The Bible and literature: the basics

181 Pages·2016·0.85 MB·English

by  Jones

THE BIBLE AND LITERATURE

THE BASICS
The Bible and Literature: The Basics provides an interpretive framework for
understanding the significance of biblical allusions in literature—even for
readers who have little prior knowledge of the Bible. In doing so, it surveys
the Bible’s influence on a broad range of English, American, and other
Anglophone literatures from a variety of historical periods. It also:
• offers a “greatest hits” tour of the Bible
• focuses as much on twentieth- and twenty-first-century literatures as
on earlier periods
• addresses the Bible’s relevance to contemporary issues in literary criti-
cism such as poststructuralist, postcolonial, feminist, queer, and narra-
tive theories
• includes discussion questions for each chapter and annotated sugges-
tions for further reading
This book explains why readers need a basic knowledge of the Bible in
order to understand and appreciate key aspects of Anglophone literary
traditions.
Norman W. Jones is Associate Professor of English at The Ohio State
University. He has published numerous essays and books about the
interplay of religion and literature. His work has appeared in top journals
such as American Literature, Christianity and Literature, Modern Fiction Studies,
and Studies in American Fiction.
The Basics
ACTING CRIMINAL LAW
BELLA MERLIN JONATHAN HERRING

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY CRIMINOLOGY (SECOND EDITION)
NANCY STANLICK SANDRA WALKLATE
ANCIENT NEAR EAST DANCE STUDIES
DANIEL C. SNELL JO BUTTERWORTH
ANIMAL ETHICS EASTERN PHILOSOPHY
TONY MILLIGAN VICTORIA S. HARRISON
ANTHROPOLOGY ECONOMICS (THIRD EDITION)
PETER METCALF TONY CLEAVER
ARCHAEOLOGY (SECOND EDITION) EDUCATION
CLIVE GAMBLE KAY WOOD
ART HISTORY ENERGY
GRANT POOKE AND DIANA MICHAEL SCHOBERT
NEWALL
EUROPEAN UNION (SECOND EDITION)
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ALEX WARLEIGH-LACK
KEVIN WARWICK
EVOLUTION
THE BIBLE SHERRIE LYONS
JOHN BARTON
FILM STUDIES (SECOND EDITION)
THE BIBLE AND LITERATURE AMY VILLAREJO
NORMAN W. JONES
FINANCE (THIRD EDITION)
BIOETHICS ERIK BANKS
ALASTAIR V. CAMPBELL
FOOD ETHICS
BODY STUDIES RONALD SANDLER
NIALL RICHARDSON AND ADAM LOCKS
FREE WILL
BUDDHISM MEGHAN GRIFFITH
CATHY CANTWELL
GENDER
CAPITALISM HILARY LIPS
DAVID COATES
GENOCIDE
CHRISTIANITY PAUL R. BARTROP
BRUCE CHILTON
GLOBAL MIGRATION
THE CITY BERNADETTE HANLON AND THOMAS
KEVIN ARCHER VICINIO
CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE GREEK HISTORY
SUMAN GUPTA ROBIN OSBORNE
HUMAN GENETICS POLITICS (FIFTH EDITION)
RICKI LEWIS STEPHEN TANSEY AND
NIGEL JACKSON
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
ANDREW JONES PUBLIC RELATIONS
RON SMITH
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

