The Stubbornness of Human Fear
Repeatedly, throughout the stories of the prophets presented in this play, there is a representation of the stubbornness of humanity. The people of Israel are given the chance to change in response to God's messages, but they dismiss the prophets as mere people who want bad for them. They ignore the prophets, claiming that they are speaking their own words, not God's. These excuses arise naturally, as a product of fear of losing their way of life. When so many agree with the status quo, it is difficult to resist this sort of fearful stubbornness.
Delayed Gratification
The prophets and the character of Abel have something in common. They are given opportunities to interact with God and choose to value delayed gratification. Although they cannot see God nor confirm for objective audiences that they have heard from Him, these men choose to believe what they've heard. For Abel, this looks like sacrificing his first and best harvest from the garden, no small matter. He is rewarded, before his untimely death. For the prophets, the reward is much more difficult to identify. After all, they are each persecuted and disbelieved throughout their lifetimes because the messages they preach are not welcome. Nevertheless they do persist. Although not all of the prophets live to see the fulfillment of God's prophecies, some do and gain the satisfaction of knowing they did hear God correctly. The others are posthumously correct and recorded for posterity in representations like this very play as paragons of faith and steadfastness.
The Smallness of Man
This theme surfaces just as much in the set-up of the play as in the plot. As described in the script, the Garden of Eden is an elaborate and decadent set which remains for the course of the drama. Each character's life story takes its course, but the background remains constant, a visual reminder that the Earth far outlasts the problems of any individual person. It's humbling. Similarly, the successive representations of the prophets illustrate how small a person is compared to the machinations of their society, and subsequently how small society is in contrast to the natural order. No person or group of persons can defy death, which keeps them subject to longterm investments which may outlast their individual lifetimes.
