5 Questions Your Literature Teacher Doesn't Want You to Ask - Bill Jack

Has any public-school student ever asked his literature teacher the following question, “Why don’t we study the greatest piece of literature in Western Civilization in our literature class?”

Nor has a student dared ask her history teacher, “Why do we not read the book that has had the most revolutionary impact on civilization?”

 It is doubtful any student would dare be so bold to assume that his teacher is censuring a book.  Nor would any student assume to charge his teacher with being ignorant of the most important book in all of literature, in all of history. 

Surely, any literature or history teacher would be puzzled by such a question and perhaps even irritated by what he thinks is such an impertinent challenge by a student.  The teacher might even claim confidently that the course syllabus covers all the great pieces of literature and revolutionary writings in Western civilization. 

Yet, that teacher would be WRONG!  Missing from most, if not all, public school classes required readings is the most influential and important book of all time, the Bible. 

Wait, what?  The Bible is the most influential and important book to study—in public school?!?!?  Yep, that’s correct, the Bible! 

The Bible is Incredibly Influential!

College and university English professors have long recognized the Bible’s influence on English literature and have recommended the Bible should be the number one book students should read before entering college. (1)

As Dr. Cleland B. McAfee has written, “It is impossible to teach history fairly and fully without a frank recognition of the influence of the Bible.  Study the Reformation, the Puritan movement, the Pilgrim journeys, the whole of early American history!  We can leave the Bible out only by trifling with the facts.” (2)

Even Nicholas Butler, former president of the National Educational Association, made a strong case for studying the Bible not for religious reasons but for academic achievement.  He and many other educators claim a knowledge of the Bible is necessary for an understanding of English literature and western civilization. (3)

Dr. Bernard Ramm has said, “Without doubt the Bible has penetrated in our literature more minutely than the powers of the finest penetrating oil.” (4)  The Bible has influenced great literary figures from Browning, Bunyan, Chaucer, Dickens, Emerson, Longfellow, Milton, Poe, Shakespeare, Shelly, Tennyson, Twain, Whitman, Whittier and so many more.

In fact, if every Bible were destroyed, it’s influence would not be lost.  Dr. McAfee confidently asserts, “If every Bible in any considerable city were destroyed, the Book could be restored in all its essential parts from the quotations on the shelves of the city public library.  There are works, covering almost all the great literary writers, devoted especially to showing how much the Bible has influenced them.” (5)

McAfee continued, “Take any of the great books of literature and black out the phrases which manifestly come directly from the English Bible…you would mark them beyond recovery.” (6)

The Bible tops all the charts at #1!

Just examine the speeches of many of our nation’s Presidents, and one finds numerous references to the Bible.  For example, in Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address which only lasted four minutes he quoted--in full--three Bible verses and referred to two others.

As Dr. Ramm stated, “No other book—not all books put together—has so entered into the living stream of human speech and oratory as the Bible.” (7)

No other book, not Mein Kampf, by Hitler; Origin of the Species, by Darwin; Plato’s Republic; or Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto, has had such a revolutionary impact on civilization as The Bible. 

Any book that has been translated into six languages and has sold a million copies is considered an international best seller.  Yet, the Bible has been translated into over 1,100 languages and dialects representing about 90% of the world’s population. (8) Over TWO BILLION copies of portions of the Bible have been sold worldwide. (9)

The Bible was the first book translated from Hebrew into Greek about 250 B.C. (10) and was the first book ever printed on a movable type printing press by Gutenberg. (11)  The Bible was the first book read in outer space on December 24, 1978, during the Apollo 8 mission.

AND YET, the Bible is the most ignored, or censured, book in public schools.  As a student, one must ask, “Teacher, are you ignorant, lying to me, or are you just afraid of the most powerful book in the world?”  Just another question to ask one’s teacher.

1.     Literary Cavalcade magazine, Vol. 32, No. 2, November 1979, p. 3.

2.     Cleland Boyd McAfee, The Greatest English Classic, New York: Harper & Brothers Pub., 1912, p. 282.

3.     Ibid., p. 285.

4.     Bernard Ramm, Protestant Christian Evidences, Chicago: Moody Press, 1957, p. 233.

5.     McAfee, op. cit., p. 134.

6.     Ibid.

7.     Ramm, 0p. cit., pp. 236-237.

8.     Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, Chicago: Moody Press, 1968, p. 121.

9.     Ibid., p. 121.

10.  Merrill F. Unger, Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Rev. ed., Chicago: Moody Press, 1971, p. 1147.

11.  Ramm, op. cit., p. 227.