In The Beginning, There Was Literature

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Walking across my college campus after one of my Medieval Literature classes, I overheard the following conversation from my fellow students:

“I don’t need to hear this Bible shit,” the young man said.

“Yeah. You’re right. I don’t need this religion bull shit,” his girlfriend agreed.

“How was I supposed to know that unicorns were considered a symbol for that Jesus guy?” he retorted. “Christ!”

I sighed.

First of all, it’s true. Unicorns, in the Middle Ages, were considered a symbol for the God of the Christian faith. They symbolized purity, uniqueness, and holiness.

Later, my Medieval Literature professor sadly informed me, “Linda, every semester, it gets harder and harder to find anyone who’s even heard of Genesis, let alone read it. Try teaching a class on Medieval Literature to people who have no working knowledge of their own heritage.”

And so, it goes.

Once upon a time, the King James’ version of the Bible was our national textbook. We taught children to read from it. We gave them an appreciation of story because of it. We catalogued human nature in it. We shared our heritage through it. And to our children we imparted a basic system of rules that allowed for a common culture.

Literature, writing, poetry, story, message, premise, metaphor, and simile: it’s all in there. The language of the King James’ version of the Bible is challenging and beautiful. The stories are compelling and dramatic. Close to Elizabethan English, it stretches our comprehension. It’s an AP course in words and language, and it’s free.

Reading the Bible doesn’t have to be about religion, if you don’t want it to be. That’s what I wish I would have said to the young man in the above conversation. And then I would have asked him, “Is it any wonder that the average reading level of the American public has fallen to, according to the United Stated Department of Health and Human Services, a seventh-grade level?”

Recently, while reading The New Testament, I came across a phrase that spoke volumes to me as a writer. To the Philippians, Paul said, “I joy.” What a beautiful way to express a fundamental human state of being: happiness. He is happy. Clear. Concise. Elegant. I’ve never read it expressed like that anywhere else, and I’ve read a lot.

In my opinion, I am a better writer for having studied the language and story of the Bible, and I can appreciate the power of symbols—like unicorns.

Free the speech. Read. Everything. Always.

And I hope you will not be afraid to think deeply about, “Why the world wags and who wags it.” (From, The Once and Future King, by T. H. White, published the year I was born.)

Linda (I Joy) Zern