The Bible Revisited
Whatever your own stance is on interpreting the Bible, there’s no denying its place as a foundational source of literary references in our culture. Our understanding of so much writing is richer if we know where the allusions come from. For example, when high-schoolers read John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden,” they probably have a discussion of the significance of the title (especially since you can’t assume they’ve all heard the original story!). Along with Shakespeare, we keep the Biblical language in circulation because it gives us a shared cultural understanding.
