Is Biden Capable of Hurting the Bible
by
John J. Dunphy
Orignally published in The Telegraph of Alton, IL, 8–15–20.
At a press conference in Cleveland earlier this month, President Trump warned his Christian followers what they could expect should Democratic candidate Joe Biden defeat him for re-election. “No religion, no anything,” Trump predicted. Biden will “Hurt the Bible” and “Hurt God” because the former vice-president is “against God.”
Trump must believe that 77-year-old Joe Biden possesses an extraordinary amount of power if he’s capable of hurting God. True, Forbes in 2019 estimated that Joe and Jill Biden are worth about $9 million, but even that amount doesn’t give one the kind of clout to injure the Lord.
Most Christians believe that God is omnipotent. Indeed, Genesis 17:1 records that God introduced Himself to Abraham with the words, “I am the Almighty God.” Revelations 19:6 clearly states: “For the Lord our God omnipotent, reigneth.” Despite their political differences, Republican and Democrat Christians should be able to agree that Trump got it wrong. An almighty, omnipotent God can’t be hurt by Joe Biden or any other human being. The poet James Weldon Johnson expressed this truth in a poem titled “The Prodigal Son” with the words: “Young man/Young man/Your arm’s too short to box with God.”
Is Joe Biden capable of hurting the Bible as Trump warned his Christian followers? Highly unlikely. If the Bible is capable of weathering a badly-mangled 1631 reprint, it can surely survive a Joe Biden presidency.
In that year the royal printers in London reprinted the celebrated King James Version of the Bible. A decidedly startling error appears in the wording of the Sixth Commandment. The omission of the word “not” makes the Sixth Commandment read: “Thou shalt commit adultery.” The absence of a single word transforms the prohibition of adultery into a requirement to engage in adultery. Small wonder this 1631 printing is often called “the Wicked Bible.”
While the mangled Sixth Commandment is rather humorous, another error in the Wicked Bible borders on the blasphemous. Deuteronomy 5:24 should read: “Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness….” The Wicked Bible, however, reads: “Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his great-asse…” The omission of “not” in the Sixth Commandment can be written off as an innocent mistake. The rendering of “greatness” into “great-asse,” however, suggests that the Wicked Bible could have been the victim of deliberate sabotage. Perhaps a rival printing firm wanted to damage the reputation of the men responsible for this 1631 reprinting of the King James Version.
King Charles I, the archbishop of Canterbury and other authorities were outraged by the Wicked Bible. Its printers were summoned to the Star Chamber and fined 300 pounds, which is over 50,000 pounds in contemporary currency. Although orders were given to confiscate and destroy all copies of the Wicked Bible, at least fourteen copies managed to survive. The Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC owns a copy.
While the Bible can’t be hurt, it can certainly be exploited. Trump should know. Joe Biden and so many other Americans castigated Trump when, on June 1, he ordered law enforcement officers to deploy tear gas and flash-bang grenades to dispel peaceful demonstrators so that he would have a clear path to St. John’s Episcopal Church. And why? Did Trump want to worship God? No. He wanted to pose for a photo-op outside the church while holding a Bible in the air. As Trump made clear to a reporter, it wasn’t even his Bible.
I recently read a scriptural passage that seems quite appropriate for Donald Trump. Its from Proverbs 6:12–15. “A worthless man, a wicked man, goes around with devious speech…planning evil with a perverse mind, continually stirring up discord. Therefore, disaster will overtake him suddenly. He will be broken in an instant, and he will never recover.”
In Trump’s case, “disaster will overtake him suddenly” on Nov. 3.
John J. Dunphy’s books include Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois, Lewis and Clark’s Illinois Volunteers, From Christmas to Twelfth Nght in Southern Illinois and Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947.