The Cultural Inf luence of the King James Translation

F rom the phrases “let there be light” and “eat, drink, and be merry” to “eye for an eye” and “skin of my teeth,” the language of the King James translation has become second nature to English

speakers—so much so that few recognize the King James Bible as the origin of these phrases.

In the four centuries since its publication, the King James Version has had a profound effect on art and culture. From John Milton to Norman Mailer, writers have turned to the language and style of the Bible to bring their own works to life. There are echoes of the King James Bible in the otherwise disparate novels and stories of nineteenth-century writers Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, and Herman Melville. On the stage, playwrights Archibald MacLeish and Adrienne Kennedy turned to the King James Bible as they offered commentary on the tragedies of modern life.

Politicians, activists, and religious leaders have also looked to the King James Bible to support their work. Self-proclaimed prophet Joanna Southcott attracted followers with her visions, rife with imagery from the King James translation. Abraham Lincoln invoked the King James Version as he sought the reconciliation of a fragmented country. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech inspired listeners with the cadence and words of the King James translators.

The King James Bible proved irresistible to film directors and producers who appreciated the wide appeal of biblical stories as well as the compelling defense the Bible provided against censors. Biblical epics promised blockbuster success in the late 1940s and 1950s. Later films, including Cape Fear (1991), invoked the language of the King James translation in more complex and problematic ways.

Collectively, these varied works are a testament to the depth, complexity, and resonance of the King James Bible and the ability of its words to critique, to antagonize, to motivate, and to inspire.

The Bible in Print and Art: The Word Realized

F rom the very beginning of printing, the Bible was regarded as the ultimate challenge. It presented printers and artists with the daunting task of creating an appropriate receptacle for

sacred text. They met this challenge with widely divergent methods. Some favored sharp, clean typography, placing as little as possible between the reader and the word. Others celebrated the text with elaborate typographical or artistic interpretations of biblical passages.

This section of the exhibition presents some of the most important Bibles from the Ransom Center’s history of printing collections. On view are such historically important works as a thirteenth-century English manuscript Bible and the Plantin Polyglot Bible. Also on display are some of the finest examples of modern book design that feature biblical texts, including Marc Chagall’s Exodus, works by the sculptor and book designer Eric Gill, plates from art deco books by François-Louis Schmied, and the entire set of Jacob Lawrence’s large silkscreen prints for the Book of Genesis.

John Milton and Paradise Lost

John Milton (1608–1674) composed Paradise Lost between 1658 and 1664. The first edition appeared in 1667, with a revised second edition in 1674. The epic poem is a retelling of the story of Adam and

Eve’s sin and expulsion from Eden (Genesis 1–3). Milton expands the relatively brief Genesis account to include the story of Satan’s origin and rebellion and God’s counsels in Heaven.

Paradise Lost shows the influence of multiple Bible translations: the Bishops’, Douay-Rheims, Geneva, Great, and the King James. Critics have argued that the interpretive notes of the Geneva Bible were particularly influential in shaping Milton’s reading of the Bible.

Milton’s language itself reveals the particular influence of the King James Bible. One passage notable for its use of the language of the King James translation is the archangel Raphael’s retelling of Creation:

And God said, let the Waters generateReptil with Spawn abundant, living Soule:And let Fowle flie above the Earth, with wingsDisplayd on the op’n Firmament of Heav’n. And God created the great Whales, and eachSoul living, each that crept, which plenteouslyThe waters generated by thir kindes,And every Bird of wing after his kinde;And saw that it was good, and bless’d them, saying,Be fruitful, multiply, and in the SeasAnd Lakes and running Streams the waters fill;And let the Fowle be multiply’d on the Earth.(Book 7, lines 387–398)

Many words and phrases from the King James translation echo throughout these lines: “And God said,” “fowl… fly above the earth,” “the open firmament of heaven,” “And God created great whales,” “after his kind,” and “Be fruitful and multiply.”

Fifty-six years after its publication, the King James translation had left an indelible mark on one of the classic works of English poetry.

John Bunyan and The Pilgrim’s Progress

John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) follows the central character Christian on his journey “from this world to that which is to come.” Bunyan (1628–1688) wrote the allegory during his imprisonment

for preaching without the sanction of the Church of England.

