Robbed of our heritage

Headlines this week quote a statistic from the Wall Street Journal that says there’s been a 22 percent increase in bible sales (mostly modern versions) in the United States “through the end of October”.

“The current time can be considered a ‘golden age in bible publishing,’ ” says one expert in the field.

From one website: “Tommy Doughty, assistant professor of Theology and Christian Worldview at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, said an aging Gen Z population could very well be driving the interest.

“They are now well into young adulthood — with the oldest past college age and youngest passing puberty. Rather than the internet-driven popular culture they have been drowning in, I wouldn’t be surprised if many are beginning to look for real-life answers now that they are faced with social and career decisions,” Doughty said.

“With loneliness and dislocation prevalent, especially in our socially-deprived youth, there is no wonder many would turn to renewed attempts at spiritual awakening.”

Jeff Audirsch, NOBTS professor of Biblical Studies, said, “There seems to be a response to the truth-is-relative and post-modern points of view. They’ve run their course. Young adults are seeing they need truth in their life and know where to find it.”

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Referring to the impact of the King James Bible, Richard Jordan said, “I call it the bottom line issue. One historian has described the King James Bible as ‘the single greatest piece of English literature ever produced.’ It’s certainly one of the most significant cultural influences of all times in western civilization.

“In fact, most people know who Shakespeare is and about him, but the KJB and Shakespeare are on a par when it comes to social impact and imprinting itself on the English language.

“By the way, If you’re under 40 years old today, you’ve been robbed of that heritage. You cannot be properly educated in western thought and civilization—you can’t be properly grounded in what it is to be a part of the western world that has brought the greatest blessings upon civilization since the time of Solomon.

“You can’t properly be grounded; you can’t call yourself educated in a proper way without being grounded in the Authorized Version of the Word of God.

“It’s not just me saying that; historians say that. That’s because the Authorized Version has so imprinted itself on our culture that you use language and terminology, phrases that come out of the KJB, and you don’t even know you’re doing it.

“For example, if you talk to somebody about ‘the fat of the land.’ Or ‘eat, drink and be merry.’ Or ‘the apple of his eye.’ Or ‘an eye for an eye.’ Or ‘it came to pass.’ Or ‘fight the good fight.’ Or ‘he fell flat on his face.’

“All those phrases come right out of your Bible. You ever hear anybody say, ‘He thinks he’s holier than thou’? That’s Isaiah 65.

“You don’t know it, but over and over you just quote the Bible. In this little book I’ve got, the author says he found 260 phrases that are used in contemporary English that come right out of the KJB.

“He compared that with Shakespeare and there’s just a little less than one hundred phrases from Shakespeare that are used in our language. Almost three to one. And I had about 80 of my own that he didn’t list.

“You know, you can go through your Bible and find things like, if a sailor comes to port and he’s set to go on land, what do you call that? He goes on ‘leave.’ A sailor would never say, ‘I’m on liberty.’ He’d say, ‘I’m on leave.’ That comes from Acts 27.

“Somebody goes on welfare and we say they’re put on ‘relief.’ That’s Acts 11.

“I’m always reminded of the verse in Matthew 12 where Jesus says, ‘Every idle word a man speaks he’s going to give account for in the day of judgment.’ I can just see lost people standing before the Lord and saying, ‘Lord, I didn’t,’ and He says, ‘You know you just quoted my Bible all along.’

“You ever have a hard time just starting a conversation with somebody about the gospel and the Lord? One of the great ways of doing that is to talk about the language.

“You ever hear anybody say on the news about some politician, ‘Oh, how the mighty have fallen’? Well, that’s II Samuel.

If you’re under 40 years old, you know what’s happened? Your heritage in all that has been stolen from you. The Bible, even as just a piece of literature that you would be knowledgeable about and the cultural influence, has been taken away from you.

Here's an outtake from an old post:

I always get a real surprised look when I inform people that parts of Shakespeare were at least “adapted” from the Bible.

I discovered this intriguing gem of information years ago from a Barnes & Noble bargain rack book, the 1996 Reader’s Digest reference guide called The Bible Through the Ages.

As the guide reports, “The Geneva Bible was the edition in general use in England during Shakespeare’s time, and much of the language of his plays and sonnets echoes its wording and themes. In particular, echoes of the Geneva translation of the Book of Job can be heard in Othello, Richard II, and As You like It and in Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy.

Act III, Scene 1 of Hamlet reads, “To be, or not to be, that is the Question: Whether ’tis Nobler in the minde to suffer The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune, Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them: To dye, to sleepe, No more; and by a Sleepe, to say we end The Heart-ake, and the thousand Naturall shockes That Flesh is heyre to?

Job 6: 2-4 and Job 7:21 read, “Oh that my grief were wel weighed,. . . For it wolde be now heavyer than the sand of the sea: therefore my wordes are swallowed up. For the arrows of the Almightie are in me . . . & the terrours of God fight against me. . . now shal I slepe in the dust, and if thou sekest me in the morning, I shal not be founde.”

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It was at the same time Shakespeare was writing Macbeth in early 17^th-century England that the King James Bible was published, becoming the most influential rendering of the Bible in English and quickly supplanting the Geneva Bible as the most popular text for private use.

“The literary quality of the King James Version—the strength and nobility of its language combined with its openness to a variety of interpretations—has earned it an indisputable authority,” says the Reader’s Digest book. “Because the text of the King James Version was to be used at church services, the translators worked hard to make it suitable for reading aloud—its punctuation indicated emphasis and its rhythmic prose could be used to great effect.

“The translators noted in the preface that they made a deliberate attempt not to be restricted ‘to a uniformity of phrasing, or an identity of words.’ The very freedom and richness of the language lend the translation freshness.

“The text’s oral quality can also be traced to the translation process. Since each translator had to read his version aloud to the others, his work was written as language to be spoken.”