PETER SUTCH AND JUANITA ELIAS THE QUR’AN
MASSIMO CAMPANINI
ISLAM (SECOND EDITION)
COLIN TURNER RACE AND ETHNICITY
PETER KIVISTO AND PAUL R. CROLL
JOURNALISM STUDIES
MARTIN CONBOY RELIGION (SECOND EDITION)
MALORY NYE
JUDAISM
JACOB NEUSNER RELIGION AND SCIENCE
PHILIP CLAYTON
LANGUAGE (SECOND EDITION)
R. L. TRASK RESEARCH METHODS
NICHOLAS WALLIMAN
LAW
GARY SLAPPER AND DAVID KELLY ROMAN CATHOLICISM
MICHAEL WALSH
LITERARY THEORY (THIRD EDITION)
HANS BERTENS SEMIOTICS (SECOND EDITION)
DANIEL CHANDLER
LOGIC
J. C. BEALL SHAKESPEARE (THIRD EDITION)
SEAN MCEVOY
MANAGEMENT
MORGEN WITZEL SOCIAL WORK
MARK DOEL
MARKETING (SECOND EDITION)
KARL MOORE AND NIKETH PAREEK SOCIOLOGY
KEN PLUMMER
MEDIA STUDIES
JULIAN MCDOUGALL SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND
DISABILITY (SECOND EDITION)
METAPHYSICS JANICE WEARMOUTH
MICHAEL REA
SPORT MANAGEMENT
NARRATIVE ROBERT WILSON AND
BRONWEN THOMAS MARK PIEKARZ
THE OLYMPICS SPORT PSYCHOLOGY
ANDY MIAH AND BEATRIZ GARCIA DAVID TOD
PHILOSOPHY (FIFTH EDITION) STANISLAVSKI
NIGEL WARBURTON ROSE WHYMAN
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY SUBCULTURES
JOSEPH HOLDEN ROSS HAENFLER
POETRY (THIRD EDITION) SUSTAINABILITY
JEFFREY WAINWRIGHT PETER JACQUES
TELEVISION STUDIES WOMEN’S STUDIES
TOBY MILLER BONNIE SMITH
TERRORISM WORLD HISTORY
JAMES LUTZ AND BRENDA LUTZ PETER N. STEARNS
THEATRE STUDIES (SECOND EDITION)

ROBERT LEACH
THE BIBLE AND LITERATURE

THE BASICS
Norman W. Jones
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Norman W. Jones
The right of Norman W. Jones to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photo
copying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
sysem, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jones, Norman W.
Title: The Bible and literature : the basics / Norman W. Jones.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2015. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015021802| ISBN 9780415738842
(hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780415738866 (pbk. : alk.
paper) | ISBN 9781315727134 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Bible and literature. | Bible as literature. | English
literature. | European literature.
Classification: LCC BN56.B5 J66 2015 | DDC 809/.93522—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015021802
ISBN: 978-0-415-73884-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-73886-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-72713-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: the Bible as witness to the power
of stories 1
1 Wrestling with God: the Bible as an untellable tale 29
2 Friends, family, and lovers: a familiar God 60
3 Crime and punishment 86
4 Unexpected heroes and miraculous recreations 113
5 The words and their afterlives 137
Conclusion: a secular age? 158
A note on English Bible translations 163
Online resources 165
Additional secondary sources 166
Index 168
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to the many people who helped bring this project to
fruition. I should first mention the students in my Bible classes with
whom I’ve been privileged to work over the years: our conversa-
tions have helped me to understand the need for a beginner’s book
such as this one and have also helped me to understand the Bible
in new ways. The people at Routledge and their affiliates have been
exceptionally supportive—Catherine Hanley, Ruth Hilsdon, Colin
Morgan, Siobhán Poole, Iram Satti, and their colleagues. Joe Ashby
offered enthusiasm, inspiration, and the opportunity to workshop
some of the early material. Anonymous readers provided expert
guidance. Cynthia Callahan, Hannibal Hamlin, David Herman, and
Karen Winstead gave generously of their time and energy, offering
thoughtful and tremendously helpful feedback. Finally, Heidi and
Riley patiently shared our home with this project for longer than
they might have liked, graciously going above and beyond the call
in order to support its Bible-obsessed author. I’m fortunate to be so
indebted in all these ways and more.
INTRODUCTION: THE BIBLE
AS WITNESS TO THE POWER
OF STORIES
What do Harry Potter, Hamlet, and the biblical King David have
in common? More than meets the eye. Despite being separated by
nearly three thousand years, these figures share powerful connec-
tions with each other through the Bible. This chapter explores those
connections in order to introduce and illustrate the larger topic of
this book: the Bible and literature.
First, however, some clarifications and caveats are in order. This
book is for readers who want to learn more about the special rela-
tionship between the Christian Bible and imaginative literature—
that species of writing concerned less with falsifiable claims about
how the world actually is than with fictional possibility, poetic
reflection, and wonder. I focus on imaginative literatures written in
English, mostly by British and American writers but also by some
Anglophone writers from Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, Canada,
and India. In order to address a diverse range of literatures while
still allowing enough space to provide a comprehensive overview
of the Bible, I offer only brief glimpses into many complex works of
literature. Please take these glimpses as invitations to read more of
these works in their entirety. They are worth it! I hope you will also
feel encouraged to do your own reading in the Bible. This book is