The Shadow of a Great Rock

1. The Bible as a Literary Masterpiece

Four centuries later the sublime summit of literature in English still is shared by Shakespeare and the King James Bible.

Shared Summit. The King James Bible (KJB) and the works of Shakespeare, emerging together in the early 17th century, represent the pinnacle of English literature. Their enduring influence is undeniable, shaping language, thought, and culture for centuries.

Divine vs. Human. While Shakespeare is universally recognized as a product of human genius, the KJB holds a unique position, revered by many as divinely inspired. This distinction adds a layer of complexity to its literary appreciation, requiring a balance between aesthetic analysis and spiritual significance.

Aesthetic Impact. The KJB's impact extends beyond religious circles, influencing writers like Cormac McCarthy, whose novel Blood Meridian showcases the KJB's literary influence. The KJB's language, imagery, and cadences have permeated the English language, making it a foundational text for literary study.

2. The King James Bible's Composite Nature

And yet the King James Bible is itself a composite work, weaving together an allusive web out of previous translations.

A Tapestry of Voices. The KJB is not the work of a single author but a synthesis of earlier translations, most notably those of William Tyndale, Miles Coverdale, and the Geneva Bible translators. This collaborative effort resulted in a text that is both deeply rooted in tradition and uniquely its own.

Tyndale's Influence. William Tyndale, the greatest English translator, laid the foundation for the KJB. His powerfully rugged prose and commitment to literal accuracy shaped the language and style of subsequent translations.

The Translators. Lancelot Andrewes, Edward Lively, and Miles Smith were among the chairmen of the six companies or committees. The KJB's magnificence is a testament to the collective skill and dedication of these translators, who transformed existing works into a literary masterpiece.

3. Appreciating the Bible's Literary Qualities

By “appreciation” I mean what the aesthetic critic proper, the sublime Walter Pater, intended in his superb volume Appreciations (1889).

Awareness of Quality. To appreciate the KJB as literature means to be fully aware of its aesthetic qualities, recognizing its enduring value and impact. This involves a deep understanding of its language, imagery, and narrative structure.

Perception is Key. Appreciation requires a keen sense of perception, the ability to apprehend the values that increase over time. The KJB's literary merit lies in its ability to resonate with readers across generations, offering new insights and meanings with each reading.

Risk of Blasphemy. A literary appreciation of the KJB must risk blasphemy because truly what is most powerful in the unread Scriptures is blasphemous at its core: the god who is an astonishing, outrageous personality upon whom theologies have been imposed.

4. The Hebrew Bible's Distinct Voices

Beneath the hum of the redactors I hear in the Tanakh an original voice that both links and distinguishes Jacob and David.

Irony and Personality. The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, contains distinct voices, including that of an original ironist who precedes and plays against the pious tonalities of the redactors. This voice links and distinguishes figures like Jacob and David, imbuing them with unique personalities.

Theomorphic Characters. Yahweh, in his relation to Jacob and to David, is a personality and not an “anthropomorphic” entity. They are theomorphic, but since the god is an outrageous fellow, well then so are they.

Aesthetic Across Millennia. The Tanakh's characters matter humanly and aesthetically across the millennia because of their complex personalities and the ironies that shape their stories. This makes them compelling subjects for literary analysis.

5. The KJB's Unique Cognitive Music

The inexplicable wonder is that a rather undistinguished group of writers (except for Lancelot Andrewes and Miles Smith) brought forth a magnificence almost to rival Shakespeare’s.

Metaphorical Language. The language of the KJB is even more metaphorical than that of its precursors, though this can be puzzling because its diction is so economical. This richness of language gives it a unique cognitive music, setting it apart from other works.

Economical Diction. The KJB keeps to eight thousand words, a figure that surprises me because I would have guessed many more.

Finality in Closures. The impulse that guides a strong poet to end a work with a touch of finality was shared by the KJB revisionists.

6. The Yahwist's Ironic Perspective

One of the universe’s greatest writers—the Yahwist—is confined in the Redactor’s text rather in the way that Hamlet is entrapped in his textual Elsinore, a revenge tragedy he disdains, a part he scorns to play.

Aristocratic Skepticism. The Yahwist, or J Writer, is characterized by an aristocratic, skeptical, and humorous perspective, often deflating masculine pretenses and highlighting the reality of personalities. This voice stands in contrast to the pious and fearful tones of the redactors.

