Bible’s contribution to the shaping of western culture

Abstract: Western culture itself is a part of world culture, and it consists of two major components, the Greek and Roman culture and the Judeo-Christian culture. Obviously, the Judeo-Christianity is the most influential religion in west world. Since the bible is the product along with the religion, it has become the religious classic and is labeled as the western book. The bible has a very high value of literature. It makes a great contribution to the shaping and development of western culture in various aspects. Meanwhile, it produces a far-reaching influence on the world culture to some extent.

Key words: the bible; western culture; contribution

1. Introduction

The bible is the most popular book in the culture of mankind, and is the bestseller in the world. It has been translated into more than 2000 different languages and dialects. Every year more copies of the Bible are sold than any other publication and the number of sales is increasing. It is much more than a religious book. All in one, it is history; it is literature; it is record of good minds. The bible is not a single book, but rather a collection of small works, comprised of 66books, written over approximately 1600years, including the Old Testament and New Testament. In fact, it is the collective classic of the Judaism and the Christianity in that the Old Testament is the original Hebrew Bible, the sacred scriptures of the Jewish faith which contains39books written from approximately 1500to 400BC, and the New Testament contains 27books written by Christians from approximately 40to 90AD. The bible is the essential of western civilization, having shaped the western civilization more decisively than anything else ever written. Reflecting most extensively western ideas and culture, the bible is really an encyclopaedia. It has left an enormous influence on the human race.

2 contributions to the western culture

As the Christian doctrine, the bible occupies an irreplaceable position in western social life and ideological and cultural levels. To a large extent, it makes great contributions to the western culture, which can be illustrated as follow:

1) To the literature

Since the Bible itself is literature, it provides many themes and content. Thus, in the shaping of literature, the bible plays an important role, and its influence on the western culture is involved in various aspects. The Genesis, the Christ, the Fates of the Apostles are all based on the resources of the Bible. Many writers take the Bible as the compulsory reading stuff; inevitably, they absorb nutrition from the Bible. And they adopt these elements into their works. Over the ages, writers have loved to dig the Bible’s narrative riches, taking a Bible story and retelling it in a new form: a long novel, a stage play, a musical, an opera, or a screenplay. We can find some traces of the Bible in many great works. Dante’s divine melody and John Bungan’s are closely related to the Bible. Ben.Gose takes allusions and imagery from the Revelation. The most famous literary works of Milton, namely, , select writing materials directly from the Bible. Goth’s< Faust> originated from the Bible; Byran's, Shelley’s, Gustave Flaubert’s , Mare Well’s ; the of Nathaniel Hornthorn------- all these masterpieces mirror some aspects of the Bible. Secondly, quotations from the Bible are frequently seen in literary works. In this aspect, Shakespeare can take the crown. To understand his drama well, we have to have a profound knowledge of the Bible.

2) To the art

Apart from the literature, the bible also contributes to the shaping of western art. In other words, the bible influences the western architecture, sculpture, painting and music. In the later of 11 century, the gothic style rises in Western Europe, and a batch of gothic church architectures appear, such as the famous architecture, Notre Dame de Paris. This style fast develops into the field of painting, whose themes are mainly about the suffering occasion of Jesus. Then, it slowly penetrates into the other fields, like music and clothing, and become a specific culture. In the renaissance age, many famous painters and sculptors created lots of works based on the bible, paintings, for instance, Da vinci’s the last supper. Sculptures, such as the master Rodin’s Eve, the gates of hell and Saint John. Etc. In history, many works are inspired by people’s beliefs and reflect their religious life as well and spread their thoughts. Besides, music is also viewed by the church as another way of carrying God’s message to man, and thus numerous composers have written a large quantity of hymns that definitely have Biblical references, and some operas that have Biblical themes, for example, the “Messiah”.

3) To the language

As the bible is literature and it is the words from the God, there are many good words called allusions, idioms, and proverbs and so on. Based on the religious belief, the biblical language has made a great contribution to the western language, what not only they used in the writing, but also in daily speaking. Thus, the biblical allusions and proverbs enter into their daily life, and become a part of their language. For example, the phrase “the patience of Job” comes from the book of job, which is one part of the Old Testament. Job is very devout, experiencing all kinds of challenge from the God, so the phrase “the patience of Job” means endurance that people usually can’t bear. Cain is the son of Adam and Eve, because he envied his brother, he killed him. So the word Cain means people who kill family member. There are many characters in the Bible with various personalities, images and experiences. As time goes on, these characters have become the idiographic objects standing for certain kinds of people and are endowed with special image and meaning.

3. Conclusion

The bible, as the oldest sutras, has made great contributions to the western culture. It also is a great book in the history of mankind, and occupied eternal and prominent position in human civilization. It is not a religious book, which provided us with the knowledge of Judeo-Christianity, but also is a literary book, which displays the achievements of world culture.

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Bibles contribution to the shaping of western culture