"Let's Go to Golgotha!" is a 1975

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

story by

Garry Kilworth Garry Douglas Kilworth (born 5 July 1941 in York) is a British science fiction, fantasy and historical novelist, and a former Royal Air Force cryptographer. Early life Kilworth was raised partly in Aden, South Arabia, the son of an airman. Havin ...

Plot summary

Time-travelling

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...

s go on a "

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

Tour". The tour operator warns the tourists that they must not do anything to disrupt history: specifically, when the crowd is asked whether to spare Jesus or Barabbas, the tourists must all join the call "Give us Barabbas!" (a priest

absolve Absolution is a traditional theological term for the forgiveness imparted by ordained Priest#Christianity, Christian priests and experienced by Penance#Christianity, Christian penitents. It is a universal feature of the historic churches of Chri ...

s them from any guilt for so doing). However, when the moment comes, the protagonist suddenly realizes that the crowd condemning Jesus to the cross is composed entirely of tourists from the future, and that no actual Jewish

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

ites of 33 AD are present at all.

Publication history

"Let's Go" was originally published in ''

the Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

Weekly Review'', on December 15, 1974; a ''Times'' contest-winner, it was Kilworth's first published science fiction. It has subsequently been republished in ''Gollancz - Sunday Times Best SF Stories'' (1975), ''The Best Science Fiction Stories'' (1977), ''Let's Go To Golgotha: the Gollancz - Sunday Times Best SF Stories'' (1979), ''Constellations: Stories of the Future'' (1980), ''Zielzeit'' (German language, 1985), ''Les ramages de la douleur'' (French language, 1988), ''Not the Only Planet'' (1998), and ''The Young Oxford Book of Timewarp Stories'' (2001).

Reception

John Clute John Frederick Clute (born 12 September 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature who has lived in both England and the United States since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part o ...

has referred to the story as a "heavily ironic parable", and Paul Kincaid has called it "excellent" and "a fine harbinger of ilworth'scareer".The SF Site Featured Review: On My Way to Samarkand: Memoirs of a Travelling Writer
by Paul Kincaid, at the SF Site; published 2013; retrieved July 30, 2014

References

Depictions of Jesus in literature Short fiction about time travel Religion in science fiction 1975 short stories Crucifixion of Jesus {{1970s-sf-story-stub