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What Might it Have Been Like?

“Bibliodrama” is a creative study that combines the close reading of a Bible text with interactive participation. It offers a way to become part of a Biblical scene. At least that was my experience with this method.

Living History

If you could choose a time and place to go back in history, where or what might it be? I find the beginning of Christianity to be interesting. The Acts of the Apostles offers an insight in the lives of Jesus’ followers after his death. What might it have been like? Jerusalem would have been experiencing a time of religious and social turmoil. Jesus’ followers had been spreading the message of the resurrection which caused conflict among the Jews who rejected this claim. Jerusalem was occupied by Rome and their presence added to an already tense situation. Any movement associated with Jesus would have been suppressed by the Sanhedrin as they desperately tried to maintain their authority within the Jewish community.

Spreading The News

Jerusalem was, and still is, a diverse city with people from various backgrounds and cultures. In the middle of all this diversity, tension, and suppression, the early followers were actively spreading the message of Jesus as the Messiah, bringing hope and renewed strength in the power of salvation. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they went out to proclaim the good news of Christ throughout Jerusalem and beyond. The text from the First Reading (Acts 9:26-31) on the Fifth Sunday of Easter, reports of what happened to Saul, the ambitious Jesus hater and persecutor of the early followers. Struck by a blinding light and confronted by the voice of Jesus himself, Saul's life changed forever. It is a scene that I would want to experience.