Every year, I give my students a homework assignment on the first day of school. I tell them it cannot be tested or collected, but that it will benefit them immensely when they reach college and continue n into adulthood. It isn't, strictly speaking, even a part of my purview -- I teach history -- but it is one I believe will benefit my students in many different ways.

It is a simple reading assignment -- "Between today and graduation in three school years, read the complete King James Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare."

Before the strict separationsits get their panties in a knot, let me make it clear that my pointing them to the KJV is for the sake of cultural literacy, not religious conversion. Along with Shakespeare, the KJV is one of the great well-springs of Anglo-American culture, and has great influence on the development of English as spoken today. Perhaps the most worthwhile class I took in college was "The Bible as English Literature", for it opened new horizons to me in literature, art, music and historical studies.

The KJV even shapes American history, as is pointed out in this article.

In 1911 the English-speaking world paused to mark the 300th anniversary of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, with American political leaders foremost in the chorus of exaltation. To former president Theodore Roosevelt, this Bible translation was "the Magna Carta of the poor and the oppressed . . . the most democratic book in the world." Soon-to-be president Woodrow Wilson said much the same thing: "The Bible (with its individual value of the human soul) is undoubtedly the book that has made democracy and been the source of all progress."

Americans at the time mostly agreed with these sentiments, because the impact of the KJV was everywhere so obvious. It was obvious for business, with major firms like Harper & Brothers having risen to prominence on the back of its Bible publishing. It was obvious in the physical landscape and in many households because of the widespread use of Bible names for American places (95 variations on Salem) and the nation's children (John, James, Sarah, Rebecca). It was obvious in literature, as with the memorable opening of Herman Melville's Moby Dick: "Call me Ishmael." And it was obvious in politics, with no occasion more memorable than March 4, 1865, when four quotations from the KJV framed Abraham Lincoln's incomparable Second Inaugural Address: Genesis 3:19 ("wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces"); Matthew 18:7 ("woe unto the world because of offences!"); Matthew 7:1 ("judge not that we be not judged"); and Psalm 19:9 ("the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether").

I commend the article -- and the Book that it praises -- to your attention and encourage their study.

Posted by: Greg at 03:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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