story shown in the Scenes, Action, Shots, Character, and Dialogue, is a secular and logical explanation for the mystery that has puzzled humanity for the last two-thousand years. Who really was the Galilean man named Yeshua, and how did he become the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Could this new version of the canonical gospels be a rational, non-supernatural, answer to that mystery?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665569804

Harry Lee

Harry Lee is the author of screenplays, narrative prose, non-fiction, and plays for the stage. A skeptic and freethinker from a very young age, his studies of epistemology, eschatology, and the philosophy of religion influence his writings, which tend to explore the tragic and comic aspects of humanity’s individual and collective experience.

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© 2022 Harry Lee. All rights reserved.

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www.thelostgospelsofmariamandjudas.com

NOTICE: This original screenplay, The Lost Gospels of Mariam and Judas,

and the original work of the same title upon which it is based, are

fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of

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Published by AuthorHouse  09/21/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6981-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6980-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022916164

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may

no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

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FADE IN:

1

EXT. DESERT - DAY

The weather is hot, the sun intense. Three people are walking up a hill. SIMON ISCARIOT is fortyish, a stone mason, with dark hair, his skin deeply tanned from outdoors work, he is a very physical man who other men dare not cross. His son, JUDAS ISCARIOT, is fifteen years old, a construction apprentice who is a younger version of his father, except Judas has ruddy skin and carrot-colored hair. Judas leads a donkey. The wife and mother, CYBOREA, is mid-thirties but already aged by the primitive life they lead, her hair is auburn with red highlights. They each carry a bundle of belongings, the donkey also carries a load tied to the crosstree on its back. At the top of the hill the man stops. In a moment the boy and woman walk up and stand beside him. Simon points at something ahead of them.

SIMON ISCARIOT

Nazareth.

In the distance is a village. Cyborea puts her fingers to her forehead, and closes her eyes.

CYBOREA

Bless us, Adonia, and let us find peace and work and lodging in Nazareth.

The man, boy, woman and donkey begin walking down the hill.

2 EXT. DESERT - BOTTOM OF HILL - DAY

FOUR BOYS are gathered in a group. THREE OF THE BOYS are taunting and provoking the FOURTH BOY. The man, boy, woman and donkey stop a short distance away, but are not noticed by the four boys, and they can hear what the four boys are saying. All of the boys are teenagers, and the OLDEST of the three boys is trying to take a hunting sling away from the fourth boy. That fourth boy is YESHUA, who has brown hair and blue eyes in contrast to the dark hair and dark eyes of the other boys.

OLDEST OF THREE BOYS

You cannot hunt. Give me the sling. Run home to stada.

The fourth boy punches that boy in the face.

FOURTH BOY

Shut your mouth or I will kill you!

All three of the boys attack the fourth boy. The fourth boy is knocked to the ground. Two of the attackers hold him down while the oldest boy kicks the fourth boy.

JUDAS ISCARIOT

Father, it is not fair. There are three of them to his one.

SIMON ISCARIOT

It is not our concern.

JUDAS ISCARIOT

But father, you are always telling me we should help those in need. I want to help him.

SIMON ISCARIOT

We do not know the rights and wrongs of this affair. Perhaps he deserves the beating.

JUDAS ISCARIOT

Then let them beat him one at a time, not all at once. Mother, should we let three beat one?

CYBOREA

What would you do?

JUDAS ISCARIOT

I will fight one so he has only two to fight.

CYBOREA

(a wearied voice)

He is the son of his father.

SIMON ISCARIOT

(laughs)

Go then.

Judas selects a slender but stout stick of firewood from a bundle on the donkey’s load. Judas runs to the fight, and in a surprise attack...

1) Judas swings the stick and hits the kicking boy across the back of his head and shoulders. That boy falls hard to the ground...

2) the other two attackers look around in shock giving the boy being held down a chance to jerk an arm free...

3) and the boy grabs a fist-sized rock from the ground and smashes it into the face of one of the remaining two attackers, that boy yells and falls away...

4) the fourth boy leaps to his feet and goes for the third attacker, punching him viciously, and quickly defeats him...

5) the fourth boy turns to look at the boy who assisted him. The fourth boy is breathing hard, spitting out blood from a blow to his face.

FOURTH BOY

Many thanks for your help. My name is Yeshua. I am called Yeshua the Nazarene.

