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Is play or games mentioned anywhere in the Bible?

  • 14-04-2013 4:14pm
    #1
    Queen-Mise
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,461 ✭✭✭


    Was thinking about this the other night. Have games or playing been talked about in the bible either OT or NT?

    I don't remember ever coming across or hearing about it. I don't know the bible particularly well though.


Comments

  • #2
    Manach
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,768 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    IIRC most surviving classic texts rarely mention these type of leisure activities, with evidence coming from archaeological sources. However, if dancing can be classed as play, David is said to have danced for the Lord.


  • #3
    brian_t
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,788 ✭✭✭brian_t


    Zechariah - 8:5

    And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.


  • #4
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,998 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    Well, casting lots turns up quite a bit in both the OT and the NT; that's effectively a game of chance.

    In Isaiah 11, infants play near cobra's dens (while leopards are lying down with goats and wolves are living with lambs, etc). In Gen 39 Joseph is accused of wanting to "make sport" with Potiphar's wife, though I don't think the sport concerned is table football.

    There's plenty of reference to racing in the bible, though mostly in an analogical sense; Paul uses the image of running a race quite a lot, but it also turns up in the OT - Jeremiah 12, Ecclesiastes 9.


  • #5
    3rdDegree
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,269 ✭✭✭3rdDegree


    Zechariah 12-14


    "And she said onto them, 'children, play ye onto those men, as the lamb shall lie down with the lion, but the lamb won't get much sleep'"


  • #6
    Queen-Mise
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,461 ✭✭✭Queen-Mise


    3rdDegree wrote: »
    Zechariah 12-14


    "And she said onto them, 'children, play ye onto those men, as the lamb shall lie down with the lion, but the lamb won't get much sleep'"

    It doesn't sound as if the lamb will be having much fun with this...


    Thanks for the replies.


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  • #7
    Chucken
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,459 ✭✭✭Chucken


    3rdDegree wrote: »
    Zechariah 12-14


    "And she said onto them, 'children, play ye onto those men, as the lamb shall lie down with the lion, but the lamb won't get much sleep'"

    I have a funny feeling this may not be a quote from the bible.


  • #8
    brian_t
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,788 ✭✭✭brian_t


    Chucken wrote: »
    I have a funny feeling this may not be a quote from the bible.

    No, it's from Woody Allen.


  • #9
    Albert E. Arkwright
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 78 ✭✭Albert E. Arkwright


    Queen-Mise wrote: »
    Was thinking about this the other night. Have games or playing been talked about in the bible either OT or NT?

    I don't remember ever coming across or hearing about it. I don't know the bible particularly well though.

    I doubt the ordinary person had much 'leisure' time in those days. I'd say they were more concerned about feeding their family.


  • #10
    Manach
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,768 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    Albert E. Arkwright wrote: »
    I doubt the ordinary person had much 'leisure' time in those days. I'd say they were more concerned about feeding their family.
    IIRC for their Meditarian neighbours the Romans and Greeks, depending on factors such as social class and economic obligations, there was an amount of leisure time. Generalising a bit, the Romans used the time for drilling in preparation for war whilst in a normal Greek polis drama/religious festivals


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