As The Good Book Says / Literature

• Not surprisingly for a story set in Mennonite Country, Alien in a Small Town makes several biblical references over the course of the book.
• Alpha and Omega, being a book about End Times prophecies coming true, the novel naturally includes quotations from The Bible as well as The Qur'an, which are generally quoted by televangelist Lester Stark, Rabbi Kupferman, ultra-Orthodox Jews Chaim and Yitzhak Avigad, and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.
• Played with in the Arly Hanks mysteries, in which bungling preacher Brother Verber regularly misquotes the Bible. (He was ordained through a mail-order seminary.)
• The Arts of Dark and Light: Given Amorr's strongly religious culture, the Amorran heroes quote or allude to the holy scriptures of the Church on numerous occasions, and occasionally others do as well. Judging from the contents of the references, the Good Book is very similar to the real life Bible. For example, a brutal execution of a villain brings to mind the judgment of Solomon.
• The Ashtown Burials has Nolan paraphrase Ecclesiastes 1:9 to explain how Nothing Left to Do but Die feels when you can't even die.
  But here, under the sun, there is nothing new.
• Isaac Asimov:
  • "Breeds There a Man...?": Dr Ralston quotes from part of Book of Psalms 90:4 (For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by), describing how a long-lived alien race might see humans as having lives as short as mayflies.
    [Ralston] jumped to his feet, shaking his fists above his head. "A thousand years are but as yesterday-"
  • An ongoing theme in The Caves of Steel is that Earthmen are familiar with the Bible but Spacers are not.
    • Elijah and his wife Jezebel have meaningful names. Their story is referenced when she is introduced, and Jezebel's character is an important part of her personality.
    • Lije tells the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery to Daneel about the subtleties of the word "justice". At the end, Daneel uses the exact words "Go and Sin No More".
    • Lije remarks that Dr. Sarton created R. Daneel in his own image. Then he remarks that Dr. Falstofe doesn't get the reference because he, as a Spacer, is not familiar with the Bible.
  • Pebble in the Sky: In chapter 20, "The Deadline That Was Reached", Procurator Ennius is the representative of the Galactic Empire for Earth (which evokes an allusion to Rome's rule over Judea), and he uses Pontius Pilate's line, "I find no fault in this man...", when describing the main villain. In-Universe, the allusion is not recognized.
  • "...That Thou Art Mindful of Him": The incomplete title is quoted in full during the first chapter; Psalms 8:4, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"
  • "Unto the Fourth Generation": The title is made to reference the way the Old Testament would speak about children, your children's children, and unto the third and fourth generation.
• Berlin Alexanderplatz features many quotes from the Bible, especially the Ecclesiastes which is used in the finale juxtaposed with the murder of Mieze at the hands of Reinhold.
• In Caroline's Christmas: or, The Inexplicable Infant, Stephen Leacock's parody of a Cliché Storm Christmas story, a slightly confused farmer (he's also drunk on buttermilk) is prone to quoting the Good Book - only in his case it seems to be Euclid's Elements:
  "Ah, my sons," said John Enderby, "henceforth let us stick to the narrow path. What is it that the Good Book says: 'A straight line is that which lies evenly between its extreme points.'"
• Chance And Choices Adventures is a Christian Fiction story, so naturally numerous characters quote The Bible throughout.
• Christian Nation: Various parts of Scripture are used at the beginning of two chapters to explain and even justify the actions that President Steve Jordan takes to enforce the Fifty Blessings to be the law of the land over all of America. Namely, in The Siege of New York City, Steve Jordan quotes Deuteronomy 20:10-12.
• Commissar Ciaphas Cain normally has a great deal of disdain for what he terms "Emperor-botherers," but he does have a some fondness for The Precepts of Saint Emelia. At one point in Duty Calls he gets a little grumpy when an inquisitor takes half a line out of context, namely "The path of duty is often a stony one." Amberley Vail's footnote explains that the full line is "The path of duty is often a stony one, but made easier by thought for others." The Emperor's Finest has a character who randomly drops in quotes from an obscure Mechanicus book of philosophy... which he wrote.
• In Confessions (Saint Augustine), Augustine quotes The Bible on every single page, with the first line of the book coming from the Book of Psalms and the final part of the book being dedicated to reinterpreting the Book of Genesis.
• Dante Alighieri:
  • At the top of Purgatory in Dante's The Divine Comedy, Beatrice reminds those grieving over the corruption of the Catholic Church to have hope in the Church's restoration with Jesus's words before his death. She recites them in Latin instead of Italian, but the English translation of John 16:16 is as follows:
    "A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me."
