THE RABBI FROM TARSUS
BY PHILLIP GOBLE
a dramatic portrayal of
Paul the Apostle
The Rabbi From Tarsus was presented April 27, 1981, at the Van
Lear in Jerusalem, Israel and was later produced as a VHS Home
Video by Word, Inc, then a subsidiary of ABC-TV. It was also
published by Tyndale House Publishers, the publishers of the
Living Bible, in Wheaton, Illinois.
CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs arc hereby warned that The
Rabbi From Tarsus is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected
under the copyright laws of the United States of America, and of
all countries covered by the International Copyright Convention
(including the Dominion of Canada and the rest of the British
Empire), and of all countries with which the United States has
reciprocal copyright relations. All rights, including
professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing,
public reading, radio broadcasting, television, and the rights of
translation into foreign languages are strictly reserved.
Particular emphasis is laid on the question of readings,
permission for which must be obtained from the Author in writing.
All inquiries should be addressed to PHILLIP GOBLE, c/o Artists
For Israel International P.O. Box 2056, New York NY 10163
(212) 245-4188 or contact through the Internet World Wide Web at
http://www.afii.org The acting rights of this play, both
amateur and professional, are controlled exclusively in this way
on a per performance basis, and without permission in writing no
performance of this play may be given.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 81-50141
ISBN 0-8423-5124-8, paper
Copyright (c) 1981 by Phillip Goble All rights reserved.
First Printing, August 1981
Printed in the United States of America.
PHIL GOBLE
presents
his single character play
THE RABBI FROM TARSUS
based on the
biblical life of Paul the Apostle
FOREWORD
The medium of dramatic entertainment may well be the most
singularly effective communication in our contemporary society.
For too many years it has spoken with little or no accent to the
glory of G-d. Now we see that tragic omission being remedied. As
the director of The A.D. Players at Grace Theater in Houston, I
have seen community appetite affirm and encourage this calling.
As the actress who played Corrie Ten Boom in The Hiding Place, I
have seen a G-d-honoring statement presented with excellence, and
have watched it make an impact on the whole world. As a Bible
believer who loves the theater, I have seen hope for the artist
who yearns to use his craft as a mounting for the jewel of God's
Word. Highly skilled and intensely dedicated artists such as
James Collier, Tom Key, Tedd Smith, Ken Medema, and a host of
others have also seen this hope realized in their own careers.
To this "so great a cloud of witnesses" Phil Goble adds his
professionally accredited skills and whole hearted devotion. When
I first met him, I knew little about The Rabbi from Tarsus other
than that Phil had devoted his love and career to this project.
Commercial theater is a demanding as well as rewarding
profession. Phil had earned a place of security in this fiercely
competitive field. I knew he must have a tremendous dedication
to take on the disciplines of actor and playwright, as well as to
risk his established career on a venture of faith. The Rabbi
From Tarsus offers an evening in the theater that speaks to
matters of time and eternity. The script is emotionally
involving and its accuracy evidences the painstaking care of Phil
Goble's doctoral research. Phil's training and expertise as an
actor bring a beguiling versatility to his characterization.
There is comedy woven into this heroic story of Paul. There is
the gentle thread of pathos as we listen in on the thoughts of
this scholarly apostle. There is the awesome dynamic of true
drama as we view the mighty Jew brought low by imprisonment and
lifted high by the power of G-d. And there is the awareness of
commitment's call and its price as we witness the closing hours
of one noble believer who chose to be true to the Messiah unto
death. I am delighted that Tyndale House has joined with Phil in
bringing to the theater the mighty apostle Paul, the rabbi from
Tarsus.
Jeannette Clift George
CAST
OF CHARACTERS
PAUL, 60, the rabbi-apostle from Tarsus
It is winter, A.D. 65 in a dungeon cell in Rome.
SYNOPSIS
OF SCENE
[ACT ONE]
Paul's dungeon cell in Rome.
A few minutes before dawn.
[ACT TWO]
The same.
A few minutes have passed.
SETTING: Two slimy dark walls form the corner of the cell. The
same stone covers the ceiling where light streams through a
barred hole and forms the shadow of a slanted cross on the murky
wall. In the corner of the cell is Paul's eating area, where he
can sit and talk with Luke, who is presumably peering down at
Paul's solitary confinement from the hole in the ceiling. In
this corner on the floor against the back wall are a wooden bowl
for water and an old wooden plate containing a dried-looking
piece of bread. To the left, and nearer to the audience, is an
old basket containing two scrolls and a tentmaker's needle (it
looks like a crochet needle with a wooden handle). Against the
right wall, there is a short, low, stone bench. Against the left
wall, there is another seat for Paul, an old box made of wood.
There is just enough light streaming in from the hole in the
ceiling to illuminate Paul's face when he sits and moves in these
cramped quarters.
Note: the numbered notes after certain Hebrew words (1,2, etc)
are given in a glossary at the end of the play to help the actor
or director unfamiliar with Hebrew.
THE RABBI
FROM TARSUS
[ACT ONE]
SCENE ONE
(Lights come up. Paul is asleep on the floor by the small stone
bench. He wakes slowly, shivering, yawns, and rises. He is a
thin, energetic man of sixty, with a wispy, gray moustache and
beard, and shoulder-length gray hair crowned by a full black
yarmulkeh (woven skullcap). He is wearing an unbelted,
long-sleeved, floor-length tunic that is so filthy and tattered
that he looks more like a leper than an apostle. The ravelings
hanging from the tunic combine with the tzitzit (fringes) on his
old dirty tallit (prayer shawl) to give him the appearance of an
old chassidic beggar. His sandals are worn and his legs, what we
can see of them, are dirty and aged. He walks with a slight
limp, and a three-foot-long, rusty chain is shackled to his
wrists. As the old rabbi rises he sings, at first softly, then
with increasing volume.
PAUL:
(Singing) Beed-vahr Ha-shem shah-mah-yeem nah-ah-soo. By the Word
of the L-rd were the heavens made. Yeesh-lahch d'vahr-oh
y'veerpah-aim vee-mah-late meen ha-keh-vair. G-d sent His Word
and healed them and delivered them from the grave.
(Speaking) Luke! Wake up!
(Smiles, shivering)
Boker tov! (1) Did you doze off too, Luke? Doctors shouldn't
fall asleep on their patients! But it's morning anyway, isn't
it? You can't even hear the Roman roosters down here in this
solitary confinement cell! Doctor, am I getting hard of hearing?
Speak up! I said, it is morning, isn't it? Did Demas bring word
on Nero yet? (Paul empties on the floor the contents of a basket
containing a tentmaker's needle and a couple of scrolls) Yes,
this morning. Wake up, Luke. My final hearing is at dawn!
(Pacing, irritated)
I specifically instructed Demas to bring us word on Nero before
the guards come for me! He told you about Pudens and Claudia,
didn't he? Their informants are going to try to find out Nero's
private reaction to my first defense speech. Demas hasn't even
been here since yesterday?
(Tired, crossing to sit on the floor)
(Sighing) Lukas, Lukas, Lukas, Lukas, Lukas, Lukas. ... you are
a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
(Picking up harp, laughing)
What fools for G-d we doctors are! Me a Jewish doctor of the law
of Moses; you a Gentile doctor of the body, Luke!
(Laughing) I can just see you now, with your most unwomanly,
white beard and this pregnant bulge under your cloak. It's a
miracle you were able to slip this past the gate. Did you know
this is genuine algumwood? Yes. Like King David's harps in the
Temple.
(Playing softly)
I had a dream last night, about the song I taught Silas at
Philippi fifteen years ago ... and about the earthquake ... when
G-d rescued us from prison. Then I woke up ... in prison again.
(Pause) There's nothing like music to lift your spirits, Luke.
(Playing) But I don't play just to old Saul ... like King David
did to my ancestor Saul. I make melodies in my heart to the
L-rd.
(Sniffs, gets up to put the harp down, and
moves to sit on an old box against the wall,
looking around at his cell with a look that
is half sardonic, half amused)
When I was first shown my sumptuous quarters, the pungent smell
made me think some Roman latrine drained down here. Then slowly
I began to get the picture: This is a Roman latrine!
(Laughs) Nero, you subtle poet, you! Are you trying to tell me
something? Here's a line for you:
(Sniffs) Oh, to awake in the morn to the smell of human waste ...
(spotting a rat on the floor)
and the pitter-patter sound of soft little feet-little
feet--little rats' feet!
(Throws a wooden bowl at the rat)
And this bread they gave me already has a generous supply of...
green mold on it ... which appears to be alive. The baker
obviously doesn't know whom he's feeding down here ... or maybe
he does. Luke, I think I'll call this place,
ha-mah-lohn ha-kloom-nee-keem.
(Laughs) What? That's Hebrew, Doctor, for the "Hotel Good-For-
Nothing!"
(Rises)
The chef should be informed that I am a dignitary who has dined
in the filthiest dungeons in the empire, I am used to the vilest
traif (2) under heaven, and I demand to know if this is the worst
he can do!
(Paul stares at the shadow of the cross on
the wall)
Yet, somehow, L-rd, when I think about you, this dungeon makes a
fitting apostle's scriptorium. We ARE the scum of the earth!
(Yawning, moving) Doctor, what did you think of my first trial?
(Crossing to the basket to get his scroll)
My first trial! You were awake weren't you?
(Stopping and looking up, to the
L-rd:)
Oi. I ask for a lawyer and you give me a doctor!
(To Luke:) Did you notice the puzzled look on Nero's face? for a
twenty-eight-year-old g-d, he certainly doesn't know much about
Judaism! How do you explain Judaism to a demon-possessed madman?
(Pause) By letter? Yes, I wish I could.