Both the style and language of The Pilgrim’s Progress demonstrate the profound influence of the King James translation. As critic David Norton has noted, the following passage, describing Christian and Hopeful as they wade into the river of death, represents a “mixture of quotation, allusion and imitation”:

They then addressed themselves to the water; and entering, Christian began to sink, and crying out to his good friend Hopeful, he said, ‘I sink in deep waters, the billows go over my head, all his waves go over me, Selah.’

Then said the other, ‘Be of good cheer, my brother, I feel the bottom and it is good.’ Then said Christian, ‘Ah my friend, the sorrows of death have compassed me about, I shall not see the land that flows with milk and honey.’ And with that a great darkness and horror fell upon Christian so that he could not see before him; also here he in great measure lost his senses so that he could neither remember nor orderly talk of any of those sweet refreshments that he had met with in the way of his pilgrimage.

As Christian moves from the “City of Destruction” to the “Celestial City,” he travels across the Valley of the Shadow of Death, wherein he hears a portion of the 23rd Psalm:

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me...

The familiarity of the style and language of The Pilgrim’s Progress may have contributed to its tremendous success; it was and remains among the most widely read books in English, and its influence on subsequent writers is significant. The Pilgrim’s Progress provided the title for William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (1847), featured prominently in Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women (1868/1869), and served as the basis for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “The Celestial Railroad” (1843).

The Prophecies of Joanna Southcott

Joanna Southcott (1750–1814) was born in East Devon, England. At the age of 42, she began to hear a voice speaking to her and subsequently had a series of visions. She believed that these messages

indicated Jesus’s imminent return and that she was the woman referenced in Revelation 12:1–6:

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

In 1801, she used her life savings to publish her first book, The Strange Effects of Faith. Southcott’s prose owed much to the King James translation, and her visions often included specific references to it. One modern critic has noted, “she and the Bible sound amazingly alike.” Insiders viewed this similarity as proof of her prophetic status, while detractors argued that it only revealed a familiarity with the Bible. Though a controversial figure, Southcott developed a significant following and offered her followers “seals,” envelopes sealed with wax, that were to mark them as part of the 144,000 elect referenced in the Book of Revelation.

At Southcott’s death, she left behind a sealed box of prophecies with the instruction that it only be opened at a time of national crisis under the supervision of 24 bishops of the Church of England. To date, the box has not been opened, but cultural references to it have persisted, including, perhaps most famously, on an episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Southcott’s religious legacy endures. Her visions and teachings inspired a host of still-active religious organizations, including the American-based Israelite House of David in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

The Poetry of Phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley (ca. 1753–1784) was born in Africa and sold into slavery. At the age of seven or eight she was purchased by a Boston tailor, John Wheatley, for his wife. While in the Wheatley

household, Phillis learned to read and write. Within 16 months of her arrival, she could read “the most difficult part of the sacred writings.” She also read extensively from the poetry of John Milton, Alexander Pope, and Thomas Gray, as well as classics from Ovid, Horace, and Virgil.

Wheatley began writing her own poetry, and in September 1773, her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was first published in London. As the title suggests, Wheatley’s collected poems explored a wide variety of topics, from the well-known “On Being Brought from Africa to America” to elegies on deaths of loved ones to a poem simply titled “On Imagination.”

Two of these poems, “Goliath of Gath” and “Isaiah lxiii. 1-8,” are specifically biblical and incorporate the language of the King James Bible. This excerpt from “Isaiah” reveals its influence:

“Mine was the act,” th’ Almighty Saviour said, And shook the dazzling glories of his head, “When all forsook I trod the press alone, “And conquer’d by omnipotence my own; “For man’s release sustain’d the pond’rous load, “For man the wrath of an immortal God: “To execute th’ Eternal’s dread command “My soul I sacrific’d with willing hand; “Sinless I stood before the avenging frown, “Atoning thus for vices not my own.”

Like Milton before her, Wheatley incorporated elements of classical literature into her poetry. Her retelling of the story of Goliath not only reproduced the language of the King James Bible but also followed the conventions of classical epic poetry.

Wheatley’s poetry was largely forgotten after her death until abolitionists rediscovered and popularized her work in the 1830s.

The Poetry of William Wordsworth

W illiam Wordsworth (1770–1850) is regarded today as one of the great Romantic poets, alongside William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Wordsworth and Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems in 1798, ushering in the era of English Romantic poetry. As critic David Norton has noted, by the time Wordsworth and his colleagues were writing, the King James Bible had a solidly established reputation as a great work of literature. Nevertheless, Wordsworth’s use of the language of the King James Bible is somewhat surprising given that he and other Romantic poets sought to liberate poetry from overly formal language, personification, and “poetic diction.”