Irony and Humor. The Yahwist's irony is so pervasive that literalists often fail to hear it, creating a layer of meaning that enriches the text. This irony is particularly evident in the Yahwist's portrayal of Yahweh, who is depicted as an astonishing and outrageous personality.

Uncanny God. The Yahwist imagined a totally uncanny god, human-all-too-human and exuberant beyond all bindings.

7. Genesis: Creation, Fall, and Covenant

Reading Dante in translation is rarely a good experience.

Competing Creation Accounts. Genesis presents two distinct accounts of creation: a Priestly prose hymn celebrating a cosmological event and the Yahwist's vision of Eden, marked by a strange, homely uncanny. Each account touches the limits of literature.

Yahweh's Triumph. The creation of Eve is Yahweh’s triumph, aesthetically superior to that of Adam, since she is fashioned out of life and not from clay.

Jacob's Quest. Jacob’s quest for the Blessing starts literally during the act of birth, and continues figuratively by an act of fraud.

8. Exodus: Liberation and Revelation

For the Children of Abraham—Jews, Christians, Muslims—Exodus is a book of revelation, of the Sinai theophany.

Epic Scope. Exodus, though shorter than Genesis, is epic in scope, narrating the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt and the revelation at Sinai. It is a story of both national and spiritual transformation.

Problematic Protagonists. The grand protagonists of Exodus, Moses and Yahweh, are problematic because there are three principal authors at work depicting them, and the Redactor scarcely bothers to disentangle his sources.

The Song of the Sea. The Song of the Sea (15:1–18) is composed in so difficult and archaic a Hebrew as to daunt me.

9. Numbers: Wilderness and Retribution

Herbert Marks accurately calls Numbers “the Bible’s most unruly book.”

Priestly Castigation. Numbers is characterized by endless Priestly castigation of the suffering Israelite host, as they wander through the wilderness. Yahweh's harsh punishments for their murmurings create a sense of unease and discontent.

Balaam the Seer. The story of Balaam the Seer, 22–24, is almost sufficient in itself to redeem Numbers, since it is both a comic triumph and a critique of the shifting borderlines where magic and prophecy meet and mingle.

Aaron's Rod. After the Balaam episode, the most memorable passages in Numbers concern Aaron, whom the book seems to prefer over Moses.

10. Deuteronomy: Law and Remembrance

In Hebrew tradition the book of Deuteronomy (Greek for “second law”) was called Mishneh Torah (copy of the law) but also Devarim (the Words).

Revisionist History. Deuteronomy recasts the history of the Hebrews from a priestly perspective, emphasizing the centralization of Yahweh's cult in the Jerusalem Temple. It confines the Sinai revelation to the Ten Commandments, reserving all the rest of Torah to Moses.

The Song of Moses. The KJB's Song of Moses, 32:1–15, is a magnificent example of elevated style, surpassing its English precursors in rhetorical power.

Moses' Death. Deuteronomy concludes majestically with chapter 34, where Yahweh grants Moses his Pisgah sight from Mount Nebo of the Promised Land.

11. The Prophets: Justice and Warning

The Hebrew prophets necessarily are distorted in any Christian context, such as the KJB.

Social Justice. The Hebrew prophets from Amos and Micah on through James the brother of Jesus constitute an authoritative proclamation of the pragmatic works of goodness required of societies and individuals.

Elijah's Challenge. Elijah’s most illustrious challenge is to Jezebel’s 450 prophets of Baal, augmented by 400 prophets of Asherah, mother of the gods of Canaan.

Isaiah's Vision. Isaiah of Jerusalem, of royal blood and connected both to court and temple, prophesied during the kingships of Ahaz and Hezekiah in the later years of the eighth century B.C.E.

12. Psalms: A Cry of the Human

The largest literary failure of the KJB, as I keep noting, is the tonal uniformity its baroque style imposes upon very different writers.

Spiritual Codes. The history of literature may provoke disagreements, but how gentle these are compared to the clamors of religious history!

Rival Aesthetic Eminences. Tanakh and the KJB are for me rival aesthetic eminences, whereas the Greek New Testament as a literary work is weaker than Tyndale’s version, which persists strongly in the Geneva Bible and the KJB.

The Blessing. Literature, in this high sense, is the Blessing: it represents the fullness of life and can give more life.

Last updated: April 15, 2025