(To Luke:)
What do you suppose he's thinking? I don't think he does either.
He's too busy hosting blood baths at the Circus Neronis. I'm
trying to see the L-rd in this. Why has G-d made Nero, of all
people, the world's final authority on what is and is not the
true Jewish faith?
(Pause, listening to Luke)
I'm not saying that, Luke! Granted, Judaism is a legally
protected religion. Caesar is the final judge of the Roman
Supreme Court. But ... Nero?
(Sitting on the bench)
He wouldn't know a good mohel (3) from a bad boil!
(A glimmer of hope) Luke, I've been thinking! I must have made
SOME impression on Nero! Otherwise, why did he send me back
into custody? Or even give me another trial this morning?
(Pause, listening)
A mere routine procedure, you think? I know, but ... (Pause) so
... very shortly, I will either be declared guilty and
be beheaded or the death sentence will be commuted and my life
Will be spared.
(Rising and moving like a caged animal)
But what have I done? The charges are utterly ridiculous. What
crime have I committed? Against the law of Moses? Or the Jewish
Temple? Or the Roman government?
(Sits on the box, throwing his wooden plate
at the rat under the stone bench)
I put it to my fellow prison rats! Stop trying to sneak a bite
of my last piece of bread, and answer this question: How about
it, cellmates? Is the Jewish high priest right? Do I look like
a treasonable, heretical, rabble-rouser? Me? The Apostle Paul?
(Smiling, looking from rat to rat)
What's the verdict, my red-eyed jury?
(To himself, his smile fading)
Even these rats know I'm in for more time than they are! It's
hard to believe, Luke. For the past eight years, most of
the time, I've been living in prisons. (Reminded) And time is
running short! We've got to finish that letter to Timothy! Is
your stylus sharpened, Luke?
(Picking up the wooden plate)
And please, Doctor, write legibly!
(To the L-rd:)
I ask for a scribe and you give me a doctor!
(Sighing, suddenly deeply moved)
O Timothy, my son! My son, Timothy! How I wish you were here!
You have been like a son to me in all my trials! How little time
there is, and so much to write you!
(Swallowing to speak)
Luke, I have no one like him. Selfless, full of concern and
loyalty. .. but he's so young! And timid! The false teachers
and the troublemakers in Ephesus are violent men. Alexander the
coppersmith will make a stew pot out of him! Hashem, (4) Rabbono
shel olam, (5) if I die this morning, is this how I must leave
all the congregations you gave me during my ministry as an
apostle in Ephesus? To a soft-spoken Jewish man not even
thirty-five years old! Timothy! My successor!
SCENE TWO
(Listening, alarmed)
Who's that coming down the stairs, Luke?
(Moving to stand under the hole in the
ceiling)
Demas! You made it! Baruch ha-shem! (6) Did you get to speak to
the brothers in Caesar's household? Yes, Linus too! And
Eubulus! Wonderful! What did Pudens and Claudia say? (Startled)
What? Nero is toying with what? Executing me on the grounds ...
that I'm not a Jew? The chassid of all chassidim (7)--I'm not a
Jew!?!
(Suddenly struck with a fit of laughter,
then, with an afterthought of
realization, becoming angry)
Rats! Rats! Rats! So that's what the G-d of this world is
sharpening his teeth on! Charging me with the crime of inventing
an illegal religion! How charming! A foreign superstition!
Distinct from Judaism! Without its legal protection by the
Roman law! So that's what Nero is toying with!
(Coming down to the audience with an aside.)
He knows I can't be made a scapegoat like Simon Peter. I proved
I was not in Rome last summer at the time of his little fire.
Wouldn't he love to crucify ME upside-down! But 1, Saul, have a
Roman name, Paulus, Paul, and civis Romanus sum. I am a
Roman citizen!
(Pause)
(Sitting on the bench)
(suddenly sad, remembering his old friend)
And old Cephas, Simon Peter bar Jonah, was just an old fisher Jew
from Galilee ... and many of the other believers ... Nero
crucified ... and burned alive ... and threw to the wild dogs in
the arena ... (Pause) While he acted like some great, blind
Homer, reciting his poetry to the tune of his lyre, declaring his
poems will live forever. I doubt if they will live till
Passover! But Nero is the L-rd of his own life and Caesar is
the L-rd of this evil world. He's had his belly full of me! Who
do I think I am-a skinny little rabbi running all over his Roman
Empire proclaiming that someone greater than Nero is L-rd of the
world, the Jewish Messiah!
(Moving to the ceiling hole)
Luke, he probably breaks a lyre string every time he thinks about
me! He granted me clemency during my first trial! That was two
years ago when he said he'd never heard of me ... but I sensed
the demon in him knew me well! Now the Devil has put me in
prison again to test me. Shema Yisrael Adonoi Eloheynoo Adonoi
Echad. Hear 0 Israel, the L-rd our G-d is one.... And we shall
love him with all our being. Nero, tell us: Are you the Beast,
the false Messiah from hell, who will kill millions of my Jewish
people at the time of Jacob's trouble, or are we Jews to expect
another? Luke, what do you think?
(Pause)
No, that's right, Nero can't be the false Messiah. The prophet
Danee-yel (8) did say the false Messiah would defile the Temple
in Jerusalem, and fat Nero is too lazy to make the trip! So now
he's toying with the idea of saying I'm not a Jew. Mozel tov!
(9) "Rabbi" Nero thinks he has found an excuse to circumcise my
head! I suppose he will put it on a platter with that other
non-Jew, Yochannan ha-maht-beel, John the baptizer! When that
proud liar Satan lies, he loves to lie big! And all the little
Neroes of this world believe him in their pride! Our blind
hearts tell us we are gods, Luke. But our bowels speak more
truthfully: We are fallen, evil-smelling clay! Nero, I have no
weapon of this world to fight you. My only sword is the Word of
G-d! But he will conquer you, you grasshopper, and you will have
the burial of a donkey!
(Sitting on the stone bench)
But what do I do, L-rd; how do I win this battle? I've got to
decide. Do I use these last precious minutes thinking how to
defend my own life before Nero at the trial this morning? Or
thinking how to defend the believers who are and will be
endangered by this Beast? If Peter or James had not been
martyred, how would they advise me now? Luke, everyone's
gone, even my family! What would my mother say to me now? My
dear Jewish mother. She would call me by my Jewish name as she
did when I was a boy and say, "What were you-Saul of Tarsus-the
Pharisee of all Pharisees, the chassid of all chassidim, the
Hebrew of all Hebrews, the rabbi of all rabbis, doing getting
mixed up with a roly-poly band of countrified Galileans
and--worse yet--unkosher Gentiles." (Oy vay!) My dear
mother would have jumped out of her grave to think that such a
thing could happen to a nice Jewish boy at the feet of Gam'liel!
And my father! My Jewish father! He paid the great Rabbi
Gam'liel, successor to the immortal Hillel, to make me a rabbi!
(Standing)
My father would have demanded a refund! I can hear him now!
"Gam'liel, Sham'liel! I sent him down a Jew, he sends me back a
goy! (10) Such a bargain!"
(Sitting down)
Luke, now my only Father is in heaven. And my only counselor is
his Word and his Spirit. Nearly all my disciples are deserting
me. With death closing in on me, everyone fears for his own life.
Now I am avoided as a disease, by the very ones who used to
admire me, those chassidim with the koh-hain ha-gah-dohl, the
high priest, who has forced me to live apart, as unclean, a meen,
(11) a meshumad, (12) a traitor to my people, the supreme
apostate, they say, of Judaism. So here I sit, like an owl among
the ruins of a long, hard ministry.
(Rising, moving to the hole)
SCENE THREE
Demas! Luke! What should I do? Work on my defense speech? And
try to win the praises of men? Or of G-d? How shall I win the
praises-- ha Y'hoo-dim (13)--the Jews of men! From the world's
point of view, I am a fool! I want you men to know, I could
have been a sought-after rabbi, a talmeed chah-chahm, (14)
happily married, the father of numerous doting children, the head
of my rich father's tentmaking firm in Tarsus! Praised
by everyone! As my enemies want so badly to be! And many
so-called believers, too! Instead, what kind of life have I
known? Demas, I want you especially to listen to me now, because
the L-rd wants to use you and Luke, but you do not know my manner
of life. Demas, I want you to go warn the Congregation here in
Rome, because they don't either! Some of them love the praise of
men, and are becoming arrogant, especially toward my people
Israel. They must be exhorted: Ha-Yeshua min ha-y'hoo-deem hee,
salvation is from the Jews! They must understand! Why have I
suffered all my life? For the sake of God's chosen! But some
of these Roman congregants think they are so spiritually rich and
superior! Some of them are poor and blind and won't lift a
finger to help my Jewish people. They have forgotten that the
godly people must fight to serve the L-rd and his people in an
evil world. Demas, will you promise me you will exhort the Roman
congregation to help my people Israel? All right--now listen,
Demas, because you weren't with us. In all my thirty years of
ministry, I never tried to win the praise of men. I've been
imprisoned many times. I've been flogged often, and severely.
I've been exposed to death again and again. Five times my
preaching in the synagogues cost me the forty lashes minus one
from my own people. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I
was stoned, four times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a
day in the open sea. I have been constantly on the move. I
have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in
danger from my own people, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in
the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in
danger from false believers.
(Picking up his tentmaker's needle)
I have labored and toiled with my tentmaker's needle, a weaver of
tents, paying my own way, being a burden to no one, often going
without sleep, I have known hunger and thirst and have gone
without food; even now it is winter and I am without a warm
cloak. Besides everything else, I face daily, the pressure of
the tsuris (15) of all the congregations I have helped establish
throughout the world. And what has all this gotten me? The
praises of men? Some praise I get from many of the so-called
"believers" sitting daintily now in the very congregations I
risked my neck to establish.