In the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth added a preface in which he explained his motivation for the volume. Of the poetry’s style, he wrote, “I have proposed to myself to imitate, and, as far as is possible, to adopt the very language of men… I have wished to keep my Reader in the company of flesh and blood, persuaded that by so doing I shall interest him.”

Scholar Adam Potkay has argued that, although the language of the King James Bible runs throughout Wordsworth’s poetry, Wordsworth “reads the Bible antithetically, or in a manner that reveals its own tensions or fissures.” Thus, even his use of the language of the King James translation is in keeping with the larger mission of his poetry—to defy convention.

In “Tintern Abbey,” Wordsworth invokes a number of biblical phrases, including “a still small voice” from I Kings 19:11-12 and a portion of Psalm 23, “for thou art with me.”

William Blake and The Book of Job

Though little-appreciated during his lifetime, William Blake (1757–1827) produced a significant body of work, including paintings, engravings, and poetry. Blake was far from a conventional Christian

thinker, but he turned to the King James Bible for the power of its language and imagery.

In “Proverbs of Hell” from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (ca. 1790–1793), Blake imitates the style and diction of the Old Testament Proverbs but resists biblical ideas of wisdom and morality. Blake’s “Hell” is really his view of Heaven, an inversion of the traditional Christian one. Thus, for Blake, “The nakedness of woman is the work of God,” and “Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.” However radical his ideas, the parallel style of Blake’s rhetoric is traditionally biblical.

Blake also parodied and challenged the biblical accounts of creation, the exodus, and traditional Christian depictions of God in his prophetical works, including The First Book of Urizen (1794), The Book of Ahania (1795), and The Book of Los (1795). These books offered Blake’s alternate perspective on biblical stories. The First Book of Urizen describes creation:

Lo, a shadow of horror is risenIn Eternity! Unknown, unprolific!Self-closd, all-repelling: what DemonHath form’d this abominable voidThis soul-shudd’ring vacuum?—Some said“It is Urizen”, But unknown, abstractedBrooding secret, the dark power hid.

Times on times he divided, & measur’dSpace by space in his ninefold darknessUnseen, unknown! changes appeard In his desolate mountains rifted furiousBy the black winds of perturbation.

Perhaps Blake’s most notable and successful King James Bible-inspired project was The Book of Job (1825). The 22 engraved prints featured in this work included paraphrases and direct quotations from the King James Bible to tell the story of Job and his suffering.

Blake’s work inspired later generations of poets and writers, including William Butler Yeats, Allen Ginsberg, and Philip Pullman.

The Cambridge Revision of 1743 and the Oxford Revision of 1769

By the late 1600s, the King James translation, or Authorized Version, had become the dominant Bible translation in England.

One hundred and twenty-nine years after its first printing, officials at Cambridge University Press sought to “serve the public with a more beautiful and correct edition than can be easily found.” They selected a University fellow, F. S. Parris, to lead the effort. With the benefit of new developments in biblical scholarship and an understanding of Greek and Hebrew, Parris revised the text, changing nouns from singular to plural when appropriate, restoring definite articles, updating archaic words to modern forms, and addressing the inconsistent use of “ye” and “you” throughout the Bible. Cambridge University Press printed the revised edition in 1743.

In 1769, Oxford University Press produced its own revised edition. This revision, completed by Benjamin Blayney, shaped the work to such a degree that it has become the text most widely recognized by those who know and read the King James Bible today. Blayney followed Parris’s lead and also carefully edited chapter summaries, italics, and running heads on each page. He paid assiduous attention to detail, correcting errors introduced by both the translators and printers. Ultimately Blayney introduced about 16,000 changes to the original King James Bible.

Blayney altered Exodus 23:13 to read “the name of other gods” as opposed to 1611’s “the names of other gods.” He corrected a misplaced comma (a likely printer’s error) from the 1611 version so that II Corinthians 5:2 read, “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring” instead of “For in this we grone earnestly, desiring.”

Oxford University Press printed the revision in both folio and quarto editions. Shortly thereafter, Cambridge University Press adopted Blayney’s revision as well, and it became the most frequently printed version of the King James Bible.

Today Blayney’s revision, with a few minor changes of proper names and corrections of printer’s errors, is the source of most contemporary King James Bibles. Relatively few modern readers of the King James Bible are actually reading the text of the first edition of 1611.

