Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Map 1 Medieval Europe showing locations of principal play-texts and records cited in this study
- Map 2 Enlargement of central area showing locations of liturgical and feast-day plays as defined in chapter 1
- Map 3 Enlargement of central area showing locations of civic and community plays as defined in chapter 2
- Introduction: Christian Europe and the Play of God
- PART ONE THE THEATRICAL COMMUNITY
- PART TWO THE THEATRICAL TEXT
- 4 Creation and Fall
- 5 The Covenant and the Kingdom
- 6 Prophets and precursors of Redemption
- 7 The Birth and childhood of Jesus
- 8 The public life of Jesus
- 9 The Passion and Resurrection
- 10 Pentecost to Judgement
- Conclusion: survival and revival
- Appendix: the liturgical context of the plays
- Notes
- Bibliographical index of plays
- Performance records and references
- General bibliography
- Index
5 - The Covenant and the Kingdom
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Map 1 Medieval Europe showing locations of principal play-texts and records cited in this study
- Map 2 Enlargement of central area showing locations of liturgical and feast-day plays as defined in chapter 1
- Map 3 Enlargement of central area showing locations of civic and community plays as defined in chapter 2
- Introduction: Christian Europe and the Play of God
- PART ONE THE THEATRICAL COMMUNITY
- PART TWO THE THEATRICAL TEXT
- 4 Creation and Fall
- 5 The Covenant and the Kingdom
- 6 Prophets and precursors of Redemption
- 7 The Birth and childhood of Jesus
- 8 The public life of Jesus
- 9 The Passion and Resurrection
- 10 Pentecost to Judgement
- Conclusion: survival and revival
- Appendix: the liturgical context of the plays
- Notes
- Bibliographical index of plays
- Performance records and references
- General bibliography
- Index
Summary
ABRAHAM AND THE PATRIARCHS
Christ Jesus was a minister of the circumcision … to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.
(Romans 15: 8)Although the story of Abraham occupies fifteen chapters of Genesis (11–25) and formed the lections for Mattins of Quinquagesima Sunday, the only episode to be dramatised regularly is the sacrifice of Isaac. However, a handful of plays treat other episodes in the story and the Viel Testament play of Abraham (which follows immediately after the scene of the fall of Babel) is 5,000 lines long and covers most of the Genesis account.
Abraham's defeat of the kings who attack Sodom and imprison Lot leads on to the meeting with Melchisedech, king of Salem, who ‘bringing forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the most high God, blessed him’ (Genesis 14: 18–19). For the Church this brief incident was a figure of the Eucharist: Melchisedech's gift typifies the priest's offering of the sacrifice of Christ in the bread and wine. The incident forms the basis of one of the responsories in the Corpus Christi liturgy, so it is not surprising that the texts which present it come mostly from Corpus Christi plays.
The stories of Lot and of God's Covenant with Abraham, leading up to the birth of Ishmael, are dramatised occasionally.
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- Information
- The Biblical Drama of Medieval Europe , pp. 75 - 82Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995