(Sitting on the box)
They say I'm nothing but a weakling, an arrogant writer but a
yes-man in person; they say I do suspicious things with my hands
(like earn a living!). They say I take no money because I'm not
worth any! It's true! I'm a real road bandit! I rob whole
congregations of the privilege of paying me a salary! Forgive
me!
(Laughing, standing, then sitting
again)
These heroes of criticism have more! They say my preaching is
useless, my personal charisma is nonexistent. I change my mind
impulsively. They say that I'm not Jewish enough when I should
be more Jewish, but, on the other hand, I'm altogether too Jewish
when it's not called for(?) They say I will die and my name will
perish, my message will get nowhere, I'm spiteful, money-hungry,
carnal, meshuggah (16) I hate women, and I am crazy. Luke, other
than that, they have the highest admiration for me! So what do I
do? I've got to make a decision.
(Listening)
(Pause)
Yes, Luke, I knew you were going to say that: Yes, spend
time working on my defense before Nero because it's my
last opportunity and, besides John, I'm the only living apostle.
But, what does the L-rd say?
(Looking at one of his scrolls and reading)
"Seek first the kingdom of God" and his interests, not the
interests of self, and what is the promise? We will be taken
before kings and governors on account of G-d, but G-d will give
us the words to say!
(Rising, pacing excitedly)
Men, I've got it! I've got it! I've got it! I've made a
decision and the L-rd is giving me a plan ... to protect the
brethren! A narrative must be written, a history! My legal
brief before Nero must be baptized into a theological apologetic,
a defense of the faith to protect the Lord's people all over the
world ... until he comes! Also, Demas, I want to share with both
of you the Lord's world strategy. You two will continue it for
me if I'm executed.
(Pause. Moving to the ceiling hole) Demas
what? He slipped out? Demas left? When? After the third beating
with rods? He left? When is he coming back? But I wasn't
finished yet! Nobody listens to us! Nobody cares if the world
goes to hell! We're losing our strategic thrust around the
world. You men may have to take over my work, and he can't even
sit still long enough to listen to it, much less do it! You mean
all this time I've been wasting my breath? (Sigh)
(Dropping to the floor, picking up bowls to
put them in the basket)
Luke, I wanted Demas to hear about the Lord's work, what the L-rd
has been showing me, how the people of G-d must be gathered all
over the world and if possible, protected against Nero and false
teachers, and warned about the false Messiah who's coming! Look
on the floor, Luke. I guess you'll have to write it: the life
of the Messiah and the Acts of the Holy Spirit! I'll explain ...
let this be the world...in bondage to deep darkness and evil.
(Placing basket to his right)
Here's Israel and her King the Messiah, the light of the world.
Here's where I spread the light, establishing congregations ...
(Laying plates and objects down for
places on the "map")
in Galatia, Macedonia, Greece, Asia Minor. Here's the light
shining from Israel to Rome. But now the Prince of Darkness is
coming, who hates the light and the Jews. He will try to make it
illegal for us Jews even to live! Even to be called Jews!
(Rising, pacing)
Luke, here's my plan! The L-rd wants you to write a narrative
(there's no time for me to write it) ... a history--however the
Spirit of G-d leads you. Start with the life of the Moshiach.
Show how he was a loyal Jew falsely accused of being a
revolutionary and a subversive against the Roman government, who
killed him. Then tell how the movement began ... strictly Jewish
... and how it spread ... from the Temple ... (and indirectly
from my persecutions as I drove the believers out of Israel).
Luke, this is important: There is a talmudic saying, "Even a Jew
who sins is still a Jew." So explain how--from anyone's
estimate--both before and after I came to faith, I was still a
Jew --taking increasingly dangerous trips to Jerusalem to prove,
even if the proof cost me my life, that I was still in fact a
Temple-attending, synagogue-preaching, Israel-loyal rabbi who
never taught our people not to keep our customs! Show that
wherever I as a rabbi preached, the Gentiles turned from
idolatry, and only the unbelievers caused trouble ... like they
did when they tried to kill me in Ephesus because of the shemah,
(17) saying,
(Paul affects a "country" or "hill-billy"
accent)
"This rabbi is bad for the idol-making business!" But Luke, you
record the historical truth, that whenever I went before a SANE
Roman leader in government (whether it was Sergio Paulus in
Cyprus, or the magistrates in Philippi, or Gaileo in Corinth, or
Governors Felix or Festus in Caesarea, or even King Agrippa in
Israel) whenever I went before a government leader, I was
regarded as a Jew and my religion as Jewish and legal. So if
Nero IS toying with the idea of killing me because I'm no longer
a Jew, he is toying with a lie from hell! Who is a bigger liar
than the man who says one cannot be a Jew if he believes in the
Moshiach? What does one have to do to become a Jew, by his
majesty Nero's definition? Reject Nero's rival, the Messiah, as
the true L-rd of the world, of course! If that's the definition
of the word "Jew" then 1, Saul of Tarsus, was more Jewish than
anybody! Who ever rejected the carpenter from Nazareth as
Adoneinu (18) more than the tentmaker from Tarsus? Does anyone
honestly think that I don't know all the high priest's arguments?
All the reasons he's giving Nero not to protect me because my
religion supposedly isn't Jewish! I invented most of those
reasons myself to prove the followers of the Nazarene weren't
really Jewish. Luke, who do you suppose was the high priest's
chief prosecutor of these Moshiach-following Jews? You're
looking at him. Are you taking notes, Luke?
SCENE FOUR
Sitting on the box, growing increasingly
sleepy)
Now Stephen, as you know, was a rabbi because he had a following.
He also became an apostle. (He saw the L-rd!) Stephen was an
early leader and so-called wonder-worker of the sect (I thought
it was a heretical cult). Put in the narrative that they were
not called Christianoi, Christians, until much later, and that by
ignorant outsiders, who counted more Greek than Jewish heads in
the congregation at Antioch, which--so what?--is a Roman city
with more Gentiles than Jews! But start fifteen years before
that when there were no Gentiles in the movement, when I was
already a young preaching rabbi, endeavoring to make a name for
myself at the Synagogue of the Freedmen! I preached about the
Messiah, that he would be the Holy One and that he would bring
peace to Israel and the nations! But not like these followers of
the Nazarene! They were proclaiming a crucified dead man to be
the Messiah! And they tried to prove that he was alive at the
right hand of G-d by the eyewitness testimony of five hundred of
his former followers, who claimed to have seen him alive from the
dead. But an "ahm ha-aretz" witness? People of the land? Many
of these so-called "eyewitnesses" I saw as country yokels,
unschooled ignoramuses. Ignoramusi? Luke, what's the Latin
plural of ignoramus? What do you mean, "How should you know?"
This is Rome! And what's a doctor without Latin! Anyway, the
Torah says that any man who is hanged on a tree is accursed by
G-d, damned by G-d, cut off. But the Moshiach, (19) blessed be
he, the Messiah, was to be the Holy One from G-d. And how could
the Holy One of Israel be the Accursed One of Golgotha? (20) It
was a contradiction in terms; it was foolishness to me. As a
chasid, a Pharisee, I perceived this movement as a dangerously
growing cult, enticing ignorant Jews away from Judaism.
(Rising, moving down to the stone bench) So
one day, Luke, I confronted Stephen in front of the Synagogue of
the Freedmen. I said, "Stephen, you are no longer a Jew! You
are destroying many of our people, leading them to believe in a
false g-d--an idol you have shaped in the form of man!"
He called me by my Hebrew name.
He said, "Sha'ul, Saul, G-d has proven the Messiah is the divine
Word he sent.
How?
"By raising him from the dead."
Stephen, I am a Jew. I believe in only one G-d!
"The Father and his divine Word ARE one, echad. There is but one
G-d who has but one Word, who became the Messiah."
Now be reasonable, Stephen. Can anything good come out of
Galilee? Who WAS this nobody from Nazareth? He was a
know-nothing, a law- breaker! He broke the Torah by driving
demons into innocent pigs!
"Saul, have you ever met an innocent pig?"
Stephen, have you no compassion for animals?
"I have more for a crucified Messiah who loved me!"
This Nazarene was a mamzer (21) who worked his magic by occult
powers!
"Saul, he said he did only what he saw his Father doing, and only
in the power of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit!"
He was a Samaritan with a deviant Judaism that is no Judaism at
all!
"Saul, he came to bring what Judaism promised--the bodily
resurrection of the dead!"
Then why isn't everyone raised bodily from the dead?
"Because those who hear and believe must first be raised
spiritually from death to life."
(Pause-Paul moves to the ceiling
hole)
Luke, I was totally blind to what he was talking about. I was
speaking only about external religion.
(Back to Stephen:) Answer this, Stephen. If this Nazarene is
the Prince of Peace, then where is the yah-meem shel Mashiach,
the days of the Messiah, with all the world peace the prophets
said the Messiah would bring?
"Saul, he did not promise peace to a world that rejects him!"
Just where is he, anyway? The prophets said he's supposed to be
sitting on David's throne! I don't see him!
"That's because you're blind to the Kingdom of G-d! And to the
Word of G-d, who is King and will one day be your judge. Where's
your faith, rabbi?"
(Crossing to the stone bench)
My faith is in the law of Moses! Toraht Moshe Torah
min Ha-shah-mah-yeem. The law of Moses is the Torah from heaven!
"But, Saul, in the law of Moses, what does the Word of G-d
demand? What's the legal penalty of justice so that no evil goes
unpunished?"
Death, of course. You know that, Stephen. It is the curse of
transgressing the law.