  • La Vita Nuova: Before announcing the death of the World's Most Beautiful Woman, Dante quotes the opening line Book of Lamentations to set the extreme desolation of the world sans his lady.
• In Darkness at Noon (set in Stalinist Soviet Union) the porter Wassilij keeps a Bible hidden in a hole in his mattress until his daughter finds it and throws it away. He can still quote passages from it by heart.
• In The Da Vinci Code, Silas arrives at the fake location of the Keystone given to him by the seneschals and finds a tablet simply reading "Job 38:11". He realizes he's been duped once he looks it up: "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further."
• Discworld
  • Lu-Tze in Thief of Time frequently says things like "is it not written, it won't get better if you don't stop picking at it?" Usually it IS written, but only in the select quotes of Mrs. Cosmopolite (proprietress of an Ankh-Morpork boarding house) which was assembled by Lu-Tze and the only copy of which resides in Lu-Tze's back pocket. While a few of the monks mention they never see any of the things he quotes, he notes with amusement that his apprentice is the first person to actually ask where exactly it's written.
  • "The truth shall set you free" is used in, what else, The Truth. Sacharissa thinks it sounds good but isn't quite sure what it means and since the Bible itself doesn't exist on Discworld she has to settle for saying "I think it's just a quote."
  • Omnian characters frequently quote the Book of Om. For Constable Visit (-The Ungodly With Explanatory Pamphlets) it usually ends up being an Ice-Cream Koan, eg "What profiteth it a kingdom if the oxen be deflated?" Reverend Mightily (Praiseworthy Are Ye Who Exalteth Om) Oats is frequently troubled by this in Carpe Jugulum, since he's studied enough to compare some events of the Book to historical phenomena with known explanations, but occasionally engages in randomly opening it to hope that the passage will give him aid. It rarely does... until he's stranded in rainy woods with Granny Weatherwax, who is dying from hypothermia, and he finds the passage "Where there is darkness, we shall make a great light." So he takes the book and a match and does just that.
• The Dresden Files:
  • Michael, a devoutly Catholic Knight of the Sword, has an unsurprising habit of doing this. Harry, who has described himself as "theological Switzerland" has a slightly more surprising tendency to do the same.
  • In their first meeting, Harry calls Nicodemus Archleone out on his comparing himself to the Devil (though, giving that Nicodemus is a willing collaborator with a fallen angel named Anduriel, it isn't that far off the mark), by correctly identifying that Nicodemus' name is a reference to 1 Peter, 5:8.
  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
• Minor J.T. Edson character Deputy Marshal Solomon Wisdom 'Solly' Cole is fond of quoting Bible verses. Some of them are made up out of the whole cloth, with Solly relying on the fact that reprobates he is lecturing will not have the biblical knowledge necessary to contradict him.
• The Ender's Shadow novels involve an elaborate reference of the Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge to explain why Bean has superhuman intelligence but a very short lifespan.
• In The Good Soldier Švejk:
  • The eponymous protagonist once knew a pub-keeper who had a Bible quotation for any occasion and when he flogged brawlers with a knout always used to say: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes - I'll teach you to fight in my pub!"
  • Also his fellow soldier, one-year volunteer Marek (otherwise completely non-religious), is revealed to be fond of (mis)quoting the Scripture when playing cards, e.g.:
  When he bought a knave he called out: "Lord, let me have this knave this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it; that he bear me fruit."
• References to the Bible are ubiquitous in James Baldwin's novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, to the point that even the language in which the book is written mimics the style of the King James Version. Fitting, since almost the entire novel takes place in and around churches.
• J. K. Rowling included a couple of verses in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to great effect. They're both epitaphs:
  • "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Matthew 6:21 or Luke 12:34) This one's on Kendra and Ariana Dumbledore's headstone, and sums up Albus' regret/repentance.
  • "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." (I Corinthians 15:26) This one's on James and Lily's headstone, and how it's interpreted gives insight to the difference between the good guys and the Death Eaters.
• In the novels by Sven Hassel, a Running Gag is Tiny constantly misquoting his Sunday school lessons.
  "And as Jesus, Saul's son said: Give me what's mine, and slip a coin or two into the Emperor's palm."
• Honor Harrington: Flag in Exile has an early scene where a reactionary Grayson minister starts yelling at Honor for acting like a woman who didn't grow up in a basically male-dominant society, which she didn't. He starts quoting lines from The Book of the New Way, the second holiest Grayson scripture after the Bible, out of context at her. Having studied the Grayson scriptures in order to govern her Grayson fief better, Honor matches him line for line, including at one point supplying the second half of a verse Brother Marchant quote mined.