The King James Bible, Slavery, and the American Civil War

I t is not surprising that in a time of national crisis, Americans turned to the King James translation of the Bible. It was the most popular translation in the United States and provided a familiar language

from which to make sense of unprecedented loss and devastation.

In the years before the American Civil War (1861–1865), both pro- and anti-slavery advocates turned to the Bible to argue their positions. Americans were sharply divided on the issue and, though using a common text, found vastly different evidence in the King James Bible to support their views. Pro-slavery advocates used a wide variety of specific biblical texts from Genesis to Paul’s epistle to Philemon, while abolitionists frequently based arguments on the incompatibility of slavery with broad, fundamental tenets of Christianity.

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), once a slave himself, offered a powerful argument against American slavery in his various autobiographies. Douglass contended that the slaveholding Christianity of the United States was “bad, corrupt, and wicked,” and he quoted the King James Bible to support his assertion.

Abolitionist and writer Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) wove the language of the King James translation into her influential work Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or A life among the lowly (1852) and her lesser-known novel Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856). For several years, the popularity of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was second only to the Bible itself, and it provided abolitionists with a biblically based argument against slavery.

Shakespeare scholar Richard Grant White (1822–1885) used the style of the King James Bible in his four-part satire on the Copperheads—northerners who opposed the war. White’s The New Gospel of Peace (1863–1866) was among the most popular and effective pieces of propaganda produced in the midst of the Civil War.

Before and during the war, many of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches were imbued with the language of the King James Bible. His famous “House Divided” speech derived its central image from Mark 3:25, “If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” In his second inaugural address, delivered March 4, 1865, Lincoln (1809–1865) pointed to the shared Bible of the North and the South:

Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.

Charles Dickens and The Life of Our Lord

Charles Dickens (1812–1870) first wrote The Life of Our Lord for his children between 1846 and 1849 but specified that it not be published until he and his children had died. He felt the work was

intensely personal, and he had not conceived of it as a literary work to be shared with a wide audience.

Almost 100 years after Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord, the story appeared in print in England in the Daily Mail in 1934. King Features Syndicate purchased the American rights, and it appeared serially in newspapers across the country, including the Austin American. Simon & Schuster published a complete edition in book form in 1934.

Throughout The Life of Our Lord, Dickens’s audience is clear. His tone is endearing, and he addresses his children directly:

You never saw a locust, because they belong to that country nearJerusalem, which is a great way off. So do camels, but I think youhave seen a camel? At all events they are brought over here,sometimes; and if you would like to see one, I will shew you one.

He explained that the “doctors” who Jesus spoke with at the temple in Jerusalem were not physicians, addressing an issue with the language choice of the King James Bible that was altered in many successive translations:

They were not what you understand by the word “doctors” now; they did not attend sick people; they were scholars and clever men.

Dickens quoted directly from the King James translation throughout, including Matthew 3:15, “Suffer it to be so now,” and Matthew 3:17, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” He sometimes paraphrased, as he did with Luke 22:48: “Judas, Thou betrayest me with a kiss!”

Though Dickens never intended his work for a general audience, The Life of Our Lord reveals the familiarity and depth of influence of the King James translation on a major British writer of the Victorian era.

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick

In Jane Eyre (1848), English novelist Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) tells the story of the trials of an orphaned young woman. Brontë uses both direct quotations of and allusions to the King James Bible

throughout the novel.

Jane Eyre’s employer and eventual husband, Edward Rochester, masquerading as a fortune-teller, describes Jane’s character: “strong wind, earthquake shock, and fire may pass by: but I shall follow the guiding of that still small voice,” a clear reference to I Kings 19:11-12:

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; [but] the LORD [was] not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; [but] the LORD [was] not in the earthquake:

And after the earthquake a fire; [but] the LORD [was] not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

Later in the novel when Jane and Rochester are married, Brontë describes the marriage by involving Genesis 2:23, “No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am: ever more absolutely bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.”

The King James translation also echoes throughout Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick (1851). Notable biblical references include the naming of Captain Ahab for the king of Israel who “did evil

in the sight of the Lord” and Ishmael’s invocation of Job as he writes, “And I alone am escaped to tell thee.”