"Correct, Saul. And when the word of G-d who came in the law of
Moses finally came in the Messiah, what did he offer as justice
and mercy for all transgressors? His death, Saul, of course! He
turned aside his Father's holy fury against all our ungodliness.
He took the penalty of death for us. When he said, "My G-d, why
have you abandoned me?" He was G-d's righteous Word taking our
curse of abandonment from G-d--the curse of hell--upon himself to
rescue us from the punishment we all deserve. He did this so
that all who believe can be raised to a new spiritual existence
with him."
(Sitting on the stone bench)
Stephen, you are talking like a Greek philosopher!
"I am taking like Moses, King David, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, who
all said the same thing! We must be cut free and raised up from
the downward pull of evil by an inward circumcision of the Holy
Spirit!"
(Standing)
Your Messiah is a Haman! You've taken a man and turned him into
an accursed male idol! Stephen, I have a question for you! Did
the prophet say, "Whoever calls on the name of a male idol will
be saved from God's judgment?" No, he said, "Whoever calls on the
name of the L-rd!" Jews do not worship men! You are no longer a
Jew!
(Pause. Sitting triumphantly)
"Saul, we Jews worship G-d through his Word, which is the way to
G-d! And his Word became the Moshiach who is the only way to
G-d!"
(Jumping up, grabbing the tent
needle)
(Screaming) He was the devil! In the pride of his heart, this
devil has said, `I am a G-d and will sit on the throne of a G-d!'
But this Nazarene was a blaspheming man and not a G-d, and if I
had it in my power, I myself would have driven my tent needles
into his hands and feet!
"He was wounded for our transgressions, Saul."
That prophecy is talking about Israel!
"Can Israel die for Israel, Saul? Every man must die for his own
sins!"
That's right, Stephen. I must die for me! Not some mediator!
No mere man can die for another man!
"But he was no mere man, Saul! The prophet said, "Unto us a son
is born, and his name shall be called Mighty G-d, in Hebrew, El
Gee-bor!"
You're interpreting Isaiah literally!
"Because the Messiah was literally seen alive from the tomb!" His
disciples stole the body!
(Stephen begins to speak very rapidly which
crescendoes in Saul's scream at the end of
this speech)
"Saul, he fulfilled what was foretold about him in the law and
the prophets. He was born in Bethlehem, as was predicted, of the
tribe of Judah, of the house of David, as was predicted, He
healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, gave sight to the blind, as
was predicted. He was betrayed by a friend, sold for thirty
pieces of silver, pierced in his hands and feet, yet his body did
not decay, as was predicted! Prophecy after prophecy he
fulfilled-"
(Saul is screaming, his fingers in his
ears)
So he got lucky, now shut up Stephen! Shekit! (22)
SCENE FIVE
(Quietly, to Luke:)
Luke, no mere man could ever change me. My rabbi who ordained me
as a rabbi, Rabban Gam'liel, tried to reason with me: `Saul,
leave these Jewish men alone! If their activity is of human
origin it will utterly fail, like the followings of so many
false messiahs. But, if it is from G-d, you, Saul, will not be
able to stop these Jews; you will only find yourself
fighting against G-d!'
I disagreed with my rabbi, and I was ready for a fight! They
were gaining an enormous number of adherents! In fact, there
were more of them than us; there were only six thousand
Pharisees. We were the Jews of the strictly orthodox persuasion,
and I was sure that we were right and they were wrong, these
Moshiach-following Jews, these Jews who proclaim the Messiah.
Now this was no small matter, because the law of Moses commands
that if any Jew tries to entice another Jew to worship another
G-d other than the G-d of Israel, that person must be stoned; he
must be put to death. For he is worse than one who destroys
Jewish bodies, he destroys Jewish souls by leading them away from
the true G-d and into hell. All this happened shortly before
Stephen was arrested and put on trial for heresy before the
Supreme Court of Israel. I can still see him, standing there
before the Sanhedrin, with what appeared to me at the time to be
the most brazen defiance and disrespect I had ever witnessed.
Immediately, Stephen stood up before the Supreme Court of Israel:
(Stepping out toward the audience, picking up
the basket, Saul assumes the persona of
Stephen, as Saul remembers...)
"You who say that I, Stephen, am no longer a Jew, you are no more
Jews than Herod! Herod has turned the Jewish Temple into a
golden calf for you but the Messiah is breaking camp! To lead
the true Jews out to the world! To build a house of prayer for
all peoples! The G-d of Israel is on the move! But you're
fighting G-d! Like our fathers fought Joseph! Even though G-d
wanted to use Joseph! G-d wanted to make Joseph a worthy vessel
to feed bread to the whole world! But our fathers tried to kill
him like they almost stoned Moses.
"Do you think G-d wants to languish here with you and your
religious pageantry?
"Do you think Israel is the only nation G-d loves? It's time to
disciple the Gentiles! But all you know is religion! You know
nothing about God's suffering love for the world!
"Six hundred years ago, Jeremiah stood where I'm standing and
Jeremiah prophesied against our fathers and their Temple. They
tried to kill him as you are trying to kill me! But G-d
fulfilled his word and that Temple was destroyed!
"You blind guides! Hypocrites! You are trying to ignore the
Messiah's sacrifice and go on with the business of religion as
usual! But I have a word from the L-rd for you! Your temple,
your priesthood, your sacrifices are on the way out! But the
body of G-d's sacrifice and priest, the Messiah, the temple of
his Spirit, although it has been torn down by men, has already
been raised up forever by the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
"Now the isles are waiting for his torah, his teaching! We Jews
have been given a new commission: And it is later than we think!
The new Adam of the new humanity of the new age is already bodily
alive! The new wine of the Holy Spirit, which Moses and Joshua
tasted, is already being poured out on the whole world! We are a
nation of priests! And G-d is commanding us to proclaim the Good
News to all the nations! "But you, you are totally blind, mere
religious functionaries, devoid of the Spirit. You Sadducees!
You love to call King David and Daniel liars by denying the
resurrection! You love to say, `When you're dead, you're dead!'
You Sadducees should know, you've already BEEN dead for
generations! "And you Pharisees, who love to nullify the Word of
G-d with your oral traditions! You think even G-d doesn't know
as much about religion as you do! "You are all leading our
people to destruction! "If you defy these words, which are not
mine but God's, given long ago by his holy prophets and today by
his holy apostles, then you are unregenerate goyim, you are
heathen at heart, pagan hypocrites, masquerading as Jews, and you
will be thrown headlong into the lake of fire because you
always resist God's Word and kill his holy messengers!"
(Paul cuts Stephen off with a muted scream) Aaaaiiiii! Luke we
wanted to kill him. We wanted to beat Stephen's brains out! As
one man we leaped from our seats and we dragged him out of the
Sanhedrin and through the streets of Jerusalem and we tossed him
as a blood-splattered mass of wounds into a stone pit.
(Paul panting, exhausted)
And don't say that I experienced a pang of guilt as Stephen bowed
his head to pray and then looked up and cried out, "I see the Son
of Man standing at the right hand of G-d! L-rd, do not hold this
sin against them!" At that moment I felt no compassion, Luke!
I wouldn't have cared if he had sprouted angel wings and started
to fly! I wanted him dead!
(Listening to Luke)
Why? Why, Luke? How can you say, why, Luke? Because one of us
was dead wrong and I was sure it wasn't going to be me! But be
informed about this. I have never been ridden with guilt. All
my life I have always served my G-d with a clear conscience and a
sincere heart, as my ancestors did, who were rabbis before me.
Recently, it is true, that a accusing thought has come to me,
along with a thorn in the flesh as a messenger of Satan, saying,
"Aha! What you did to Stephen is now being done to you! The
persecutor is now the persecuted, the executioner is now the
victim! For, as it is written, 'Anyone who does wrong will be
repaid for his wrong and there is no favoritism! Not for Moses,
not for King David, not for Saul!' "But, Luke, I walk by faith,
not by appearances. By faith I've been taken out of G-d's
condemnation. G-d is for me. Nothing can separate me from his
love! Be clear about that. You see, Luke, at the time, not
feeling guilty at all, I saw it as my solemn Jewish duty to go to
Caiapha, the Kohain Ha-gah-dohl, the high priest. I received
permission to organize, as his informal prosecutor of
these messianic Jews, a corps of rabbis and Temple guards. They
went with me to disrupt their messianic synagogue services and
house meetings to teach them a lesson against heresy they
wouldn't forget. There were too many of them to stone them all,
but I was sure we could at least frighten them into their senses.
For this purpose, I procured an ugly-looking whip that could cut
through human flesh like a knife. Through certain infiltrating
spies and informants, I was alerted every week of their secret
meeting places so that I could...
(at this point Paul leaps off of the stage
and begins going through the audience
menacing people along the aisles with a
scroll he has transformed into a whip)
...burst in upon them by surprise, smash up their homes, lash at
their screaming women and children, beat their men half to death,
knocking out teeth, ripping off clothes, kicking in their faces
till the blood poured, throwing them into the Temple prison
until they decided whether they wanted to recant their
blasphemous heresy or join Stephen at the stoning pit. That's
how it came about, Luke, that I, Saul of Tarsus, the
Pharisee, the chassid, the rabbi, became known to these
Moshiach-following Jews as the angel of death.
END OF ACT ONE
[ACT TWO]
SCENE ONE
I'll never forget this one beautiful Messianic Jewish girl we
arrested, Luke. (This is not for the record.) She had long,
lovely black hair and the softest eyes. But what infuriated me
was, that, when we burst into her house, tearing up the
furniture, instead of screaming like the other Messianic Jewish
women, she was standing in the back, moving her lips,
speaking calmly to someone but staring at me. There was too
much noise in the room to hear what she was saying, I had to
press close to her face...(embarrassed) to hear, you understand.