• The clerical brawl between Friar Tuck and Prior Aymer in Ivanhoe is mostly conducted in bad Latin and Bible quotes.
  Friar Tuck: Ossa ejus perfringam, I shall break your bones, as the Vulgate hath it. (Referring to the Vulgate Bible, the translation used by the Church in those days).
• Gothic author M.R. James looooved this trope.
  • In "The Ash-tree," a mysterious death prompts one character to open a Bible in the hopes of finding relevant advice. He hits on the verses Luke 13:7 ("Cut it down"), Isaiah 13:20 ("It shall never be inhabited"), and Job 39:30 ("Her young ones also suck up blood").
  • In "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral," one of the cathedral's haunted wooden carvings seems to behave very oddly during the singing of Psalm 109—a fervent (and really rather vicious) prayer for divine punishment of the wicked.
  • In "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas," three panels of a stained-glass window feature portraits of Job, John, and Zechariah, with verses (in Latin) from their respective books. Two of the verses' texts have been altered slightly—a clue which points the way to the titular treasure, but also hints that the abbot may not have been an entirely holy man...
• Reading Jane Eyre (or any other Bronte writing) without either an encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible or an edition with good footnotes means you miss a significant proportion of the characters' allusions and epigrams. Makes sense, as their father was an Irish Anglican clergyman.
• Jeeves and Wooster: Bertie Wooster in P. G. Wodehouse's novels is prone to quoting the Bible, often reminding the reader that he won the prize for Scripture Knowledge at school. Of course, he can't always remember all the details, sometimes resulting in memorable moments like when he needs to ask Jeeves to remind him who it was that used to prowl and prowl around.
  The Midianites, sir?
• The Jeremiah School: The characters of that titular school for young prophets use Bible verses when talking with each other.
• In The Key to Charlotte, Charlotte cites Philippians 4:13, "I can do anything through Him who gives me strength," while arguing with her parents about why they shouldn't worry about her relationship with Zakaria.
• Knowledge Of Angels: Used by the religious side of the main debates between Beneditx and Palinor, along with 'As Thomas Aquinas Says'.
• The Left Behind series have the main characters use Scripture verses (especially the Apocalypse) throughout all its books, mostly in reference to events that are taking place within the seven-year Tribulation period.
• Played with in The Left Hand of God. Several characters quote or paraphrase the Bible in several places. However, owing to the ambiguous After the End future setting of the book, several details are conflated or confused. For example, people think that Jesus of Nazareth was the man trapped inside a whale, not Jonah. Justified by the fact that Christianity (as we know it now) doesn't exist anymore or has been adapted to suit the faith of the Redeemers.
• A Master of Djinn: In an Islamic version, Haida recites a verse from the Quran describing how Allah created every people on earth in their colors and diversity to rebuke a racist old Arab woman with anti-black views.
• Moby-Dick's cast of characters - most of whom are Quakers - are so steeped in scripture that they pepper their dialogue with little bits of Biblical language, hence all the "thees" and "thous" in Cpt. Ahab's famous Dying Declaration of Hate. This actually caused a minor controversy when the book was published, as many readers found the use of scripture in so profane a setting as a whaling ship (several of whose crew aren't even Christian!) to be blasphemous.
• Modesty Blaise: Willie Garvin can find a quote from the Book of Psalms to suit any occasion. In this case it's explained in his backstory; he at one point spent three years incommunicado in a Jordanian prison and was only allowed religious literature, and the only Christian text anyone could be bothered to find was a copy of the Book of Psalms.
• In the Frederick Forsyth novel The Negotiator, the British Prime Minister tries to comfort the U.S. President with a relevant bible verse, after his kidnapped son has been killed: "2 Samuel 18:33" ("And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom! My son Absalom! Would God had I died for thee, O Absalom my son my son!").
• In A Night in the Lonesome October, the cultists' sermon is an apocalyptic inversion of the Bible's Song of Songs.
• Parodied in Bill Fitzurgh's Pest Control. Two cocaine-dealing druglords have an impenetrable compound. As an example of how impenetrable it is, the narrator relates an occasion where they let an assassin get into the courtyard, and just when he thinks he's hot stuff, riddle him with crossfire, then have dogs strip him to the bone. Brother A stands over his body.
  Brother A: Pride, my young brother, goeth before a fall.

