Biblish: American Addiction to Not-Quite-Scripture
By Ben Marsh - Posted at Substack:
Published April 20, 2026
The Wicked Bible (1631) (no relation to musical/movie) left out “NOT” when commanding “THOU SHALT COMMIT ADULTERY”The 1716 KJV commanded us to “SIN ON MORE” in Jeremiah 31:34.
Mistypes like this - comical, memorable - are a longstanding tradition in Bible copying and printing. There was the scribe who missed two letters (ην) in the word γαλήνη (calm), changing the context to “a great weasel” instead of “a great calm.” And in my favorite illustrated Bible, the Book of Kells, a Latin scribe wrote gaudium (joy) instead of gladium (sword), altering the verse to “I came not [only] to send peace, but [also] joy.”
Would that America suffered from such innocent mistakes. Secretary Hegseth’s latest foible with Scripture is but one example of a constant American rush to adulate the Bible without reading it. Why quote the real thing when Samuel L. Jackson’s speech from Pulp Fiction sounds so much manlier?
Said President Obama, “The Good Book says don’t throw stones at glass houses, or make sure we’re looking at the log in our eye.” Good luck finding that verse.
President Clinton told us “Scripture says: Our eyes have not seen, nor our ears heard, nor our minds imagined what we can build.” The actual verse (1 Corinthians 2:9) refers to "the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
More pernicious than these ridicularities1 are the many times the Bible is bent for control and power in a way that cuts against the meaning of Scripture itself. None worse than the founding lies of the Confederacy:
In his March 21, 1861, Cornerstone Speech, Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens presents what he believes are the reasons for what he termed was a "revolution." This revolution resulted in the American Civil WarFor Stephens - for the South - slavery was a God-given commandment dressed up in Scripture verses:
With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system…. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them. For His own purposes, He has made one race to differ from another, as He has made "one star to differ from another star in glory." The great objects of humanity are best attained when there is conformity to His laws and decrees, in the formation of governments as well as in all things else. Our confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first builders "is become the chief of the corner" the real "corner-stone" in our new edifice.The cornerstone who had been rejected in Scripture was Jesus. For Stephens, it was slavery itself.
Such Biblish moments permeate American culture and draw the cultural battle lines. My biggest pet peeve of late is the rush by Christian conservatives to slap their “ten commandments” up on the walls of schools.
