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Bible Dictionaries
Theatre

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

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The theater was anciently in the open air; semicircular; the seats in tiers above one another the stage on a level with the lowest seats. Besides the performance of dramas, public meetings were often in the theater, as being large enough almost to receive "the whole city" (Acts 19:29); so at Ephesus the theater was the scene of the tumultuous meeting excited by Demetrius. The remains of this theater still attest its vast size and convenient position. (See EPHESUS; DIANA.) In 1 Corinthians 4:9 "spectacle" is literally, "theatrical spectacle," a spectacle in which the world above and below is the theater, and angels and men the spectators. Hebrews 10:33, "made a "gazing stock" (theatrizomenoi ) by afflictions"; as criminals often were exhibited to amuse the populace in the amphitheater, and "set forth last" in the show to fight with wild beasts (Tertullian, de Pudicitia, 14): Hebrews 12:1. In the theater Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:21-23; Josephus, Ant. 19:8, section 2) gave audience to the Tyrian envoys, and was struck dead by God.

Bibliography Information
Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Theatre'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​fbd/​t/theatre.html. 1949.
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