  The narration notes that the second brother knew his Proverbs better.

  Brother B: Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
  What followed as they went back inside was a lengthy discussion on wisdom and paraphrasing.
• The Safehold series features many characters, both within the Church and out, quoting The Holy Writ, Safehold's equivalent to the Bible.
• The eternally quarrelsome Christians of Search the Seven Hills quote constantly, not just from the canonical Gospels but from assorted apocrypha as well.
• People in Pamela Dean's The Secret Country have many literary and Biblical quotations familiar from the everyday world, but written by different people. At one point, Ted says "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some". He knows it as a verse from the Letters of Paul. But he says it because he is listening to the spirit of the dead Prince Edward; Edward is quoting from the writings of the great wizard Shan.
• Sharpe:
  • Villain Obadiah Hakeswill likes to end each of his threats with "It says so in the scriptures!" ...even when it's something like "Riflemen who lose their flints will get a good flogging, Sharpie, it says so in the Scriptures!"
  • In one of the prequels he runs into a devout Scots officer who becomes increasingly incensed at this, and eventually throws it back in his face by ordering him away from tormenting Sharpe with an actual scriptural quotation. Precisely none of Hakeswill's "says so in the scriptures" quotes are actually from the scriptures (even when he thinks they are), and when they (by some miracle) conform to contemporary Christian teaching it is only in the broadest general terms (God probably didn't have: "let an ugly creepy, sadistic, psychopath rape you" in mind when he asked woman to honor and obey their men, for instance, despite Hakeswill's attempt at scriptural justification).
• The Southern Reach Trilogy: The text lining the walls of the tower reads almost like a warped, vaguely sinister version of a Bible passage: Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds of the dead... It can be traced back to the lighthouse keeper due to semantic similarities, as he used to be a preacher.
• In Spinning Silver, Miryem's father alludes to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah when he asks "Are there even ten righteous among them?" to convince her not to risk herself in a bid to save the Staryk, an icy example of The Fair Folk whose king was willing to kill all the humans in the country in order to stop a fire demon. However, Miryem knows three—the ones who pledged themselves to her while she was working at the king's seemingly-impossible task, and that steels her resolve to go anyway.
• In Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman, Wolf is constantly quoting "The Book of Good Farming" - an Alternate Universe version of the Bible.
• These Words Are True and Faithful by Eugene Galt: Since Sam grew up in a devout evangelical Protestant family, the book is peppered with verses from and other references to the King James Bible. Particularly common are references to the New Testament concept of knowing every tree by its fruit (Matthew 7:15-20 and Luke 6:43-45).
• In The Three Musketeers, Aramis does this almost as a sort of catchphrase, annoying his friends with his primly Holier Than Thou attitude. In 20 Years After he does it ironically, but after his Face–Heel Turn in The Vicomte de Bragelonne, the hypocrisy is back.
• In the novel To Sail Beyond the Sunset by Robert A. Heinlein, Ira Johnson would quote the Bible to his religious wife at various times when she objected to his actions. It was indicated that he really didn't believe in it but found it quite useful to justify anything he wanted, as the Bible is so large you can find all kinds of stuff in there that you can take to mean whatever you want.
• In The Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer uses Bible quotes occasionally
  • Equating Edward to "forbidden fruit" in the sexual sense.
    "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Thou shalt not eat of it: For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
  • "And so the lion fell in love with the lamb," a paraphrase of a passage in Isaiah. The Biblical passage is talking about the world peace that will be achieved when the messiah returns, while Meyer uses it to represent Edward and Bella's "forbidden love."
    "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."
• Characters in Manly Wade Wellman stories, being backwoods folk, have a tendency to quote "the Book". One of the most interesting cases is when a character in the Silver John story "Shiver in the Pines", asked where he's from, answers, "From going to and fro in the world, and from walking up and down in it". This is how Satan introduces himself in the book of Job, and his smiling at the stunned reaction of the other characters establishes what sort of person he is.
• The Witch of Knightcharm: Janet Yawkly recites Psalm 23 to herself shortly after she gets trapped in an evil Wizarding School.
• Joseph, a crusty servant in Wuthering Heights, is constantly quoting the bible at other characters despite the fact that they are rarely guilty of what he is slinging at them. What's more, he is more vile than most of the characters, and still feels that he is destined for heaven while the rest of them are doomed to fry in hell. Oh, Joseph, not only were you completely intelligible, but you were a hypocrite too!
• Each chapter of Wyrm opens with a quote from the Book of Revelation.

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