One of the things that struck me about studying at a Bible college was that there are a lot of truly excellent books and articles that are really helpful for understanding the Bible better. However, not many people find them, and if they do, some can be difficult to read. (One author that always made me laugh would have untranslated Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French and German quotations!)

So when I came across a book (Gerald Eddie Gerbrandt’s Kingship According To The Deuteronomistic History) and an article (Sam Dragga’s “In The Shadow Of The Judges: The Failure Of Saul” in Journal For The Study Of The Old Testament 38) that really helped explain what was happening in the book of 1 Samuel, I thought I should do something about it. I decided to write a play that would follow the text of 1 Samuel but would also include the conclusions of these other scholarly works. The end result was Saul: First King of Israel (available here).

But this wasn’t the first time I tried to intersect theology and the arts. Back in 1996 I was asked to write a musical based on the book of Esther. It took a while, but in July/August 1998 Lilydale Baptist performed Esther over 4 spectacular nights. A recording from one of those nights is now available (for free download) from NoiseTrade (here). I hope you will check it out!