Troubled waters (Psalms 46:3)

The Bible has been the most influential text in all of Western culture. It's difficult to understand medieval or early modern or much of modern literature without knowing it...

Prof. Barbara Newman, Northwestern University
from 2006 Bible Literary project

It's not that it's impossible to read some writers without a Biblical background, but that you would miss a whole dimension to their work.

Prof. Steven Goldsmith, University of California at Berkeley
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

I can only say that if a student doesn't know any Bible literature, he or she will simply not understand whole elements of Shakespeare, Sidney, Spenser, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth

Prof. Robert Kiely, Harvard University
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

...there is truth in the remark. "without Tyndale[Bible translator], no Shakespeare"...

Prof. David Daniell, University College London
from The Bible in English

You can't really study Western literature intelligently or coherently without starting with the Bible.

Prof. Gerald L. Bruns, University of Notre Dame
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

...a familiar understanding of Christian doctrine in historical perspective thus contributes to a fuller appreciation of Shakespeare's art, but Shakespeare's art

Prof. Roland M. Frye
from Shakespeare and the Christian Doctrine

In English tradition and also for an American tradition begun by Puritan writers, a knowledge of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament is even more crucial than classical references.

Prof. Ulrich Knoefplmacher, Princeton University
from 2006 Bible Literary Project

There is no book more important for our culture than the Bible, and it is fundametal to the study of English literature and language.

Prof. David Jasper and Prof. Stephen Prickett
from the Bible and literature

Troubled waters (Psalms 46:3)

Picture description: Flood
Picture copyright: V.

bible verse

meaning

origin and application

You may have heard “troubled waters” in the song: Like a bridge over troubled waters. The concept of water being troubling is not new. Water has been used in the bible as a metaphor of constant change and natural disasters, such as flooding. Consider Psalms 46: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear…though its waters roar and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging.”

example

Those who profited from selling face masks at a high price during SARS outbreak were fishing in troubled waters.

Keywords

flood troubled

Related Information

NIV official site
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Troubled waters (Psalms 46:3)

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