In addition to these references, the influence of the King James Bible is apparent in Melville’s style and diction. When Melville discusses a whale’s tail, he shifts into a style of prose that mimics the biblical poetry of the King James translation:

But if I know not even the tail of this whale, how understand his head? much more, how comprehend his face, when face he has none? Thou shalt see my back parts, my tail, he seems to say, but my face shall not be seen. But I cannot completely make out his back parts; and hint what he will about his face, I say again he has no face.

Melville also integrates an allusion to Exodus 33:20 and 23: “And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live… And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.”

Charles M. Sheldon and the Popularization of “What Would Jesus Do?”

In the 1890s, Kansas minister Charles M. Sheldon (1857–1946) turned to “sermon stories” to engage his congregation. In 1896, Sheldon began reading to the Central Church of Topeka a new series of

stories, called In His Steps. Like other Sheldon sermon stories, In His Steps ran as a serial in The Advance (Chicago) before being published as a book.

Sheldon and his publishers, who had failed to properly secure a copyright for In His Steps, were stunned at the novel’s success—and all of the pirated editions that emerged. In His Steps became a runaway bestseller in the United States and England.

Sheldon took his inspiration and title from I Peter 2:21 and used the newly revised King James Bible (1881/1885) as his source text: “For here unto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps.”

The 12 central characters in the novel take a pledge to live their lives guided by the question, “What would Jesus do?” As Sheldon was part of the larger Social Gospel movement that sought to improve social problems throughout the world, much of the novel centers on how characters used the pledge to minister to the needs of the urban poor and to fight the destructive effects of alcohol.

The popularity of the novel waned, but it was “rediscovered” in the 1990s, and the question “What would Jesus do?” again swept the country, with the four letters “WWJD” appearing on bracelets, bumper stickers, and t-shirts.

The Revisions of 1881, 1885, and 1901

In 1868, on the basis of newly available Greek manuscripts, the dean of Canterbury, Henry Alford, proposed a revision of the King James Bible. “Companies” of British and American scholars were

appointed to work on different sections of the Bible as they had been for the King James translation.

The first rule of the revision was “to introduce as few alterations as possible into the text of the Authorized Version consistently with faithfulness.” The second rule also supported deference to the language of the King James Bible as it sought “to limit, as far as possible, the expression of such alterations to the language of the Authorized or earlier versions.” At least some of the revisers used Blayney’s edition of 1769 as their base text.

The Revised Version of the New Testament appeared in 1881 and was followed by the Old Testament in 1885. The Apocrypha did not appear until 1895. On the day of its publication, the revised New Testament sold 300,000 copies.

A specifically American edition of this revision appeared in 1901. This version included language preferred by American translators on the committee, including the use of “Jehovah” rather than “the LORD” for the rendering of the Tetragrammaton. The American Version’s full title clearly placed it in the King James tradition: “the Version Set Forth in A.D. 1611, Compared with the Most Ancient Authorities and Revised A.D. 1881–1885, Newly Edited by the American Revision Committee A.D. 1901, Standard Edition.”

While academics generally praised the Revised Version, many church leaders and readers rejected the translation—either because of its variance from the familiar King James Version or its use of Greek texts beyond the traditional “Textus Receptus” that had served as the basis for it. Ultimately the Revised Version introduced some 36,000 changes beyond those that Blayney made in 1769.

Even today, critics debate whether these editions constituted a revision of the King James Bible or should be regarded as entirely new translations.

Walker Evans and James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

In 1936 photographer Walker Evans (1903–1975) and writer James Agee (1909–1955) were on assignment to document the living conditions of sharecroppers in the American South. Though

originally tasked with producing a magazine article, Agee and Evans ultimately published a book.They took the title, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, from the Book of Ecclesiasticus, verse 44:

Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us. The Lord hath wrought great glory by them through his great power from the beginning. Such as did bear rule in their kingdoms, men renowned for their power, giving counsel by their understanding, and declaring prophecies: Leaders of the people by their counsels, and by their knowledge of learning meet for the people, wise and eloquent are their instructions: Such as found out musical tunes, and recited verses in writing: Rich men furnished with ability, living peaceably in their habitations: All these were honoured in their generations, and were the glory of their times. There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises

might be reported. And some there be, which have no memorial; who are perished, as though they had never been; and are become as though they had never been born; and their children after them. But these were merciful men, whose righteousness hath not been forgotten.

Agee hoped that the book would serve as a memorial for the sharecroppers whose lives might otherwise go unrecognized and also as a call to arms on behalf of the families with whom he worked.

