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The Bible has been the most influential text in all of Western culture. It's difficult to understand medieval or early modern or much of modern literature without knowing it...

Prof. Barbara Newman, Northwestern University
from 2006 Bible Literary project

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It's not that it's impossible to read some writers without a Biblical background, but that you would miss a whole dimension to their work.

Prof. Steven Goldsmith, University of California at Berkeley
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

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I can only say that if a student doesn't know any Bible literature, he or she will simply not understand whole elements of Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth

Prof. Robert Kiely, Harvard University
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

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...there is truth in the remark. "without Tyndale[Bible translator], no Shakespeare"...

Prof. David Daniell, University College London
from The Bible in English

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You can't really study Western literature intelligently or coherently without starting with the Bible.

Prof. Gerald L. Bruns, University of Notre Dame
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

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...a familiar understanding of Christian doctrine in historical perspective thus contributes to a fuller appreciation of Shakespeare's art, but Shakespeare's art

Prof. Roland M. Frye
from Shakespeare and the Christian Doctrine

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In English tradition and also for an American tradition begun by Puritan writers, a knowledge of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament is even more crucial than classical references.

Prof. Ulrich Knoefplmacher, Princeton University
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

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There is no book more important for our culture than the Bible, and it is fundametal to the study of English literature and language.

Prof. David Jasper and Prof. Stephen Prickett
from the Bible and literature

Joseph

Picture description: Joseph sold by his brothers
Picture copyright: V. Gilbert and Arlisle F. Beers

Bible Verse

Genesis 30:24

Meaning

The name came from the Hebrew name יוֹסֵף (Yosef) which means “he will add”. There are several Josephs in the Bible. In the Old Testament, when the eleventh son of Jacob and Rachel was born, she named him Joseph and said, “May the Lord add to me another son”. He became an advisor to Pharaoh king of Egypt years after his brothers sent him there out of jealousy of Jacob’s love for him. In the New Testament, the name bearers include the father of Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man who became a secret disciple of Jesus and donated his own new tomb to bury Jesus’ body.

Gender

Male

Example

Keywords

add    Arimathea    Egypt    father    jealous    Jesus    Pharoah   

Related Information

NIV official site
Chinese Bible (???)

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FIND THE ORIGIN OF IDIOMS

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