Biblical Illiteracy = Cultural Illiteracy

Can a leopard change its spots? Is anything new under the sun? How have the mighty fallen?

Is there a phrase in the English language that has not been shaped by translations of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)? Or—if you’re imagining a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or thinking it better to give than to receive, or holding that faith can move mountains—shaped by the Christian Bible or New Testament that in most editions is joined to those more ancient texts?

At the new Museum of the Bible on the National Mall—the subject of Diana Muir Appelbaum’s new essay in Mosaic—the galleries with the least apparent significance, offering minimal special effects but the most promotional content, may really be the most important. They may also be the least appreciated by much of the enlightened opinion on the museum that Appelbaum cites so effectively. These are the galleries devoted to the Bible’s impact, an impact that has been, by any standard, immense—and that is one of the central points made by this $800-million museum.