Both the King James Bible and The Book of Common Prayer shaped the writing of the Anglican-raised Agee. He wove Bible verses and prayers into the narrative of the sharecroppers’ lives and documented the importance of Bibles to the people he studied.

The Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) first came to national attention as a spokesman for the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott of 1955. He was elected president of the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference in 1957 and became one of the most prominent leaders in the movement for African American civil rights.

King, the son of a minister, was ordained during his senior year at Morehouse College. He went on to receive a divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in theology from Boston University. He advocated a peaceful approach to social change that combined the teachings of Christianity with the non-violence advocated by Mahatma Gandhi.

One of King’s best-known speeches, his “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963, contains both direct quotations from and language evocative of the King James Bible.

King invoked Amos 5:24, “But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream”:

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

And Isaiah 40:4–5, “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it”:

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight: “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

In addition to these specific uses, King’s diction and delivery reflected the influence of the King James Bible, a fact not lost on contemporary observers. In his account of the speech in The New York Times, journalist James Reston (1909–1995) wrote, “Dr. King touched all the themes of the day, only better than anybody else. He was full of the symbolism of Lincoln and Gandhi, and the cadences of the Bible. He was both militant and sad, and he sent the crowd away feeling that the long journey had been worthwhile.”

King James Goes to the Movies

Legendary director Cecil B. DeMille first told the story of The Ten Commandments on film in 1923. This silent film was divided into “the prologue,” which tells the story of the commandments

themselves, and “the story,” showing the challenges of following the commandments in modern (1920s) life. Direct quotes from the King James Bible appear on screen throughout the prologue.

In 1949, DeMille again turned his attention to the Bible with Samson and Delilah, starring Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature. DeMille privately noted, “We’ll sell it as a story of faith, a story of the power of prayer. That’s for the censors and the women’s organizations. For the public, it’s the hottest love story of all time.”

Encouraged by the success of Samson and Delilah and attracted by the relative freedom from censors afforded by the cloak of biblical story, other studios sought to capitalize on the biblical epic. Many of these films took great liberties with the biblical text and promised audiences sensational retellings of Bible stories. Most turned to the King James Bible as a model of speech and diction, if not exact language, for their characters.

In 1951, Twentieth Century Fox produced David and Bathsheba with Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward. The movie, based on the biblical account from II Samuel, offered audiences a hero who committed murder and adultery. Nevertheless, the censors were hesitant to change the biblical story to make it adhere to the Hollywood production code.

In 1956, DeMille revisited The Ten Commandments, creating “a gigantean series of spectacles” starring Charlton Heston. In this film, the characters frequently spoke the familiar words and phrases of the King James translation of the Book of Exodus. The film was the highest grossing film of 1957 and has been broadcast annually by ABC every year since 1973.

In the 1960 film The Story of Ruth, Twentieth Century Fox returned to the epic form and promised viewers, “All the spectacle of heathen idolatry, human sacrifice, pagan revels—all the beauty of one of the Bible’s timeless love stories!” The Story of Ruth was one of the last biblical epics of the period.

Robert De Niro and Cape Fear

The 1991 Martin Scorsese-directed thriller Cape Fear may seem an unlikely candidate for documenting the use and influence of the King James Bible, but its central character, Max Cady, as

played by Robert De Niro (b. 1943), wielded biblical verses like weapons.

This aspect of Max Cady was absent in both the original 1962 film starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum and The Executioners (1957), the novel by John D. MacDonald on which the film was based.

Cape Fear follows Cady, a convicted felon, as he seeks vengeance against his attorney, Sam Bowden. While in prison, Cady learned that Bowden suppressed information that might have resulted in a lighter sentence or acquittal. The biblical story of Job’s suffering looms large as a model for Cady’s punishment of Bowden.

The research materials from the Robert De Niro collection reveal the extent to which he was involved with the development of the Pentecostal past of and biblical influence on Max Cady. To prepare for the role, De Niro consulted multiple Bibles, a concordance, Bible study guides, Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Book of Job, and books and articles about Pentecostalism and Pentecostal worship. Screenwriter Wesley Strick recalled, “Every scene of Bob’s, he would call me and say, ‘Can Max say something else here about vengeance, from the Bible?’” De Niro also worked closely with Scorcese and artist Ilona Herman to identify Bible verses and designs for Max Cady’s extensive tattoos.

