The Bible in American Law and Politics. John R. Vile
references to show how pervasively some of Adams’s speeches were salted with biblical language:
Let us awaken then, and evince a different spirit,—a spirit that shall inspire the people . . . to persevere in this glorious struggle, until their rights and liberties shall be established on a rock [see Mt 7:25] . . . We have appealed to Heaven for the justice of our cause, and in Heaven we have placed our trust. Numerous have been the manifestations of God’s providence in sustaining us. In the gloomy period of adversity [echoing Eccl 7:14], we have had “our cloud by day and pillar of fire by night” [quoting Ex 13:21-22]. We have been reduced to distress, and the arm of Omnipotence [echoing Psm 44:3; and 136:12] has raised us up. Let us still rely in humble confidence on Him who is mighty to save [quoting Isa 63:1]. Good tidings [See Lk 2:10 and many other passages] will soon arrive. We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection. (Noll 2016, 277)
Adams later supported the adoption of the U.S. Constitution with the hopes that a bill of rights would be added, but sought to create something of a “Christian Sparta” in his home state, which still had an established church. He also sought to ban theater performances in Boston and was fond of issuing days of thanksgiving and fasting (Stoll 2018).
See also Common Sense (Thomas Paine); Declaration of Independence; Revolutionary War
For Reference and Further Reading
Adams, Samuel. August 1, 1776. “‘American Independence’ Samuel Adams Speech—August 1, 1776.” http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/american-independence-speech-by-samuel-adams-august-1-1776.html. Accessed April 9, 2019.
Noll, Mark. 2016. In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life, 1492–1783. New York: Oxford University Press.
Romney, Mitt. December 6, 2007. “Transcript: Mitt Romney’s Faith Speech.” NPR. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyID=16969460.
Stoll, Ira. May 3, 2018. “The Revolutionary Gospel According to Samuel Adams.” HistoryNet. https://www.historynet.com/revolutionary-gospel-according-samuel-adams.htm.
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Africana Movement
Through much of early American history, select Bible verses were used to suggest that African Americans had borne the curse of blackness that they believed had been given to Ham, one of the sons of Noah, for viewing his father’s nakedness when he was drunk.
African American defenders, in turn, often compared themselves to the children of Israel, who had suffered servitude in the land of Egypt before Moses led them to the Promised Land of Canaan. In time, an Africana movement developed within the United States that emphasized a very ambiguous verse in Psalm 68:31, an apparent reference to a time when other nations would come to Israel to worship the God, which in the King James Version said, “Princes shall come out of Egypt: Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.”
In time, this developed into a Black nationalist ideology, associated with such individuals as Bishop Henry M. Turner (1834–1915) and Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), that two scholars have described as follows:
It celebrated the sovereignty of God as the one who allowed the enslavement of Africans in order for them to become “civilized” and Christianized by the Europeans who oppressed them. It also hailed the providence of God, who would soon deliver Africans and give them an opportunity to exercise their superior genius in the reordering of the world. At the same time it both provided a theological legitimization for the horrors of slavery and it decried slavery as a crime against a once-and-soon-again-to-be-great people. As presented in the distinctive rendering of the King James Version, this text served as a prophecy of God’s impending activity in the very near future; it was an eschatological foretelling of a return to prominence and purpose of a debased and humiliated people. (Powery and Sadler 2016, 17)
See also Curses on Cain, Ham, and the Canaanites; Moses as Political Archetype
For Reference and Further Reading
Powery, Emerson B ., and Rodney S. Sadler Jr. 2016. The Genesis of Liberation: Biblical Interpretations in the Antebellum Narratives of the Enslaved. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
Ahasuerus as Political Archetype
Prior to the publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in January 1776, most American colonists appear to have maintained their loyalty to King George III. They largely blamed their troubles either on bad advice that he received from his ministers and counselors or on Parliament, which the colonists thought had no right to tax them.
In doing so, Americans looked for ancient parallels, including those in the Bible. They found one such parallel in the Old Testament book of Esther. It detailed how Esther and her uncle Mordecai had saved the Israelites from Haman, a counselor of King Ahasuerus of the Medes and Persians, who had conspired to destroy the Jews after Mordecai had refused to bow to him.
In the period leading up to America’s break with the king in the Declaration of Independence, a number of writers compared George III to Ahasuerus and 17Haman to Lord Bute, Lord North, or other counselors or generals (Shalev 2013a, 31). In this interpretation, which overlapped with republican notions of the dangers of corruption, Haman had become corrupt and had misinformed the king of the situation in order to enhance his own power and influence and to pursue a personal vendetta.
See also Common Sense (Thomas Paine)
For Reference and Further Reading
Shalev, Eran. 2013a. American Zion: The Old Testament as a Political Text from the Revolution to the Civil War. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Shalev, Eran. 2013b. “Evil Counselors, Corrupt Traitors, and Bad Kings: The Hebrew Bible and Political Critique.” Resistance to Tyrants, Obedience to God: Reason, Religion and Republicanism at the American Founding, ed. Dustin Gish and Daniel Klinghard. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 105–24.
Aitken Bible
During the colonial era, the British, who viewed the colonies as a source of raw materials rather than as a rival manufacturing center, prohibited the printing of Bibles in America. As war broke out between the colonies and Britain, there was a perceived shortage.
In July 1777, Francis Alison, the pastor of Philadelphia’s First Presbyterian Church, drew up a petition, signed by two colleagues, urging Congress to authorize an American printing but suggesting that “unless the sale of the whole Edition belong to the Printer, & he be bound under sufficient Penalties, that no copy be sold by him, nor any Retailer under him, at a higher price than that allowed by this honourable house, we fear that ye whole impression would soon be bought up, & sold again at an exorbatant price, which would frustrate your pious endeavours & fill ye Country with Just complaints” (quoted in Pears 1939, 226). Believing that proper types for such printing were unavailable in America, Congress ordered the committee to fulfill this need by importing twenty thousand Bibles from Holland or Scotland, but was prevented by the war from doing so.
Prior to the British capture and occupation of Philadelphia in 1776, a local Scottish Presbyterian binder, printer, and book seller named Robert Aitken (1735–1802), who worked in Philadelphia from 1771 to 1802, and was later succeeded by his