We Shall All Be Changed

WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED // INKJAM 2023 

When the theme for this year's InkJam (In The Blink of An Eye) was announced, I wanted to know more about the history of the phrase. The earliest instance I could find was from the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, which describes the moment of apocalypse: "In a moment, in the twinkling* of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."

(*The English word 'blink' likely comes from blinken, which means to twinkle)

This detail led me down some unexpected paths, described below- though it's probably best if you play the game before reading any further! 

• I imagined what it must have been like living in Corinth in AD 50. Jews and pagans were encountering Christianity for the first time, trying to make sense of what these new preachers were saying about heaven, hell, damnation and resurrection. Resurrection through Christ was a *brand-new idea* to these people, and they must have been TERRIFIED of going to hell. 

• In Corinthians 1, the Apostle Paul explains that women should not be allowed to speak in churches. Today, scholars dispute whether this was actually in the original letter or inserted later. WHAT?! Who inserted it, why, and when? This detail became a driving force in my narrative.  

• Paul's letter takes time to explore the details of 'bodily resurrection'. In simple terms, people were wondering if you lose a leg, do you get the leg back in the afterlife? According to the stories, Jesus was risen with all his wounds intact, suggesting that wounds would NOT be healed in the afterlife. Centuries later, St Thomas Aquinas wrote about bodily resurrection in the context of cannibalism. If a cannibal eats a pure cannibal diet, then all of that person's body is made out of someone else's body. So on judgement day, when everyone is changed 'in the blink of an eye', what happens to the cannibal? Does their flesh get redistributed to all the people they ate, or do all the people who got eaten miss out on judgement day? This debate makes up a significant portion of  Act II.

• Finally, there's REMNANT. I wanted to include a Biblical demon and my first thought was Legion. According to the story, Jesus cast Legion into a herd of pigs and drove them off a cliff to drown in the sea. I imagine REMNANT as the pig that survived.