- Pontius Pilate: I wait for no one! Least of all - a woman.
- Commander Claudius: Perhaps there's one woman worth waiting for.
- Pontius Pilate: No woman!
- Commander Claudius: Not even that one?
- [nods in the direction of Salome]
- John the Baptist: Herod has broken the seventh commandment. He has taken another man's wife. And Herodias is equally guilty, for she lives in adultery. Scorns our God-given law!
- John the Baptist: Be calm, my friends. Righteousness shall rise like a mighty river. Truth shall be clear as crystal. Repent. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Relieve the oppressed. Seek righteousness. For his love will be with you, as a morning dew, and you shall blossom like a rose.
- Princess Salome: What does he say, Marcellus? Tell me!
- Marcellus Fabius: [reading] Remember the law, learned Senator, a Roman may marry only a Roman and I need not tell you the Princess Salome is held in ill repute.
- Princess Salome: Ill repute? Because I enjoyed life here?
- Marcellus Fabius: I cannot ask you to marry me if I had no more status than a slave.
- Princess Salome: I would join you as a slave!
- Princess Salome: So, I - I am banished from Rome. To make certain that Caesar's nephew marry's a Roman - not a "barbarian".
- Princess Salome: Another gallant Roman. Governors, Senators, Commanders. All alike. Men of iron, made to rule. All heartless liars.
- King Herod: Commander, welcome back to Galilee.
- Commander Claudius: I'm very happy to be here.
- King Herod: I trust you - relaxed properly in Rome. I shall enjoy hearing of your conquests, as if they were my own. You must give me an account in detail, my dear Commander. In detail.
- Queen Herodias: Would you say that I have done everything I could to protect my daughter from the King?
- Micha: Well, you could do no more. Sending her to Rome to keep her far from the King.
- Queen Herodias: And now that she is near him and his appetite has grown much keener.
- Micha: Much keener, Your Majesty.
- Queen Herodias: Could her return not be used to my advantage?
- Micha: It is quite within the realm of possibility. Your Majesty, may I suggest, for your sake, that you lose no time in - using - that advantage.
- Queen Herodias: Yes, Micha!
- King Herod: The blossom does justice to the bud.
- Princess Salome: Thank you, Your Majesty.
- King Herod: Or, should I say the radiant flower that bloomed in Rome: beautiful, beyond my expectations.
- Princess Salome: Your Majesty need not trouble. I will find ways to make the time pass.
- King Herod: I'll help you!
- John the Baptist: People of Galilee, Herod is an alien King. He's descended from a desert tribe of heathens!
- John the Baptist: Inequities sit upon the throne! The King has forsaken the people for wine and harlots! And the Queen lives in sinful luxury.
- Commander Claudius: What is the measure of love?
- Princess Salome: What is asked of another and what is granted.
- Commander Claudius: Anything.
- John the Baptist: The crooked path shall be made straight. And the rough ways shall be made smooth, so that we shall receive the salvation of God.
- John the Baptist: The day has come when men must cease to march from one evil to another and know not the Lord.
- Queen Herodias: You threaten me?
- King Herod: You will learn, I am King here. I command who lives and who dies.
- John the Baptist: He is the King of Kings! He will make all the Caesars and the Herods tremble. He will raise the yoke from the oppressed. Right all wrongs. Bring a Day of Judgement upon the evil masters of the world.
- John the Baptist: I have never told the people that I am the Messiah! Only that the Lord has sent me to awaken the conscious of mankind to the coming of the Holy One.
- King Herod: Many people, who hear you denounce me, hear you say you are the Messiah.
- John the Baptist: Then, I have failed him who follows me. For I have not prepared the way as I should have done.
- John the Baptist: I will plead for your soul - and the elimination of vipers! Do what you will with me! The Day of Judgement is coming that will swaddle up all the evil-doers. Vengeance will be the Lord's!
- King Herod: Speak only of religion. Leave the House of Herod to itself.
- John the Baptist: I cannot - for it stands on a foundation of sin. And I have been ordained to root out sin, offer repentance to all who listen. I offer it to you now. Return to God.
- King Herod: How?
- John the Baptist: Give up the throne.
- King Herod: You know that I cannot do. It is my life.
- John the Baptist: I speak of a life everlasting.
- Princess Salome: [King Herod presents a jeweled necklace] It is more fitting that you give it to the Queen.
- King Herod: It is mine to give as I wish.
- Princess Salome: Not mine, to accept.
- King Herod: Then wear it for me. That will be a token between us, that you may know how much - how much you please me.
- Princess Salome: Allow the Queen to please Your Majesty.
- King Herod: Am I to be denied what I want above all? One woman with whom I can find forgetfulness.
- Princess Salome: Your Majesty takes much for granted, even though he is King, and he forgets - the Queen is my mother.
- Commander Claudius: Rome cannot go on as it has - ruling with the sword and the whip. If we are to survive, we must recognize that a new force is coming into the world.
- Pontius Pilate: New force?
- Commander Claudius: The religion of this prophet. It will bring hope to the conquered. It will bring peace to all men - by teaching every manhood to live at peace with his neighbors. This faith will march across the world and win men, where Rome could only conquer them.
- Pontius Pilate: Caesar is the only faith possible for a Roman!
- Pontius Pilate: I know this country better than you. It's ridden with prophets! Right here, in Jerusalem, there's a carpenter that even claims he's the Son of God! Yes, they call him a man of miracles.
- Queen Herodias: You can persuade him.
- Princess Salome: How?
- Queen Herodias: With your matchless beauty! Dance for him tonight.
- Princess Salome: Dance for him? Mother you know who dances for the King, becomes his possession.
- Queen Herodias: Yes, I know the custom.
- Princess Salome: You would have me give myself to...
- Queen Herodias: For the throne, yes!
- King Herod: Where is the Princess? You keep her from me. Command her to appear.
- Queen Herodias: Command her, yourself!
- Princess Salome: All my life I've been surrounded by wickedness. I have lived by false standards. I have held myself unaccountable to anyone. And I have known evil. For the first time, I see there is good in the world.
- John the Baptist: To see good is to be awakened to the Lord.