JUDAS ISCARIOT

I am Judas. The son of Simon Iscariot.

Simon Iscariot and Cyborea have walked up and are now standing right there.

SIMON ISCARIOT

Yeshua? Is Mary Salome your mother? Is her mother, Anne, your grandmother?

YESHUA

Yes.

SIMON ISCARIOT

You will not remember me. I last saw you when you were just born, in Bet Lehem, fifteen years ago it was, before Yosef took all your family to the land of the pharaohs. Anne is my sister. So I am your great-uncle. This is your aunt, Cyborea, and Judas is your cousin. You and Judas both fight your adversaries like demons! You two will get along famously.

CYBOREA

How is Mary Salome, and Yosef, are they well?

YESHUA

Mother is fine. And Yosef. They will be happy to see you.

SIMON ISCARIOT

When did you return from Egypt?

YESHUA

It was two years ago. We have lived in Nazareth since then.

3 SUPER: 10 YEARS LATER - THE TOWN OF ZIPPORAH

4 EXT. MARKETPLACE - DAY

In a stone-paved open area, right inside the city walls, shoppers bargain with merchants at street stalls. There is a marked difference in the manner of dress between the people in the market square. Some dress in more colorful and expensive clothing, THE SADDUCEES, who operate the shops and stalls. The majority of the people are shoppers who wear plain, unadorned clothing, THE PHARISEES.

Some Pharisees also have practical items for sale such as vegetables and woven cloth that two women, MARY SALOME, a brown-haired slender woman about forty years old, and Cyborea, are displaying on a spread out cloth.

On the street, passing near to Mary Salome and Cyborea, are FOUR ROMAN SOLDIERS who guard two chained wretched PRISONERS.

5 EXT. CONSTRUCTION SITE - DAY

Two men in their mid twenties, Yeshua and Judas, and two older men, their fathers, YOSEF HELI, about fifty-years old with white hair and beard, and Simon Iscariot, are working with stone and wood. The FOREMAN, an older man, looks at the sundial and sees it is quitting time.

FOREMAN

We are finished for the day.

YOSEF

Simon, would you and your family join us for the evening meal?

Each man carries a tool bag. Yeshua has a SMALLER BAG on a belt at his waist. From the small bag Yeshua takes a leather thong with a stone carved AMULET and puts the thong over his head.

6 EXT. MARKETPLACE - DAY

The four men approach to where Mary Salome and Cyborea are preparing to leave. Simon and Cyborea have also aged ten years though they are both healthy and of good cheer.

MARY SALOME

Yeshua, did you have a good day, my son?

YESHUA

Yes, mother. And you?

The four men and two women pass through the gate at the city wall, adjacent to the stone-paved market square, to begin the walk home.

7 EXT. NAZARETH - DAY

The village has homes made of stacked, plastered stones. They pass through a gate into the courtyard of the home of Yosef and Mary Salome. An older woman ANNE, grey-haired and grandmotherly, and a younger woman MARY JACOB, heavy and plain looking, in her late twenties, are cooking something in an iron pot hanging from a chain over a burning fire. SALOME, another heavy plain looking young woman, is tending a rock-stacked oven cooking bread dough into loaves.

8 INT. YOSEF AND MARY SALOME’S HOME - NIGHT

MONTAGE

-- burning candles light the room while Yosef says the prayer...

YOSEF

Blessed are You, Adonai, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth.

-- passing the loaves of bread; pouring wine from stoneware jugs into cups, and passing bowls of food...

-- eating, talking, laughing...

-- the men sit at the table and point to and discuss the contents of scrolls, while the women clean up from supper...

-- Simon, Cyborea, and Judas are at the door, leaving to go to their own home...

YESHUA

Good night, cousin. See you tomorrow.

END MONTAGE.

9 EXT. NAZARETH - DAY

At dawn, Yeshua, Judas, Yosef, Simon, Mary Salome, Cyborea, and other TOWNSFOLK, are preparing to walk to Zipporah for the work day. The men are carrying their tool bags, the women have baskets of vegetables and cloth.

10 EXT. ZIPPORAH - DAY

As they approach the town they come across an OLD MAN with long white hair and white beard sitting on the ground inside a circle he has drawn in the sand. He has two wooden wands, one in each hand, and is muttering some sort of incantation.

YOSEF

You see more and more of these fanatics, beseeching one god or another. They are everywhere.