EarlyActs
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“Melchior” Explains Israel’s History
From the BBC production THE NATIVITY, script by T. Jordan 2009.
The maji travelers are getting close to Israel and Balthasar asks Melchior, the eldest and real driver of the venture, what they are going to find.
Balthasar: what do you think we will find when we get to the land of the Jews?
M: If I knew that, I wouldn’t have made the journey.
B: You called it a bridge, a bridge between heaven and earth.
M: Such a star can’t mean anything else.
B: But a bridge for what purpose?
M (pauses) Do you believe in God?
B: Yes.
M: As what? A presence? An intellect? Someone who created the world and moved on? As someone who stayed and watches us? Like a father? And so, it seems, there was a time when the God of Abraham intervened, when he razed Sodom to the ground, sent manna from heaven to feed the hungry. In the Jewish faith, there was no doubt at all when he helped Moses in Egypt, sending plagues against the Pharaoh.
B: Yes, but the times of God’s intervention are long past. They are little more than stories.
M: Yes, but isn’t that how you deal with a child? You nurture them, and make rules, teaching them to fend for themselves, to make their own way, so that when the time comes, you let the child go.
B: Yes.
M: So because the father no longer intervenes in the lives of his children, and watches from a distance as they make their way in the world, (pause) does it mean he’s no longer there?
B: No. Of course not.
M: But what if the child appeared to have lost his way, to have forgotten the things that he was taught?
B: (pause) The father would (pause) intervene.
M: Wouldn’t you?
From the BBC production THE NATIVITY, script by T. Jordan 2009.
The maji travelers are getting close to Israel and Balthasar asks Melchior, the eldest and real driver of the venture, what they are going to find.
Balthasar: what do you think we will find when we get to the land of the Jews?
M: If I knew that, I wouldn’t have made the journey.
B: You called it a bridge, a bridge between heaven and earth.
M: Such a star can’t mean anything else.
B: But a bridge for what purpose?
M (pauses) Do you believe in God?
B: Yes.
M: As what? A presence? An intellect? Someone who created the world and moved on? As someone who stayed and watches us? Like a father? And so, it seems, there was a time when the God of Abraham intervened, when he razed Sodom to the ground, sent manna from heaven to feed the hungry. In the Jewish faith, there was no doubt at all when he helped Moses in Egypt, sending plagues against the Pharaoh.
B: Yes, but the times of God’s intervention are long past. They are little more than stories.
M: Yes, but isn’t that how you deal with a child? You nurture them, and make rules, teaching them to fend for themselves, to make their own way, so that when the time comes, you let the child go.
B: Yes.
M: So because the father no longer intervenes in the lives of his children, and watches from a distance as they make their way in the world, (pause) does it mean he’s no longer there?
B: No. Of course not.
M: But what if the child appeared to have lost his way, to have forgotten the things that he was taught?
B: (pause) The father would (pause) intervene.
M: Wouldn’t you?
