Posted on 11/22/2008 9:08:57 PM PST by Between the Lines
DES MOINES, Iowa – Don't expect to hear these Bible stories at church.
Cannibalism, rape, a bear that mauls children — this is the Bible?
They're among six stories from the Old Testament acted out in "Terror Texts," a musical at Northwestern College in Orange City.
Adding to the shocking nature of the stories are the theatrics, with actors decked out in Goth attire, a rock band and a mosh pit.
Theater professor Jeff Barker said the obscurity of the stories belies their value.
"We believe we have discovered something that has been lying dormant for many, many centuries," said Barker, who created and directs "Terror Texts."
The musical was first performed at the 1,200 student Christian college in northwest Iowa in February and came back for an encore this fall, with a last performance slated for this weekend.
Barker uses the King James version of the Bible, and actors speak each verse word-by-word. It is not an interpretation or adaptation, like "Godspell" or "Jesus Christ Superstar."
"There's tremendous power waiting when you simply speak and act these stories aloud with faithfulness to the text, not trying to adapt them or add a lot of bits, but just simply play what's written there," Barker said.
Barker views the Bible as a "repository of ancient plays," and when performed they can be seen in a whole new light — even the dark stories.
"I was looking for terror text, stories I can say are thematically tied together because they are frightening and mysterious and terrifying," Barker said. "That's part of what we're saying with this whole project that life and God himself are mysteries."
William Dyrness, a professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., specializes in visual arts in relation to religious tradition.
He said biblical scholars have proposed that much of the Old Testament is poetry and was designed to be sung, especially in the temple as part of worship.
"It's not far from that to think of it as a play," he said. "Theologians have argued the best way to understand the Bible is in terms of it being a great dramatic performance."
He called "Terror Text" a creative variation of that idea.
"This is obviously a very Protestant approach where you're attempting to understand this story so that you can see the way the Bible applies to your life," he said. "You carry it on in your life. You become part of the story."
Student Hannah McBride has several roles in the performance, including as a virgin who gets kidnapped at the end of a story of rape, murder and war. McBride said it has shown her something about herself.
"This particular project has affected the way I view negative emotions — grief, anger, bitterness and spite and hate. We are meant to be emotional people. The Bible in a lot of ways shows us that that's OK," she said. "We need to embrace that we're going to be very, very sad and we won't know what to do with that."
In her role as a virgin, McBride wears a wedding dress that has been destroyed. She describes her look as a "corpse bride."
"It has that image of what could have been great, I ruined," she said.
In a world in which religion often is practiced privately or individually, Barker said he hopes people will understand the Bible better through his performance.
"These mysterious, dark stories of the Old Testament, they bring us face-to-face with the suffering of the world," Barker said. "It says we are capable of great evil and we must not forget these stories and we have some serious things to be accountable for in our own lives as a group and individually."
On the Web: www.myspace.com/terrortextsthemusical
The stories of terror text can be found in: II kings 6:24-7:20; II kings 2:23-25; II samuel 6:1-23; judges 3:12-30; joshua 7:2-26; judges 19-21.
definately Judges, especially where a traveler makes a stop at the tribe of benjamen, the men of the town want to rape him, he offers up his female companion(i really dont know if she is his wife, or to be his wife) they rape her and dies at the doorstep, he cuts her body into to twelve pieces and he places 1 part in each tribe.
What about the bear? I like bears.
Dormant only because people haven't been reading their Bibles for many, many centuries.
Judges 19
A Levite and His Concubine
1 In those days Israel had no king. Now a Levite who lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah...
10 But, unwilling to stay another night, the man left and went toward Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine.
11 When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, “Come, let’s stop at this city of the Jebusites and spend the night.”
12 His master replied, “No. We won’t go into an alien city, whose people are not Israelites. We will go on to Gibeah.” 13 He added, “Come, let’s try to reach Gibeah or Ramah and spend the night in one of those places.”
14 So they went on, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah in Benjamin.
15 There they stopped to spend the night. They went and sat in the city square, but no one took them into his home for the night.
16 That evening an old man from the hill country of Ephraim, who was living in Gibeah (the men of the place were Benjamites), came in from his work in the fields.
17 When he looked and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked, “Where are you going? Where did you come from?”
18 He answered, “We are on our way from Bethlehem in Judah to a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim where I live. I have been to Bethlehem in Judah and now I am going to the house of the LORD. No one has taken me into his house.
19 We have both straw and fodder for our donkeys and bread and wine for ourselves your servants—me, your maidservant, and the young man with us. We don’t need anything.”
20 “You are welcome at my house,” the old man said. “Let me supply whatever you need. Only don’t spend the night in the square.”
21 So he took him into his house and fed his donkeys. After they had washed their feet, they had something to eat and drink.
22 While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.”
23 The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this disgraceful thing.
24 Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don’t do such a disgraceful thing.”
25 But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go.
26 At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.
27 When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28 He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.
29 When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel. 30 Everyone who saw it said, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Think about it! Consider it! Tell us what to do!”
Judges 20
1 Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out as one man and assembled before the LORD in Mizpah.
2 The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand soldiers armed with swords.
3 (The Benjamites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said, “Tell us how this awful thing happened.”
4 So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, said, “I and my concubine came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night.
5 During the night the men of Gibeah came after me and surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died.
6 I took my concubine, cut her into pieces and sent one piece to each region of Israel’s inheritance, because they committed this lewd and disgraceful act in Israel.
7 Now, all you Israelites, speak up and give your verdict.”...
The Levite lied in that they didn’t want to kill him, they wanted to rape him. He sent his concubine outside in his place so that he wouldn’t get raped.
Not to say the people who raped his concubine to death were not guilty, but he gave a white-washed version of events to make himself look better.
Amazing that the Bible tells these stories.
I think most people don't read thru the books of Kings, Judges, etc. because it's "all Old Testament stuff".
That was my thinking anyway, but I can see there is a lot of good stuff in there about the nature of man in tose stories. It's apparent that God doesn't shy away from and very well understands man's (and woman's) baser motivations and darker side.
“there is a lot of good stuff in there about the nature of man in tose stories. It’s apparent that God doesn’t shy away from and very well understands man’s (and woman’s) baser motivations and darker side.”
There’s also a lot of good lessons about what happens when Israel allows itself to be influenced by those who do not worship God. About what happened when the Kings allowed idol worship, including Baal worship which included sexual rituals and child sacrifice, to dilute the religion of the prophets in the name of “tolerance.”
It seems to have a more metaphoric ring to it however. It seems to be the story of Sodom in Genesis 19.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
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