In contrast to the biblical epics of the 1950s and 1960s, Cape Fear did not offer viewers a traditional Bible story. Indeed, Cady’s use of the Bible was troubling for many audiences and it contributed to the tension of the film. One critic observed, “The dissonance between the cultural expectations we associate with the Bible and our immediate perception of this character [as evil] contributes to the sustained horror of the film.”

Norman Mailer and The Gospel According to the Son

In his novel The Gospel According to the Son (1997), Norman Mailer (1923–2007) imagines Jesus retelling the story of his own life—correcting the errors that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John made in their

gospel narratives. Mailer’s Jesus writes:

While I would not say that Mark’s gospel is false, it has much exaggeration. And I would offer less for Matthew, and for Luke and John, who gave me words I never uttered and described me as gentle when I was pale with rage. Their words were written many years after I was gone and only repeat what old men told them… What is for me to tell remains neither a simple story nor without surprise, but it’s true, at least to all that I recall.

Mailer studied the biblical accounts of Jesus’s life and heavily annotated his edition of the King James Bible. He also consulted a paragraph Bible (based on the King James translation) from which he tore out pages and charted the structure of his novel.

Mailer not only used the King James Bible for reference, but he also adopted its style and cadence for his narrator. Reviews of his use of King Jamesian English were mixed, and the book often suffered critically in comparison to Jim Crace’s Quarantine. Crace’s novel, released in the same year, moved away from both the biblical content and style to tell the story of Jesus’s 40 days in the desert in a spare prose.

Though many anticipated that Mailer would create an unconventional or renegade Jesus, his depiction was fairly orthodox and adhered closely to the gospel accounts of Jesus’s life. In a review for The New York Times, Reynolds Price commented, “What is most unexpected is Mr. Mailer’s steady fidelity to canonical accounts… With few exceptions, even the most conservative Christian should find little to reject.” Indeed, Price argued that Mailer’s lack of invention along with his “puzzling reliance on the archaic King James diction” accounted for the failure of the novel to live up to Mailer’s “narrative brilliance.”

1 Samuel 17: 40–58

And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near

to the Philistine. And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.

And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.

Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands.

And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until thou come to the valley, and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even unto Gath, and unto Ekron. And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents. And David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armour in his tent. And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, Inquire thou whose son the stripling is. And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.

Excerpts from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address (March 4, 1865)

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was

being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

Excerpts from the Appendix, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1845)

I find, since reading over the foregoing Narrative, that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to

suppose me an opponent of all religion. To remove the liability of such misapprehension, I deem it proper to append the following brief explanation. What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other…

The Christianity of America is a Christianity, of whose votaries it may be as truly said, as it was of the ancient scribes and Pharisees, “They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. All their works they do for to be seen of men… But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.—Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides! which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but within, they are full of extortion and excess.—Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

Dark and terrible as is this picture, I hold it to be strictly true of the overwhelming mass of professed Christians in America. They strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Could any thing be more true of our churches?... I conclude these remarks by copying the following portrait of the religion of the south, (which is, by communion and fellowship, the religion of the north,) which I soberly affirm is “true to the life,” and without caricature or the slightest exaggeration. It is said to have been drawn, several years before the present anti–slavery agitation began, by a northern Methodist preacher, who, while residing at the south, had an opportunity to see slaveholding morals, manners, and piety, with his own eyes. “Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?”

King James and the Council of Hampton Court

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603), archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker (1504–1575) and over one dozen English bishops produced a new English translation that became

known as the Bishops’ Bible. Although intended to supplant the Geneva Bible, which Elizabeth felt was too radical, the Bishops’ Bible did not become popular with English readers. By the end of the sixteenth century, scholars such as Hugh Broughton (1549–1612) were calling for yet another English translation of the Bible.

In January 1604, King James I (1566–1625), who had just succeeded Queen Elizabeth I, met with his chief clergy in what is now known as the Hampton Court Conference. The meeting was held in response to the Millenary Petition, through which Puritan leaders demanded further reform of worship and institutional organization. According to a contemporaneous account, a revised Bible translation was not on the agenda until a Puritan leader, John Rainolds (1549–1607) of Oxford, proposed it late in the second day of the conference. James took to the idea and set a plan in motion. Although a learned monarch, he had no part in translating the King James Bible. It is named for him simply because he was its royal sponsor.

Because it was the translation approved of by the Church of England, James ordered that the translators who would work on the King James Bible each receive a copy of the Bishops’ Bible to use as their base text.