Senet boards exist today, and archaeologists have pieced together enough of the rules for The British Museum to host a flash version.
Moving into the Judeo-Christian realm, the Jews developed dreidel, a dice-and-top gambling game, to both hide their religious activity and teach their faith under the oppression of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Antiochus, during the sacking of Jerusalem, made the practice of Judaism illegal, so Jews who congregated to teach the Torah would keep a dice-and-top game handy to fool Greek guards. Eventually, they began carving Hebrew letters onto the top and incorporated the game into their teaching.
After a successful Jewish revolt in Jerusalem, the Jews inaugurated Hanukkah, and dreidel became part of the holiday, used in part to teach children the story of the Greek expulsion from Jerusalem. The letters on the dreidel top stand for nun, gimmel, hey, pey, which means "a miracle happened here."
Jesus Didn't Play Dice with the Worldly
As I did my research for this article, I kept trying to find an instance of early Christian churches, or Jesus, playing games in a way to get closer to God. But each avenue I searched, there wasn't anything to be found. I came across hazard, but it was developed during the Crusades and was never spiritually motivated. I also found nine men's morris, but it predates Christianity, though boards have been found inside Christian churches. Nothing from Jesus' time. How could Christianity, a religion that now covers the globe, be devoid of early holy games?
The answer lies in two places: Jesus himself and the politics of early Christianity. First and foremost, Jesus wasn't exactly a man of the Earth. Much of his teachings only touched upon what people did here. Rather, his message was this life was temporary; a short step in the journey to becoming one with God. The idea of him staging something like the Secular Games, or suggesting his disciples try to speak with him via a senet board, was contrary to all of that. What's more, Christianity is a monotheistic religion. There is no god of discus, just like there's no god of spring or disease. There's just God. Without a Zeus to defeat a Cronus or a demon to dance with, there's not much to draw from.
Additionally, Christianity's beginnings were of secret origins. It was looked upon as a dangerous fringe cult by the Jews and the Romans. Openly celebrating your faith in Jesus landed you in a gladiatorial match against hungry lions. People had to declare their faith in code; creating something more elaborate than an ichthys would most likely have been viewed as time-consuming and dangerous.
And ultimately, even if there were Christian games like senet or the Secular Games, their chances of surviving Theodosius' anti-pagan purges would be doubtful. This was a man who not only canceled the Secular Games and the Olympics, he expelled bishops of Christian ideology different his from Constantinople and Rome. If there were sects that incorporated games into their worship, which could easily have been construed as paeans to old pagan ways, they probably didn't risk passing down the traditions to the generations born after Theodosius.
"Zeus Threw That Touchdown Pass"
And that brings us back to the original question: Does Jesus care if we win the big game? Probably not; if anything, he cares how we play the game. But that doesn't mean we're without a little help from whatever may be up there. Next time you pray for a little help in Counter-Strike or during the World Series, consider asking a bit louder: Those old gods who seemed to take such an interest in the games we play probably don't hear so well in their old age.
Joe Blancato is an Associate Editor for The Escapist. He quotes Wayne's World and Dr. Strangelove more often than what can be considered normal.
