Lecture IX: On Reading the Bible (II) explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• The Bible as Literature

  The chapter argues for the Bible's literary greatness and its unjust exclusion from academic study, proposing it be read as literature.

• Education vs. Examination

  Criticizes the examination system and schoolmasters for banning the Bible from prescribed books, prioritizing rote over genuine literary engagement.

• Critique of Modernity

  Laments the modern academic and puritanical attitudes that fence off the Bible, reducing it to a reference work rather than a living literary well.

Characters to notice

• Unknown Narrator

  Delivers the lecture, questioning the exclusion of the Bible from literary study and proposing its inclusion.

• Matthew Arnold

  Quoted for his advocacy of literary study of the Bible and his work to 'get Isaiah enjoyed.'

• Bunyan

  Cited as an example of a simple man whose lips were touched by the Bible's rhythms.

• Milton

  Mentioned as a proud scholar who falls back on Bible rhythms.

• Sir Thomas Browne

  Mentioned as a scholar who practices the rolling Latin sentence but relies on Bible rhythms.

• Dr. Johnson

  Referenced for his antithetical style echoing the Bible.

• Gibbon

  Noted as an enemy of the Bible yet controlled by its style.

• Charles Lamb

  Quoted describing the Bible's presentation as 'a biblion a-biblion.'

Key passages

• “We wondered why it should be that our English Version of the Bible lies under the ban of schoolmasters, Boards of Studies, and all who devise courses of reading and examinations in English Literature: that among our 'prescribed books' we find Chaucer's 'Prologue,' we find Hamlet, we find Paradise Lost, we find Pope's 'Essay on Man,' again and again, but the Book of Job never; The Vicar of Wakefield and Gray's 'Elegy' often, but Ruth or Isaiah, Ecclesiasticus or Wisdom never.”

  The narrator questions why the English Bible is excluded from academic reading lists while other literary works are repeatedly included, noting the absence of biblical books like Job, Ruth, and Isaiah.

  Highlights the central protest of the chapter against the Bible's exclusion from literary study.

• “The Bible controls its enemy Gibbon as surely as it haunts the curious music of a light sentence of Thackeray's. It is in everything we see, hear, feel, because it is in us, in our blood.”

  The Bible's influence pervades English literature, even shaping writers who opposed it, and is deeply embedded in the culture.

  Emphasizes the Bible's profound and inescapable impact on English literary style.

• “There is no real trouble with the taboo set up by professionals and puritans, if we have the courage to walk past it as Christian walked between the lions; no real tyranny we could not overthrow, if it were worth while, with a push; no need at all for us to 'wreathe our sword in myrtle boughs.'”

  The narrator asserts that the taboo against the Bible is easily overcome if we have the courage to ignore it, comparing it to Christian's fearless passage past lions in Pilgrim's Progress.

  Encourages active defiance of academic and puritanical restrictions on Bible study.

• “The Bible—that is to say the body of the old Hebrew Literature clothed for us in English—comes to us in our childhood. But how does it come?”

  The narrator questions the way the Bible is presented to children, implying it is distorted from its literary form.

  Introduces the critique of the Bible's presentation as a disjointed reference work rather than literature.