(Oy! She was praying for my soul in the name of this dead
Nazarene!) I was filled with rage to see her beautiful Jewish
mind poisoned like the rest. I shook her to make her blaspheme
his name and shouted, "Yeshua chey-rem ah-lay-chah (24)--say it!"
She prayed louder, defying me! Suddenly the room became deathly
still while everyone paused from tearing up the furniture to
listen to this beautiful Jewish girl praying at the top of her
lungs for the Nazarene to save my soul. I was embarrassed
beyond words. I shook her and someone dragged her off to be
locked up with the others... Luke, if I had taken time to take a
wife,
(we can tell that Paul was smitten by the way
he speaks about this)
as my rich father was insisting, since I was an ordained rabbi
headed for possible membership in the Sanhedrin, and Luke, if she
and I had met under --how shall I say it?-- different
circumstances, I might have allowed myself to feel an attraction
for her,
(Paul collapses on the stone bench, clasping
harp to bosom)
SCENE TWO
Luke, never become a religious fanatic! Doctors are hard enough
to deal with as it is! Who were you talking to just now? What
did the guard want? (Pause) I'm terribly sorry I'm making too
much noise. Let him go sharpen his sword! There's nothing worse
than being hit on the neck with a dull sword!
(Pulling at his hair)
They won't even let me have a knife down here to cut my hair. I
look like Samson, without the muscles.
(Scratching)
I'd give anything for one warm bath. I'm reminded of that couple
we spoke to in Philippi, Luke. Do you remember? They both had
leprosy and she was blind. They were beggars, sitting on a dung
hill by the city gate. Remember, they seemed anxious to meet us
until they found out we had no money. Then the man became
preoccupied with himself-, he was pulling off these horrible
pieces of skin from under his rags, rolling them up into neat
little balls, examining them with the greatest interest, then
tossing them carelessly over his shoulder. Do you remember that,
Luke? Then finally you said, "Excuse me, I'm Dr. Luke. I'd like
you to meet
(affecting a British accent)
'the Apostle Paul.' That's how you said it--'the Apostle
Paul!' He said, "Leave me alone. I'm working on something."
(Paul is mimicking the leper as he peels off
and rolls up a piece of skin)
"We see that!" (Do you remember Luke, we were watching with
fascination the arc of each piece of--what shall we call
it--debris?-as it sailed through the air.) You said to him,
"But, sir, are you really THAT busy? You're here all day as a
beggar and a leper. Mind you, we are all beggars, we're all
lepers in the sight of G-d, since everything--even life
itself--is a gift and we all need to be cleansed from evil. So
why spend all your time picking at yourself? Won't you let us
help you?"
(Sitting on the stone bench)
"I don't need religion!" Luke, you became exasperated. "We're
not talking about mere religion, we're talking about
righteousness. It's a gift. You're a eggar. Take it! You're a
leper. Don't you want to be cleansed?" "I'm a good person. Who
did I ever hurt? I never hurt anyone in my life!" (And with
that, he threw a ball of himself over his shoulder and it landed
on the top of his blind wife's head.) Finally our hearts went
out to this sweet little lady with the pile of her husband's
debris on the top of her head. You went to her, Luke, and you
said, "We realize you're blind, ma'am, but if you'll let us lead
you, we'll take you to where the Apostle Paul teaches at Lydia's
house in Philippi. You're such a sweet little lady, we know
you'll enjoy it. Now how about it? I'm Doctor Luke. This is
the Apostle Paul. How would you enjoy a gathering for the study
of the Torah?" "How would you like me to spit in your eye,
creep-o?"
(Paul smiles)
I've never seen you at such a loss for words! Whenever I feel
sad, I think about the expression on your face and get happy all
over again!
(Paul laughs)
You might have said what our prophets have declared, "All our
own tzidkoteinu, righteousness, is like leprosy rags; but God's
people will be credited with God's righteousness because they
live by faith, by loving, loyal, sacrificial trust in G-d."
(Paul rises)
Luke, that was fifteen years ago. I pray that that couple woke
up. That was my problem, Luke. I needed to wake up to what time
it was. It was later than I thought.
(Looking up into the ceiling hole)
Now some of this you know, some you don't. But make one thing
clear in your apologetic, whether Nero or any of my other critics
understands it or not: I did not change my religion! I changed
my time reference and G-d changed my heart. But, wait, my
critics say. Who cares about your heart, Paul? Or your life?
Other rabbis have been defrocked, other Jews have been
excommunicated. Of what moment, Paul, is your incessant
teaching, your endless sermons? What great battle rages in the
trial of my life? What is at stake here, Luke? What am I
fighting for? Only the salvation of Israel and the
world--nothing more. And if the issue of this conflict is of no
import, where is there any weighty drama? "Eat, drink, and be
merry, for tomorrow we die." And if what I attest about the
Nazarene is not the truth, then we, his suffering servants, are
of all men most tragically, pitifully naive, and the hope of
Israel is dead.
SCENE THREE
But here is what happened. I had received reliable information
that there was a stubborn nest of these Jewish heretics in the
synagogues of Damascus. I went to the High Priest Caiapha and
obtained from him general letters of extradition, so that if I
found any of this messianic sect in Damascus, whether Jewish men
or women, I could arrest them and bring them back as prisoners to
Jerusalem. The journey from Jerusalem took us six days on
horseback. The other Jerusalem rabbis and the Temple guards and
I had just crossed the desert from the Galilee. We were
approaching Damascus. It was about noon.
(Pause) The sun was high in a clear blue sky, as clear as heaven.
Then, suddenly my ears were filled with a sound like a mighty
rushing wind ... and then ... a second sun up in the sky blasted
down on us from nowhere, lighting up everything like a consuming
fire. At first, I couldn't fathom what my eyes were showing me.
I was seeing what Mary Magdalene and Peter and five hundred
others had seen three years before. Young as I was, the Devar
Adonoi, the Word of the L-rd, who came to Moses in the burning
bush, was coming toward me, Luke, revealing himself to me. In
the east, as in the dawn of time, a figure like a man, fire all
around him, his eyes sorrowful and dark, his voice like the sound
of rushing waters. He spoke to me in the language of the
Hebrews: "Sha'ul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
The glory in his face was brighter than the sun, like the glory
of G-d, blazing around me in heavenly splendor. I had fallen off
my horse and was too frightened to move. I said, "Who are you,
L-rd?" And in the language of the Hebrews, the voice came from
out of the fire: "I am Yehoshua, Yeshua of Nazareth: I am sending
you as a light, my light to the Gentiles.
(Pause) Yah-ehr Ah-doh-noi pah-nav ee-leh-chah vee-choo-nehchah.
The L-rd made his face shine upon me and was gracious to me.
(Pause) The L-rd was in his heavenly Temple; let all the earth
be silent before him. (Pause) I sat overwhelmed, my eyes in total
glare from the excess of light. I found out later that the
other rabbis did see something and heard something as well, but
were not clear on what it was.
(Moving to sit on the stone bench)
I was led blind by the rabbis and Temple guards into Damascus to
the house of Judas, on the street called Straight, where
arrangements had already been made for me to lodge the night.
Had it literally dawned on me that I was blind to the will of
G-d? Or had I hallucinated? I prayed and fasted for three days,
asking G-d to give me physical and spiritual sight .... I
remembered how I prayed: "God of Israel, have I been missing the
true way of biblical Judaism? Have I been leaning on my own
understanding? Rather than acknowledging your will? Have I been
leaning on my own righteousness rather than receiving your
righteous Word the Moshiach? And this Nazarene, I have heard of
him and now my eyes have seen him. Therefore, I abhor what I
have done and with deep conviction, teshuvah, I turn to you for
forgiveness of sin, not only for what I have done, but for what I
am, even in my religiousity. I am a Jew and I am going to die a
Jew, but show me the truth, and I'll do it.
(Rising, crossing to the wall)
And, do you know something, Luke, at that exact moment, the L-rd
answered my prayer. Because there was a man in Damascus,
probably the only man I would have listened to, because he was a
deeply religious Jew. He believed in this Messiah, though. His
name was Ananias, and the L-rd appeared to him, too, and he too
became an apostle when the L-rd said to him:
(Paul stands motionless against the wall,
taking on the persona of Moshiach speaking
to Ananias)
"Ananias!"
"Yes, L-rd."
"I have something I want you to do."
"Oh, yes, L-rd. I'm your servant. I'll do anything. What is it
that you require?"
"I have someone I want you to go minister to and pray with."
"Gladly, L-rd. I'll pray with anyone in Damascus. Who is he?"
"The man named Saul who's come down here to arrest you and kill
you."
("Ananias" swallows hard)
"Oh, him, L-rd. (Long pause) Well, L-rd, I'm awfully busy. Does
that have to be done today?" "Today." "Well, L-rd. You know
why he's come here ... to throw the whole lot of us messianic
Jews in prison. He's one of the chassidim. What can I possibly
tell him?" "Ananias." "Yes, L-rd." "Just tell him I said to
evangelize the whole world." "I beg your pardon." "Today."
"Today?
(Pause. Suddenly sours)
The goyim? Tell one of... the chasidim? ... to go to the goyim
...today?" And when Ananias came to me, he gave me the precise
message from the Messiah that I had heard on the Damascus road,
though I had told no one. The message was, "Go to the Gentiles."
(Moving to sit on the bench)
And, you know, Luke, as soon as Ananias placed his hands on me
and prayed for my sight, something like scales, little
cataract-like tissues, fell from my eyes into my fingers, and I
could see. I looked at these two pieces of tissue and I realized
that the Yah-moht Ha-moh-she-ach, the age of the Messiah, had
begun, the Son of the new heavens and the new earth was already
shining, the first man was bodily alive from the tomb, and I had
received the same Spirit that Joshua, Caleb, Elijah, and all the
others had received, the Spirit of the New Holy Age. I had been
born into a new spiritual existence, I had become a bria
chadasha, a new creation! Suddenly it was revealed to me what
had been hidden in the Scriptures but had been there all along:
That in Abraham and the Jews, G-d intended to bless equally all
peoples of the world through faith in the Messiah, through this
Messiah, alive from the dead.
(Rising)
Now, let me pause to clear up one thing, Luke. For the benefit
of the scoffers you must refute. What exactly made me switch ...
not religions, but vocations, from that of persecutor to that of
advocate and apostle? What was the problem, Doctor? Are the
scoffers right? Was it really a mere cause of sunstroke?
Nervous collapse? Hallucination? Guilt catharsis? "What is
truth for you, Saul, is not truth for me," they say. "There are
natural explanations for everything."
SCENE FOUR
(Paul reclines on the stone bench like a man
talking to his psychiatrist)
Yes, yes, Doctor. Here is the natural explanation. One day, on
the road to Damascus, while I tried to enforce the law of Moses,
piously serving my G-d with all my heart, 1--the arrestor--was
arrested ... by a naive superstition. Quite naturally, a meteor
just happened to blaze across the sky. At the very same time, it
just happened to thunder, so that the other rabbis quite
naturally did see and hear something. At the very same
time--clumsy shlemiel that I am--I just happened to fall off my
horse. And at the very same time, I just happened to hallucinate
with a nightmare vision, complete with face, fire, and voice,
that just happened to be my enemy, who just happened to want me
to go to work for him! Among the people who just happened to be
my enemies -the Goyim, the Gentiles. And at the very same time,
I just happened to have tissues form over both my eyes with a
purely accidental case of coincidental cataracts!
(Rising)
Yes, Doctor, there are natural explanations for everything, if
one has enough bad blind faith to go his own way. (Many like Nero
are lords of their own lives who want to go their own way, even
if it may lead to hell.) But, Luke, I had to trust G-d, and like
any other disciple, take a step of faith into the mikveh waters
of repentance immersion and into the Damascus synagogue.
(Stepping up on the bench)
There, with my eyes seeing clearly again, and with the mouths of
my companions, the other Jerusalem rabbis, failing wide open, I
stood up at the bimah and I preached a new rabbi's serrnon, one
that I would preach in synagogues all over the world for the next
thirty years.
"My Jewish brothers, and you Gentile G-dfearers there in the back
of the shul, listen to me. G-d can make Jews out of anyone, even
a Gentile like Ruth, if we have her pilgrim faith. I now have
that faith! I tried to curse these Jews who believe in the
Nazarene, but G-d has brought me to a point where I can do
nothing but bless them!
(Stepping down)
"Brothers, I have good news! The Word that promised life through
Moses and the prophets has destroyed death and brought
immortality to light through the Messiah! I know! I personally
saw the Word alive! This same Word will appear again at the end
of this wicked age to judge all men. Therefore, turn from this
dying world and come eternally alive to the new Holy age that's
already dawning. Join my people Israel who by faith looked for
him before he came. Join them by living for him now that he's
here. Believe the Besuras haGeulah, the Good News of Redemption!"
Well, Luke, some of the Jews believed, but many didn't. Some of
the Gentiles believed and some didn't. And the other rabbis?
Well, some of them tried to kill me. I couldn't blame them,
since I would have done the same thing. I know the truth of the
saying, "He who has been forgiven of much forgives much."
(Sits on stone bench)
We've got to watch and pray, Luke. The evil one is coming, the
evil one is coming, and we must be ready to stand against him. I
just remembered. I haven't finished that letter to Timothy, if
G-d will give me the strength. To Timothy, my only son in the
faith, and to Israel, G-d's blind unfaithful wife, spiritually
still sound asleep.
SCENE FIVE
(Suddenly suspicious) Why didn't you tell me Demas came back?
(Getting up, moving to the hole)
Did he bring any news? (Brightening) Wonderful! What was it?
He feels called to Thessalonica? [pronounced: Thessaloh-nee-cah]
I sent him to the congregation here in Rome! Didn't he exhort
the brothers to keep trying to speak to my Jewish people? Why
not? Why is he running? For his life? Claudia told him what?
(Long pause)
There's no chance? What about my second trial this morning,
Luke? A mock trial. Did he hear what charge convicts me?
(Pause)
What charge? Are you falling asleep? The charge, Luke!
Treason against Nero?
Turning his little world upside down?
Well, at least I'm still a Jew.
(Paul begins to gather up his things and put
them it; a basket, then begins to weep as he
collapses on the floor)
But who will go, Luke ...
Who will go ...
Who will go to my Jewish people? The harvest is past. Summer is
ended .... My people arc not saved.
L-rd!
Adonoi!
(Scattering the "cities" on the "map") Has
it all been for nothing?
All my sacrifices!
Is there no healing balm in Gilead for Israel?
(Covering his head with his prayer shawl) 0
L-rd, I pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Save your people,
Rabbono shel olam.
I could wish I were in hell if that would save them!
(Paul sobs)
Have I spent my life's strength for nothing? A
miserable failure!
(Long pause)
Luke.
Luke! (whispering) Are you awake?
(Pause) Asleep.
You're not alone, Luke. The whole world is asleep.
Wake it up, L-rd!
One disciple betrays and deserts me. One falls asleep on me. My
enemies say, "Where is his L-rd now?"
(Paul drinks, and without getting up, he
picks up his harp and begins to encourage
himself with this talk-sung song, as he
strums the strings)
To me to live is the Word of G-d.
My Messiah is my life.
For I can do anything,
Anything through him who strengthens me.
This one thing I do
Whenever I feel sad
Forget about the past
And all its evil darts
And press on, I press on
With my Messiah.
And suddenly, happily
I receive from him
His love
His joy
And his peace
His patience
Kindness
Goodness
And his faithfuhiess
His gentleness
Self-control.
(Talking) ù
Demas. You're so weak, my son. Running back to a world that's
dying, to try to save your life!
Don't you realize you can't take anything with you out of this
dying world, except the living Word of G-d, the Messiah? Oh,
Demas ...
(Singing)
I pray you come to see
The man I came to know
The one who blinded me
So long ago
The scales fell off my eyes
And I was healed of doubt.
A dead man came alive
And I could shout!
I saw his face
Blazing brighter than the sun.
The Son of G-d I disgraced
My time had come
My time had come
My time had come
I'd been his enemy
He could have killed me then
Instead he mercifully
Forgave my sin
I pray you'd come to see
The man I came to know.
SCENE SIX
(Paul puts the harp down)
Satan you are such a liar! I'm not being executed for killing
Stephen!
G-d used my sufferings for good to finish Stephen's work, to
teach me his obedience, that I might have his honorable
departure. And more than that, in suffering I have known
something of the suffering love of our G-d, the G-d of Israel for
his lost world.
(Pulling at his hair)
(Paul looks at the bread and picks it up. A
faint smile)
And it was to the world that I passed on the tradition of the
L-rd himself, that on the night of his arrest and his betrayal
and his imprisonment, He took bread, and after breaking it he
said, "Baruch atah Adonoi Eloheynu Melech Haolam hamotzi lechem
min ha-ah-retz." Blessed art thou, O L-rd our G-d, King of the
universe, who brings forth bread from the earth. "This is my
body, which is for you; do this as a memorial of me. "
(Paul breaks the bread and tastes a small
piece. He holds up the cup)
Ba-ruch atah Adonai Eloh-hey-noo meh-lech haoh-lahm, boh-ray
p'ree hah-gah-fen. Blessed art thou, 0 L-rd our G-d, King of the
universe, who creates the fruit of the vine. In the same way he
took the cup after supper and said: "This is ha-B'rect
ha-chah-da-shah, the New Covenant, sealed by my blood. Whenever
you drink it, do this as a memorial of me." L-rd, I have one
last request. Nero is having everything his way right now. But
you can destroy his whole empire with five smooth stones! My
last request is this: Give me one of those five smooth stones!
Let me have one parting shot, one little shot, one final shot at
the G-d of this evil world, Satan.
(Suddenly remembering the lateness)
(Getting up)
I just remembered, I still haven't finished the letter
to Timothy, my only son
...and to Israel, G-d's blind, unfaithful wife, spiritually
still sound asleep.
Nero, you have me like a humming bird in the hands of a
crazed baboon, and I'm so weak ...
but down deep inside I feel the Word of G-d, the Lion of Judah,
ready to let out a roar within me that will wake up the whole
world. I feel the Spirit of the L-rd coming on me! Luke, wake
up! Write this down fast!
Timothy, my son,
I give you this solemn charge, in the presence of G-d and our
Messiah the L-rd, the judge of the living and the dead
at his appearing and his kingdom:
Proclaim the Word! Be ready in season, out of season: Correct,
rebuke, encourage, with great patience and careful teaching.
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound
teaching. Instead, they will accumulate for themselves a great
number of teachers to soothe their own lusts and to say what
their itching ears want to hear.
They will turn away from listening to the truth and turn aside to
myths.
But you, Timothy, always keep your head, endure hardship,
continue establishing new congregations worldwide, discharge all
the duties of your ministry.
For I am already being poured out in sacrifice to the L-rd like a
drink offering
and the time for my departure has arrived.
(Paul is so weak, he is nearly staggering) I
have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have
kept the faith.
And now there is in store for me, the crown of righteousness,
which the L-rd, the righteous judge, shall award to me on that
day;
and not to me only but also to all those who love his appearing.
Timothy, do your best to come quickly.
Because ...
Demas has deserted me.
In love with this passing world, he has departed for
Thessalonica.
