Many scholars, including Hugh Nibley, have investigated the role of ritual drama in ancient temple settings; Nibley writes concerning the dramatization of the Creation story, the Council in Heaven, the Garden of Eden, and specifically of the “temple drama.” He states, “The dramatic motifs of the temple and its ordinances are found throughout the world from the very earliest times.”82 His research has also demonstrated that various ancient communities—Egyptians, Babylonians, Romans, Greeks, and others—dramatized particular narratives in ritual settings.83
After exploring the concept of ritual drama, Latter-day Saint scholar John Lundquist concludes: “The mysteries of the temple take many forms, differing from culture to culture, and are in fact in many ways culture specific, as we would expect. Two types of temple initiation, however, are particularly widespread, and these are the ‘theatrical’ staging of ritual performances based on the creation . . . and the initiation of the living into the knowledge and mysteries of the afterlife.”84
Why dramatizations in temples, ancient and modern? Because sacred drama serves as a masterly teaching device that captures the attention of men and women who worship together, and provides them with a multitude of emotional, heartening, and spiritual impressions!