Games.

Regarding the games of children, youths, and adults, very little is said in the Bible in general; from this, however, it cannot be concluded that Hebrew children and young people were entirely deprived of the amusements natural to their age. Hebrew children, as can be seen from the reference in the book of the prophet Zechariah (8:5) and the Gospel of Matthew (11:16), amused themselves and played in the streets. “The streets of the city [of Jerusalem] shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.” From the book of Job (40:24 [41:5 in English numbering]) it can be seen that Hebrew children amused themselves with tamed birds and sometimes imitated in their games the rites of Hebrew weddings and funerals.

“Whereunto shall I liken this generation?” the Savior said to the people. “It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented” (Matt 11:16-17). For grown Hebrews, conversation seasoned with jokes at gatherings was considered a pastime and amusement (Jer 15:17). “I sat not in the assembly of the mockers,” says the prophet of himself, “nor rejoiced”… and the solving of various riddles was another, as for instance at the wedding feast of Samson (Judg 14:10-14).

The Talmudists also mention a game of dice, probably borrowed, along with certain other games, from their neighbors the Egyptians. As for the public games that existed in antiquity among the Greeks and Romans, no such games existed among the Hebrews until a later period. Gymnastic exercises were first introduced among them by the high priest Jason, who even set up a school in Jerusalem in which the chief exercise was discus-throwing (1 Macc 1:14, 2 Macc 4:12-14); and later by Herod, who built amphitheaters in Jerusalem and other cities, in which gymnastic exercises were held, such as chariot races, musical contests, combat with wild beasts, and the like.

The Jews, however, regarded these games and entertainments with great disfavor, quite rightly considering them pagan. The passion for theatrical spectacles was especially strong among the Greeks. The apostle Paul, well acquainted with this attachment of theirs, frequently uses in his epistles words and terms relating to this kind of spectacle. Thus, for example, the metaphorical expression: “when I fought with beasts at Ephesus” (1 Cor 15:32) points to the combat of men with beasts that existed as a form of entertainment in Greek and Roman circuses.

Although this expression of the apostle is taken by most commentators in a figurative sense, it may also be understood literally. “For bodily exercise profiteth little” (1 Tim 4:8), and “if a man also strive for masteries” (2 Tim 2:5)—these point to the fact that those competing in the arena of circuses and amphitheaters abstained from all things and disciplined their bodies through a more or less lengthy regimen (1 Cor 9:25-27). The contest itself took place in the presence of numerous spectators.

This custom explains the following expression of the apostle: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses”… (Heb 12:1). The victor in the contest usually received a reward—a crown, made of the leaves of the wild olive, or of pine and ivy. Referring to this custom, the apostle Paul says: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness” (2 Tim 4:8). Sometimes palm branches were placed in the victor’s hands (Rev 7:9). The holy apostle vividly represents to our imagination the caution of contestants in laying aside every encumbrance that hinders them in reaching the goal, especially long, flowing garments: “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” he says (Heb 12:1).

“Know ye not,” he writes elsewhere, “that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible” (1 Cor 9:24-27). And he continues: “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection”… “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,” he likewise says of himself in the epistle to the Philippians (3:13-14), “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” All these terms and expressions, which relate more or less to the gymnastic exercises of antiquity, are unquestionably borrowed from the gymnastic exercises used in the ancient circuses.