Hippies, not Hebrews

Our church is putting on a Christmas Play.

I generally have plenty of other things to do at church, and so I don't feel the need to get in front of the congregation in singing or acting or such. But their player for Zachariah left for family reasons, and I allowed them to draft me as his replacement.

In the scene, Zachariah is in the Temple, getting incense ready for an offering to God, when the angel appears before him. For a prop, I brought a rectangular metal vase, about 18 inches tall, with a bronze color, as the senser.

The lady directing the play looked at it and remarked that it was awfully big. I said that it was as close as I had for a prop, but to be truly accurate, it should have chains on it.

She said that we weren't going to light any incense, but she told me that she brought the prop for the scene. She then produced a box with sticks of incense and a stand that looked like a skinny cribbage board.

I said, "That's not historically correct, they didn't have those.".

She said, "No one will know.".

I said, "The Pastor and I will know.".

She said, "You guys don't count.".

I pointed at the little incense sticks and said, "No. Those are for Hippies, not Hebrews.".

Love it.   Historical accuracy, ah who cares.

It always bugs me when I see churches doing living nativity scenes. Every single one of them have the 3 wise men standing there.

Matthew 2:16
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Anyone who has a bible should be able to figure they came along quite a while later. But accuracy smaccuracy who cares about trivial details like that