Crescens has gone to Galatia.
Titus to Dalmatia.
Only Luke is with me.
Take Mark and bring him with you, for he is profitable to the
ministry.
I sent Tychicus to Ephesus.
Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come,
and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
Alexander the coppersmith did me a great deal of harm.
The L-rd will repay him for his evil deeds.
Timothy, you too should be on your guard against Alexander,
because he strongly opposed the message.
Luke, stop the dictation!
Seal up the message Alexander opposed:
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of G-d is eternal life
through the Messiah, our L-rd. And this gift has been given even
to me, though I am the least of the apostles, because I caused
the caused the death al kiddush Hashem of Jewish believers in
the Messiah. But it's by G-d's unmerited favor that we have been
rescued from judgment, through faith--and this is not from
ourselves--it is a gift from G-d. Not by good deeds, so that
no one can boast. If we confess him unashamedly before men as
Messiah and receive him as L-rd to have first place in our
hearts, he will confess us unashamedly before his Father and
receive us into heaven.
Now, Luke, continue the dictation.)
At my first trial, no one came to my support. All men deserted
me.
I pray G-d that it may not be held against them.
But the L-rd stood by at my side and gave me strength, so that
through me the proclamation might be fully known, and all the
Nations might hear it.
And I was delivered from the mouth of the roaring lion, Satan!
And the L-rd shall rescue me from every evil attack and will
preserve me to his heavenly kingdom.
Loh ha-kah-vohd ...
(Luke, you must learn Hebrew.)
To him be glory forever and ever.
Amen.
Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus.
Erastus stayed at Corinth,
but I had to leave Trophimus sick at Miletus.
Do your best to hurry.
Eubulus sends you greetings, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia,
and all the brethren.
Luke, who are you talking to?
It's all right, Luke. You can call them what they are.
(Sighs) So my executioners are here.
(Rolls up scroll)
Luke, see to it that you fulfill your ministry.
Save my letters.
(Placing the scroll on the bench, staggering,
he pulls himself up like a general standing
at attention, though there are tears in his
eyes)
Tell Timothy I said ...
the L-rd be with your spirit.
And Luke, grace be with you, my friend. My friend, Luke...
(To the audience:)
And grace be with you.
(Curtain)
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES The index below gives the references for
the portions of the Bible which provide the basis for the scenes
in The Rabbi From Tarsus. The page numbers following the
Scripture references are from the green hardback edition of The
Living Bible (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1971).
As you see, the play has so many quotations and allusions to so
many parts of the Bible, it is like a media Bible disguised as a
one-man show.
Act I, Scene One Ge. 1:1-3 (P. 1); Ps. 33:6 (P. 456); 107:20 (P.
488); Ro. 13:11-12 (P. 909); Col. 4:14 (P. 959); Ph'm. 24 (P.
974); II Ti. 4:16 (P. 971); Pr. 18:24 (P. 513); 1 Co. 4:10 (P.
916); II Chr. 9:11 (P. 369); I Chr. 6:31-32 (P. 340); Acts
16:16-40 (P. 881); I Sa. 16:23 (P. 241); Ph'p. 3:5 (P. 954); 1
Sa. 9:21 (P. 234); Eph. 5:19 (P. 950); II Co.5:9 (P. 933); I Co.
4:13 (P. 916); Acts 17:6-7 (P. 882); 24:5-7 (p.890); Ph'p. 2:22
(P. 953); 2:20 (P. 953); I Ti. 4:12 (P. 966); II Ti. 1:7 (P.
968); 4:14-15 (P.971); II Sa. 19:4 (p, 272). Act I, Scene Two
Ph'p. 4:22 (P. 955); Acts 22:27 (P. 889); I Co. 4:9 (P. 916);
Acts 17:7 (P. 882); Re. 2:10 (P. 1005); De. 6:4-5 (P. 155); Da.
7:21-22 (P. 684); Re. 13:5-10 (P. 1013); Jer. 30:7 (P. 605); Da.
9: 27 (P.686); 11:31 (P. 688); 12:11 (P. 690); Mk. 6:27-28 (P.
784); Ge. 3:4 (P. 2); Pr. 16:18 (P. 512); Ge. 3:5 (P. 2); Isa.
44:20 (P. 564); Ob. 3 (P. 706); Ge. 2:7 (P. 2); 6:5 (P. 5); II
Co. 10:3-4 (P. 937); Eph. 6:17 (P. 951); Re. 19:12-15 (P.
1017); Isa. 40:22 (P. 560); Jer. 22:19 (P. 598); Ps. 16:7 (P.
449); II Ti. 4:16 (P. 971); Ps. 102:6 (P. 484). Act I, Scene
Three Ro. 2:29 (P. 898); Ge. 29:35 (P. 25); 1 Co. 3:18 (P. 915);
Ga. 6:13 (P. 946); Joh. 12:43 (P. 852); II Ti. 3:10 (P. 970); I
Co. 4:16-17 (P. 916); Ro. 11:18-21 (P. 908); Joh. 4:22 (P. 840);
II Ti. 2:10 (P. 969); Re. 3:17 (P. 1007); Eph. 6:11 (P. 951); II
Ti. 4:7 (P. 971); Ro. 15:27 (P. 911); Ga. 2:10 (P. 941); I Th.
2:9 (P. 960); II Co. 11:23-28 (P. 938); 10:10 (P. 937); 11:8, 6
(P. 938); 1:17 (P. 930); 1 Co. 9:19-22 (P. 921); II Co. 10:1 (P.
937); 5:13 (P. 933); M't.6:33 (P. 750); 10:18-20 (P. 754); Lu.
12:11-12 (P. 819); M't. 28:19-20 (p. 777); Mk. 16:15 (P. 799);
Ro. 16:25-26; (P. 912); Acts 20:29-31 (P. 886); II Co. 11:13-15
(P. 938); Ro. 13:12 (P. 909); 1 Co. 4:5 (P. 916); II Co. 6:14
(P. 934); Eph. 5:8, 11 (P. 950); II Th.2:3-12 (P. 963); Re.
13:16-18 (P. 1013); Lu. 20:20-26 (P. 829); 22:52 (P. 832);
23:1-5 (P. 833); Acts 2:1-41 (P. 863); 8:1-4 (P. 870);
9:26-30 (P. 872); 11:29-30 (P. 875); 12:25 (P. 876); 15:2-4 (P.
879); 18:22 (P. 884); 20:24 (P. 886); 21:17-26 (P. 887); I Co.
9:20 (P. 921); Acts 19:23-25 (P. 885); 13:12 (P. 877); 16:38-39
(P. 882); 18:14-16 (P. 883); 23:29 (P. 890); 26:32 (P. 893); I
Jo. 2:22 (P. 998). Act I, Scene Four Acts 6:5, 8 (P. 868);
11;26 (P. 875); Ge. 11:4 (P. 8); Acts 6:9 (P. 868); Isa.
11:6-10 (P. 542); I Co. 15:6 (P. 927); Joh. 9:34 (P. 848); Ga.
3:13 (P. 943); De. 21:23 (P. 167); II Co. 5:21 (P. 934); Da. 9:26
(P. 686); 1 Co. 1: 18 (P. 913); Ex. 20:3-4 (P. 65); Joh. 10:30
(P. 849); 1:1,14, 46 (P. 836); Lu. 8:33 (P. 812); Mk. 3:22 (P.
780); Joh. 5:19 (P. 841); 8:48 (P. 847); Job 19:25-27 (P. 432);
Da. 12:2 (P. 689); Joh. 3:3 (P. 838); II Co. 3:15-16 (P. 932);
Isa. 9:6-7 (P. 540); Zec. 9:10 (P. 725); Isa. 59:8 (P. 574);
48:22 (P. 567); 53:3 (P. 570); 9:7 (P. 540); Lu. 1:32-33 (P.
800); Joh. 12:34 (P. 852); 3:3 (P. 838); 12:48 (P. 853); Lu.
8:25 (P. 812); Na. 1:3 (P. 713); Ro. 6:23 (P. 902); Ge. 2:17 (P.
2); Eze, 18:4 (P. 645); Isa. 53:4-6 (P. 570); 1 Pe. 2:24 (P.
992); Ex. 12:23-27 (P. 58); Joh. 1:29 (P. 837); M't. 27:46 (P.
776); Ps. 22:1 (P. 452); 14:3 (P. 449); Ro. 3:9 (P. 898); Zep.
3:15 (P. 719); Ga. 6:15 (P. 946); De. 10:16 (P. 158); Ps.
51:10-11 (P. 464); Jer. 24:7 (P. 600); Eze. 36:25-28 (P. 663);
Col. 2:11-15 (P. 957); Es. 3:5-6 (P. 418); De. 4:15-16 (P.
153);Joel 2:32 (P. 699); Isa. 30:21 (P. 553); Jer. 32:39 (P.
609); Joh. 1:1, 14 (P. 836); 14:6 (P. 854); I Sa. 3:21 (P. 230);
Joh. 5:18 (P. 841); Eze. 28:2 (P. 655); Mk. 14:63-64 (P. 796);
De. 13:1-5 (P. 161); Ps. 22:16 (P. 452); Zec. 12:10 (P.
727); Isa. 53:5 (P. 570); Eze. 18:3 (P. 645); Le. 9:7 (P. 93);
Ps. 49:7-9 (P. 463); 146:3 (p. 500); Isa. 9:6 (P. 540); 7:14 (P.
538); Lu. 24:39 (P. 835); M't. 28:13 (P. 777); Mic. 5:2 (P.
711); Ge. 49:10 (P. 46); Ps. 132:11 (P. 496); Isa. 9:7 (P. 540);
II Sa. 7:12-14 (P. 261); Isa. 61:1-3 (P. 575); Ps. 41:9 (P.
