Saw Godspell the other day for the first time in my life. It was a fine production and this post is not a critique of the performance, rather it is what moved through my mind as I saw this show that piqued my interest.
Godspell is an interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew done with 'contemporary' setting and costumes but retains a 'Bible' sounding language (I bet it is New Revised Standard but I do not know). There is dancing and singing. Jesus has a Afro and looked like "Mork" from "Mork and Mindy". It is a weird show.
It got me thinking, "What if there was a disaster and the only remnant connection to the life of Jesus we had was Godspell? What would that Jesus look like? How would the future generations look at Jesus if they only saw an interpretation (Godspell) of an interpretation (Revised Standard Version of the Bible) of an interpretation (Gospel of Matthew) Jesus?"
Then my brother showed me this XKCD comic strip and I thought it was fitting to my Godspell experience.:
Godspell is an interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew done with 'contemporary' setting and costumes but retains a 'Bible' sounding language (I bet it is New Revised Standard but I do not know). There is dancing and singing. Jesus has a Afro and looked like "Mork" from "Mork and Mindy". It is a weird show.
It got me thinking, "What if there was a disaster and the only remnant connection to the life of Jesus we had was Godspell? What would that Jesus look like? How would the future generations look at Jesus if they only saw an interpretation (Godspell) of an interpretation (Revised Standard Version of the Bible) of an interpretation (Gospel of Matthew) Jesus?"
Then my brother showed me this XKCD comic strip and I thought it was fitting to my Godspell experience.: