I hope everyone remembers the Abba hit, "Dancing Queen." Here's an extract from the lyrics:
Friday night and the lights are low
Looking out for the place to go
Where they play the right music, getting in the swing
You come in to look for a King
Anybody could be that guy
Night is young and the music's high
With a bit of rock music, everything is fine
You're in the mood for a dance
And when you get the chance
You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen
Dancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine
So how does Jesus tie into that? Well, we need a slight gender change and a dose of whimsy and some information from the Biblical Archeological Society.
A current entry on their website, has some research by Paul Dilley (Assistant professor at the University of Iowa, in the departments of religious studies and classics.). And it all ties into a study unit I'm taking this semester entitled, Early Christian Literature and Thought.
Dilley connects the early Christian document, The Acts of John, to some Christian cultic practises in Coptic Christianity.
In one section of The Acts of John, the apostle John recalls how, on the night before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus commanded the apostles to form a circle around him, and to dance as he sang a hymn to which they responded in a series of “Amens.”
Was this later story (written and read by 2nd/3rd generation Christians) a 'foundation story' for a developing liturgical practise? Dilley suggests there is evidence that some Christians developed a practise of liturgical dancing.
For example, the quasi-Christian Manicheans allude to such a practise in one of their Psalms.
And, a team of Polish archeologists have found in the Monastery of Anthony the Great at Old Dongola, capital of the central Nubian kingdom Makuria, this image
which suggests that dance played an important role there as well. Some of the dancing figures are masked, and others play musical instruments.
If you'd like to know more, the post can be found at: