“It may, perhaps, ... seem paradoxical to affirm, that the art of public speaking, ... can have been indebted to so remote an event as the translation of the Bible; but this supposition will nevertheless be found to be correct:... The speeches of [John] Pym (1584–1643) and others upon the Earl of Strafford’s (1593–1641) impeachment [1640], of Viscount Falkland (1610?–1643), Sir Henry Vane (1589–1655), etc., upon the Episcopacy Reformation question, will suffice as instances of discourses in which many proofs may be found, upon perusal, of Biblical influence.”
“It is well known that [William Pitt] the [First] Earl of Chatham (1708–1778), the most eloquent orator that England has ever produced, recommended to every person who wished to become acquainted with the force of the English language, and to acquire the power of expressing himself with facility, to study the writings of the copious Barrow. Now we know that Barrow was deeply read in the Holy Scriptures; we know that his style is greatly tinctured by the influence which they exerted upon him; will it, then, be too much to assert that English speaking, in general, ... has been considerably influenced by the Bible translation?...”
“It may be concluded from the foregoing observations, that the translation of the Bible into our language is a most remarkable event in the history of English literature:... Those who have compared most of the European translations with the original have not scrupled to say that the English translation is the most accurate and faithful of the whole.... Besides, our translators have not only made a standard translation, but they have made their translation a standard of our language. The English tongue of their day was not equal to such a work; but God enabled them to stand as upon Mount Sinai; and crane up their country’s language to the dignity of the originals, so that after the lapse of two hundred years, the English Bible is still with a very few exceptions the standard of the purity and excellence of the English tongue.”[¹]
[¹] An Essay upon The Influence of the Translation of the Bible upon English Literature,... By [William Thomas Petty (1811–1836) afterwards Fitz-Maurice, Earl of Kerry] Lord Kerry.... Cambridge:... 1830. (8º. 1 l. + 82 pp.)
This influence of the Hebrew language can be traced not only in the masterpieces of great poets; it was also of a general and popular character. The study of the Hebrew language among Christians, which had only casually and at intervals occupied the attention of ecclesiastics during the Middle Ages, received an immense impulse from the revived interest in the Bible caused by the Reformation.
Scientific progress in Hebrew was perhaps more considerable in other countries where the Reformation was gaining ground, but while in other countries this influence was felt chiefly among scholars, in England the influence has been popular and has been felt in the daily life of the nation. The process of enrichment and ennoblement of the English language has been going on for centuries among all classes of the population, and one of the chief agencies by which it has been effected is certainly the influence, direct and indirect, of the Hebrew Bible.
To penetrate into the history, prophecy, and poetry of the Hebrew Bible, to revere them as the effusion of Divine inspiration, to live in them with all the emotions of the heart, and yet not to consider Israel, who had originated all this glory and greatness, as the “Chosen People,” was impossible.[¹]
[¹] Among modern English poets and writers, Robert Browning (1812–1889) was a great friend of the Jews and a good Hebraist, and very often quoted Hebrew sentences. In a letter to a friend Browning wrote:
“The Hebrew quotations are put in for a purpose as a direct acknowledgment that certain doctrines may be found in the Old Book, which the concocters of Novel Schemes of Morality put forth as discoveries of their own.”
In Jewish Fancies there are many Hebrew phrases, also in the Melon Seller and in the Two Camels. In Rabbi Ben Ezra and The Doctor the reader will find essentially Jewish thoughts.