When we were talking about cultural literacy a while back, a friend of mine pointed out that the Bible is also a rich repository of our cultural heritage. “People toss around phrases in conversation and in their writing without realizing they’re quoting Scripture,” she said. “They [don’t realize] the Bible [is also a source of] literature upon which classic novel titles and plots, character qualities, internal conflicts, outcomes, and epic battles are based.”

It’s true. So you can imagine my delight when I stumbled upon this Vanity Fair article by the late Christopher Hitchens about the King James Bible. Speaking about the America of the twentieth century, he says, “The King James Bible … became one of the very few books from which almost any American could quote something.” *

True again. Be fruitful and multiply. Pearls before swine. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Eat, drink, and be merry. The blind leading the blind. The fatted calf. Salt of the earth. You know these phrases. I certainly heard them in my childhood home.

Yes, Hitch was a well-known critic of religion, called an atheist by others and self-described as an antitheist. That doesn’t mean he didn’t appreciate a good book when he read one. (Or a good turn of phrase: his description of Henry VIII’s quarrel with the pope as “the dialectics of divorce and decapitation” is among many well-turned phrases in this article.) The piece is filled with history and appreciation and unstuffy cultural literacy and you’ll learn something, I’m sure. I am tempted to pull all the really interesting bits for you; I’ll settle for this.

Though I am sometimes reluctant to admit it, there really is something “timeless” in the Tyndale/King James synthesis. For generations, it provided a common stock of references and allusions, rivaled only by Shakespeare in this respect. It resounded in the minds and memories of literate people, as well as of those who acquired it only by listening. From the stricken beach of Dunkirk in 1940, faced with a devil’s choice between annihilation and surrender, a British officer sent a cable back home. It contained [only] three words “but if not … ” All of those who received it were at once aware of what it signified. In the Book of Daniel, the Babylonian tyrant Nebuchadnezzar tells the three Jewish heretics Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that if they refuse to bow to his sacred idol they will be flung into a “burning fiery furnace.” They made him an answer: “If it be so, our god whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, o King. / But if not, be it known unto thee, o king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

Fascinating stuff. “A culture that does not possess this common store of image and allegory,” Hitches goes on to say, “will be a perilously thin one.” I think you’ll agree.

* You need look no further than Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! for an example, though there are many.

Thank you, Cynthia Ruchti, for this topic and your overview!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Tweet:  Writers: The Bible is a rich source of our cultural literacy. 
Tweet: The Bible was one of the very few books from which almost any American could quote something.