11:10 DRAMA: They Bore Thorough Witness to the Good News Wow. I wanted to make some special comments on this since I found so many interesting things here. The dramas can be a great place to read between the lines and most JWs don?t catch it because they put their notepads down.
The drama is based on highlights from Acts. It is narrated by ?Luke? portrayed by an actor instead of an off-scene voice. I encourage you to check out the scriptural references which I have listed (from NWT) because the drama often goes beyond what is written.
Story of Paul vs Elymas the sorcerer in Paphos. Elymas, a Jewish false prophet, is rebuked by Paul who says he ?hides evil deeds behind smooth words? (Acts 13:6-12: ?you enemy of everything righteous, will you not quit distorting the right ways of Jehovah??). Why not just quote the Bible? It is obvious the minor mention of Elymas has been amplified into an apostate.
The lame man in Lystra. When Paul heals him the man, he not only leaps up but actually dances in spins around the entire stage.
Acts 14:8-10: ?And he leaped up and began walking?
The overacting actually got laughs from the audience.
Paul says to the Jews from Antioch who will stone him, ?Are you blinded by deceitful words?? A nod to media exposure? Luke the narrator says the stoners of Paul were ?slaves to jealous rage? Where does this come from?
Acts 14:19 ?But Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and persuaded the crowds, and they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, imagining he was dead.?
The demon-possessed girl. The special effect of the drama, but first read the account:
(Acts 16-20) And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain servant girl with a spirit, a demon of divination, met us. She used to furnish her masters with much gain by practicing the art of prediction. 17 This [girl] kept following Paul and us and crying out with the words: ?These men are slaves of the Most High God, who are publishing to YOU the way of salvation.? 18 This she kept doing for many days. Finally Paul got tired of it and turned and said to the spirit: ?I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.? And it came out that very hour. 19 Well, when her masters saw that their hope of gain had left, they laid hold of Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the rulers, 20 and, leading them up to the civil magistrates, they said: ?These men are disturbing our city very much, they being Jews, 21 and they are publishing customs that it is not lawful for us to take up or practice, seeing we are Romans.?
According to the Luke of the drama, the girl was confusing onlookers, who thought the girl was with Paul and Luke?s group. Hmmm. Do you see that bit in the scripture above?. Her voice effect (again no mention of weird voice in Acts) was exactly Galadriel in the movie LOTR. In addition to the voice, the girl (late-teen age) wore a mop wig and violently twitched her head. After being purged of the spirit the girl plays a major role in the scene saying ?I am free from the spirit! I no longer have spirit of prediction!? even though nothing is said of her reaction in Acts.
Pauls imprisonment. This is the story of the earthquake that freed Paul and converted the jailer (Acts 16:25-34). Interestingly, Paul and Silas sing in Hebrew during this scene, but ?Jehovah? is pronounced in the song. That funny ?J? sound in Hebrew, eh? Despite the effort to show persecution and a reliance on God, the production made a comedy of the scene, with fellow inmates in stocks waving their heads back and forth to the singing. The audience laughed through the entire song. Surreal.
Aggripa?s court. Nothing to mention here except that Bernice (Agrippa?s sister) played an appalling diva, prancing and preening.
(Acts 25:23: ?Agrippa and Bernice came with much pompous show and entered into the audience chamber?.)
Although I credit this to the local director, not the stock soundtrack, she completely detracted from Paul?s defense. Forget ?pompous show?, we got ?faux-sexy?.
In all the entire production was inappropriate for any serious portrayal of Paul?s trials. The two serious flaws here were the FDS extra-scriptural representations as a pathetic reach for modern apostate and media ?attack? application. And, though I know each convention gets a slightly different production, the whole lot are routinely overacted and gesticulated into a comic parody.
Discuss amongst yourselves, I?m done with the DC.