Mary Magdalene: I don't know how to love him. I don't know why he moves me. He's a man, he's just a man. And I've had so many men before, in very many ways, he's just one more.
Judas: I have no thought at all about my own reward, I really didn't come here on my own accord. Just don't say I'm damned for all time.
Jesus: Why, then, am I scared to finish what I started? What you started! God, I didn't start it.
Annas: He's just another scripture thumping hack from Galilee.
Caiaphas: The difference is they call him king, the difference frightens me.
Jesus: My God! My God! Why have you forgotten me?
Judas: Hey woman, your fine ointment, brand-new and expensive, should have been saved for the poor. Why has it been wasted? We could've raised maybe 300 silver pieces or more. People who are hungry, people who are starving, they matter more than your feet and hair.
Jesus: If you knew all that I knew, my poor Jerusalem, you'd understand, but you close your eyes. While you live, your troubles are many, poor Jerusalem. To conquer death, you only have to die. You only have to die.
Jesus: Then, I was inspired. Now, I'm sad and tired. After all, I've tried for three years, seems like thirty.
Jesus: Surely you're not saying we have the resources to save the poor from their lot? There will be poor always, pathetically struggling, look at the good things you've got! Think while you still have me, move while you still need me. You'll be lost and you'll be sorry when I'm gone.
Pontius Pilate: Don't let me stop your great self-destruction. Die if you want to you misguided martyr. I wash my hands of your demolition. Die if you want to you innocent puppet.
Jesus: Will no-one stay awake for me? Peter? John? James? Will none of you wait for me? Peter? John? James?
Crowd Soloists: Tell me, Christ, how you feel tonight! Do you plan to put up a fight? Do you feel that you've had the breaks? What would you say were your big mistakes? Do you think that you may retire? Did you think you would get much higher? How do you view your coming trial? Have your men proved at all worthwhile?
Caiaphas: One thing I'll say for him, Jesus is cool.
King Herod: I only ask things I'd ask any superstar. What is it that you have got that puts you where you are?
Caiaphas: We turn to Rome to sentence Nazareth. We have no law to put a man to death. We need him crucified! It's all you have to do! We need him crucified, it's all you have to do.
Jesus: You liar, you Judas.
Jesus: Why should I die? Would I be more noticed than I ever was before? Would the things I've said and done matter anymore?
Judas: All your followers are blind, too much heaven on their minds.
Answer: In the song "Jesus Christ, Superstar, " Judas highlights several anachronisms. He makes comparison to Buddha, about whom he likely would have known little to nothing. He references Muhammad, not yet born. He even brings up the concept of mass communication, also unheard of in the ancient world. However, this number is meant to take place in a spiritual realm, out of place and time, where past and present have no actual meaning. Judas is shown to be eternally struggling with Jesus, his message, his methods, and whether or not he is truly divine. But also, let's face it...like its contemporary, "Godspell, " the entire film is pretty much an anachronism. For starters, it's a rock operetta which puts just about everything in modern terms in its language ("what's the buzz") and its cinematography (Judas being chased down by tanks, for example). If you are looking for temporal realism, there are many options for that. This film is far more allegorical than it is historical.
Michael Albert
The ghost of Judas is speaking from a modern perspective. Consider the lyric "If you'd have come today you would have reached a whole nation, Israel in 4BC had no mass communication." He is in the here and now, not in the times Jesus was alive.