460); Zec. 11:12 (P. 727); 12:10 (P. 727); Ps. 16:10 (P.
449). Act I, Scene Five Acts 5:38-39 (P. 868); 4:4 (P. 865); De.
13:10, 5 (P. 161); Da. 12:2 (P.689); Isa. 66:24 (P.
578); Acts 6:8 (P. 868); 7:53 (P. 870); Ex. 32:1-8 (P.77); Jer.
7:4-11 (P. 585); M't. 28:19-20 (P. 777); Ro. 2:28-29 (P. 898);
M't.21:13 (P.760); Isa. 56:7 (P. 572); Mal. 1:11 (P.729); Nu.
10:35 (P. 122); Acts 5:38-39 (P. 868); Ge. 45:4-7(P. 42); 50:20
(P. 47); Ge. 37:20 (P. 34); Ex. 17:4 (P. 63); Ro. 3:29 (P. 899);
M't. 28:19-20 (P. 777); II Ti. 3:5 (P. 970); Ro. 12:1(P. 908);
Joh. 3:16 (P. 839); 11 Ti. 1:8 (P. 968); Jer. 7:4-11 (P. 585);
38:4 (P. 613); 52:13 (P. 627); II Chr. 36:19 (P. 393); M't.
23:16, 24 (P. 769); Heb. 8:13 (P. 980); 13:10 (p. 985); 1 Ki.
8:29, 41-49(P. 289); Joh. 2:19-22 (P. 838); lsa. 42:4 (P. 562);
Mic. 4:2 (P. 710); M't. 28:19-20 (P. 777); Ro. 5:12-21 (P. 901);
1 Co. 15:45-49 (P.929); Nu. 11:24-29 (P. 123); Lu. 5:37-39 (P.
807); Acts 2:13,19 (P. 863); Joel 2:24-32 (P. 699); Ex.
19:6 (P.65); 1 Pe. 2:5, 9 (P. 991); M't. 28:19-20 (P. 777); Ju.
19 (P. 1003); Ps. 16: 10 (P. 449); Da.2:12 (P. 677); Acts
23:8 (P. 889); M't 15:3, 6 (P.760); Mk. 7:13(P. 785); M't. 15:14
(p. 760); Acts 7:51-60 (P. 870); De. 13 (P.161); Ps. 2:7 (P.
445); Pr. 30:1-4 (P. 521); Acts 26:22-23 (P.893); 8:3 (P. 871);
9:1 (P. 872);Jas. 2:2 (P. 987). Act II, Scene One I Ti. 1:13 (P.
964); 1 Co. 7:7 (P. 918); II Ti. 1:3 (P. 968); Acts 23:6 (P.
886); I Ti. 1:13 (P. 964); II Co. 12:1-10 (P. 939); De.
32:48-52 (P. 178); II Sa. 12:9-10 (P. 264);Ro. 8 (P. 903); Col.
3:25 (P. 958); Ge. 27:27 (P. 23); Ex. 4:22 (P. 50); Mal. 3:17
(P. 731); Heb. 12:15 (p. 985); Ph'p. 3:8 (P. 954); Job 35:10 (P.
440); Ps. 32:7 (P.456); 107:16 (P. 488); 33:6 (P. 456); 107:20
(P. 488); 138:2 (P.498) 56:10 (P. 466); Jos. 3:5 (P. 181). Act
II, Scene Two Nu. 6:2-18 (P. 117); J'g. 13:1-5 (P. 215); II Co.
5:20 (P. 934); I Co. 4:7 (P. 916); Acts 16:40 (P. 882); Isa.
64:6 (P. 577); Ezr. 9:15 (P. 401); Ge. 15:6 (P. 11); Ga. 3:6-7
(P. 942); 5:6 (P. 945); Ro. 13:11-14 (P. 909); Acts 26:22-23 (P.
893); I Sa. 10:9 (P. 234); I Co. 15:32,19 (P. 927). Act II,
Scene Three Acts 9:1-3 (P. 872); 2:2 (P. 863); Heb. 12:29 (P.
985); M't. 28:1 (P. 776); Mk. 16:9 (P. 799); Lu. 24:10 (P. 834);
Joh. 20:1, 18 (P. 860); Ex. 3:2 (p. 49); Da. 7:13-14 (P. 683);
Re. l:15 (P.1004); Acts 9:4 (P. 872); II Co. 4:6 (P. 932); Acts
9:5 (P. 872); 26:17 (P. 892); Isa. 49:6 (P. 567); Nu. 6:25 (P.
118); Ps. 11:4 (P. 448); Hab. 2:20 (P.716); Zec. 2:13 (p, 722);
Acts 9:7 (P. 872); Hag. 1:5 (P. 719); Pr. 3:5 (P. 503); Ro.
9:30-32 (P. 906); 10:3 (P. 906); Ph'p. 3:9 (P. 954); I Co. 1:30
(P. 913); II Co. 5:21 (P. 934); Job 42:5-6 (P. 444); J'g. 10:15
(P. 213); Ne 1:6 (p. 403); La. 3:40 (P.630); Acts 9:9 (P. 872);
III Jo.11 (P. 1002); Jon. 2:2 (P. 837); Acts 9:10-16 (p. 872);
26:17 (P. 893); 9:17-18 (P. 872); Col. 3:3 (P. 958); Ga. 6:14
(P. 946); II Co. 5:17 (P. 934); Ge. 12:3, 7 (P. 9); 22:18 (P.
17); 28:14 (P. 24); Ro. 16:25-27 (P. 912). Act II, Scene
Four Isa. 53:6 (P. 570); Jos. 24:2 (P. 200); Ge. 11:31 (P. 9);
Nu. 23:20 (P. 135); II Ti. 1:10 (P. 968); II Th. 1:7-8 (P. 962);
Re. 19:13-15 (P. 1017); II Th. 3:2 (P. 963); Lu. 16:1-7 (P.
823); Acts 9:25 (P. 873); Ex. 2:5 (P. 48); II Cor. 11:32-33 (p.
939); Ro. 1:16 (P. 896); lsa. 6:9-10 (P. 538); 53:1 (p. 570);
Acts 3:19-20 (P. 865); M't. 23:39 (P. 770); Mic. 7:18-20 (P.
713); Na. 2:2 (P. 713); Acts 23:6 (P. 889); 26:4-5 (P. 892); II
Co. 3:16 (P. 932); Acts 23:6 (P. 889); 26:6 (P. 892); Job
19:25-27 (P. 432); Am. 9:15 (P. 705); Zec. 2:11-12 (P. 722);
M't. 26:41 (P. 773); II Pe. 3:17 (P. 997); Il Jo. 8
(P.1001). Act II, Scene Five II Ti. 4:10 (P. 971); Acts 17:6
(P. 882); II Co. 11:22 (P. 938); Ph'p. 3:5 (P. 954); Jer. 8:20,
22 (P. 587); Ps. 122:6 (P. 495); 28:9 (P. 454); Ro. 9:3 (P.
905); Joh. 18:2 (P. 857); II Ti. 4:10 (P. 971); M't. 26:40-46
(P. 773); Ps. 42:3 (P. 461); Ex, 17:7 (P.63); I Co. 11:23-26 (P.
923); Le. 17:11 (P. 102); Jer. 31:31-34 (P. 606); Ph'p. 1:21 (P.
952); Col. 1:15-20 (P. 956); Ph'p. 4:13 (P. 955); 3:13-14 (P.
954); Eph. 6:16 (P. 951); Ga. 5:22-23 (P. 945); Ec. 5:15 (P.
525); Lu.10:42 (P. 816); Job 1:20 (P. 424). Act II,
Scene Six Ro. 8:28 (P. 904); Heb. 5:8 (P. 977); Ph'p. 3:10 (P.
954); I Sa.17:40 (P. 242); Ho. 3:1 (P. 692); Re. 5:5 (P.
1007); Am. 3:8 (P.702); La. 3:52 (P. 631); II Co. 12:10 (P.
939); I Sa. 11:6 (P.235); II Ti. 2:21-4:15 (P. 970); Tit. 3:9 (p.
973); II Ki. 17:41(P. 325); I Chr. 28:20 (P. 362); Ge. 38:7 (P.
35); Eze. 18:4 (P.645); Ro. 6:23 (P. 902); I Co. 15:9 (P. 927);
Eph. 3:8 (P. 948); 2:8-9 (P. 947); Lu. 12:8 (P. 818); II Ti.
4:16-22 (P. 971); Ge.2:18 (P. 2); Ru. 1:16-17 (P. 224); Col. 4:17
(P. 959).
GLOSSARY NOTES
(1) Boker tov--Hebrew for "Good Morning"
(2) traif--unkosher food
(3) mohel--circumciser
(4) Hashem--literally, "the Name" a euphemism for G-d or the L-rd
(5) Rabbono shel Olam--Sovereign of the World, L-rd Almighty
(6) Baruch Hashem--literally "Praise the Name," Praise the L-rd
(7) chassid of all chassidim--the pious one of all pious ones
(8) Daniel
(9) mazel tov--good luck
(10) goy--Gentile
(11) meen, min--heretic, one of the minim, apostates
(12) meshumad--apostate
(13) ha y'hoo-dim--from Judah, meaning praise or thank, a pun
based on Genesis 29:35 and Romans 2:29
(14) talmeed chah-chahm--man learned in the Torah
(15) tzuris--trouble
(16) meshuggah--mad
(17) shemah--"Hear, O Israel..." the confession of Deut. 6:4
(18) Adoneinu--Our L-rd
(19) Mashiach--Moshiach, Messiah
(20) Golgotha--Calvary
(21) mamzer--illegitimate child
(22) shekit--shut up!