Literary Biblical Epigraph Chart
This is what I've found so far, after scouring my library, several stacks in local libraries, and beginning from 1900-1906 in Project Gutenberg. As I come across more biblical epigraphs found in fiction and poetry, I'll post them here, and any help from you would be welcomed. Initial observations will be delivered at the 2012 South Central Conference on Christianity and Literature in New Orleans.
Few (if any) biblical epigraphs exist in fiction lit. before 1870. I included epigraphs from some "Christian fiction" books. As you can see, so far, I have focused mainly on fiction, mostly novels, but some short stories, graphic novels, and literary nonfiction examples are present (Crafts, Dillard). I plan on adding poems.
The chart's format is still a bit rough (my apologies for any incoherence).
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Constantin
de Renneville: French Inquisition (1715)
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Ecclesiastes
4:1-3
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Not
quite an epigraph. Is entire first paragraph, though.
|
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Crafts:
Bondwoman’s Narrative (c. after 1865)
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Song
of Solomon 1:6 (CH. 1)
Proverbs
26:25 (Ch. 2)
Psalm
39:6
Exodus
20: 5 (Ch. 4)
1
Thess. 5:3 (Ch. 5)
Ps.
11:2 (Ch. 6)
Ps.
119: 121 (Ch 7)
Ps.
10:12 (Ch 8)
Lam
5:1 (Ch 9)
Proverbs
31:30 (Chapter 10)
Psalm
40:13 or 140:1 (“Deliver me, Oh Lord) (Ch. 11)
Psalm
62:29 (Ch. 12)
Jonah
3:3 (CH. 13)
Psalm
74:20 (Ch. 14)
Esther
7:4 (Ch 16)
Psalm
31:1, or 25:2, or 71:1 (Ch 17) (“In Thee is my trust.”)
Psalm
37:25 (Ch 19)
Isaiah
3:11 (Ch 20)
Psalm
23:2 (Ch 21)
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only
cites “Song of Solomon”
only
cites “Prov. of Solomon”
cites
“David”
cites
“Moses”
cites
“Bible”
cites
“Psalms”
cites
“David”
cites
“David”
cited
as “Jeremiah”
cited
as “Solomon”
cited
as “David”
cited
as “David”
cited
as “Jonah”
cited
as “Bible”
cited
as “Esther”
cited
as “David”
not
cited
cited
as “Bible”
cited
as “David”
|
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Gottfried
Keller: “Eugenia” (1872)
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Deut.
22:5
|
written
as “Deut. XXII. 5.”
|
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Gottfried
Keller: “The Virgin and the Nun” (1872)
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Psalm
55:6
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as
“Psalm LV.6”
|
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Gottfried
Keller: “A Legend of the Dance” (1872)
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Jeremiah
31:4, 13
|
|
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George
Eliot: Middlemarch (ch. 69) (1874)
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Eccl.
19:10
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other
epics (only cites “Ecclesiasticus”
|
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Dostoyevsky:
Brothers Karamozov (1880)
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John
12:24
|
|
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Tolstoy,
“What Men Live By” (1881)
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1
John 3:14, 17-18, 4:7-8, 12, 16, 20
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Cites:
“I Epistle St. John iii.14, etc.”
|
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Tolstoy,
“Two Old Men” (1885)
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John
4: 19-21, 23
|
|
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Tolstoy,
“The Three Hermits” (1886)
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Matt.
4:7-8
|
|
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Tolstoy,
“The Godson” (1886)
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Matt.
5: 38-39; Rom 12: 19
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|
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Tolstoy,
“The Repentant Sinner” (1886)
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Luke
23: 42-43
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|
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Hall
Caine, “A Son of Hagar” (1906)
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Gen.
21:17
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no
citation given
|
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Christina
Rosetti: “Cardinal Newman” (1890)
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Eccl.
9:10
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Doesn’t
cite book, chapter, or verse
|
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Tolstoy,
“Walk in the Light While There is Light” (1893)
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Acts
4: 32-35
|
|
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Thomas
Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1895)
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Esther
2:5 (apocrypha)
|
|
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Arthur
Morrison, “A Child of the Jago” (1897)
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Ezek
13:3, 10-12
|
|
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Mary
Cholmodeley, “Red Pottage” (1900)
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Prov.
18:7
2
Kings 4:26 (twice)
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no
citation
no
citation
|
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Pauline
Hopkins, Contending Forces (1900)
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Job
42:12
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In
chapter 21. Doesn’t cite chapter/verse
|
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Hall
Caine, “The Eternal City” (1902)
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Heb
11:10
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no
citation
|
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Marie
Corelli, “God’s Good Man” (1906)
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John
1:6
|
|
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Hemingway:
Sun Also Rises (1926)
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Eccl.
1:4-7
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*doesn’t
cite chapter or verse
|
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Hurston:
Moses, Man on the Mountain (1939)
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Deut.
34: 11-12
|
|
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Richard
Wright, Black Boy (1945)
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Job
18:12
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Only
cites “JOB”
|
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Robert
Lowell, “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket”
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Genesis
1:26
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doesn’t
cite
|
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Baldwin:
Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953)
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Rev.
22:17 (Part 1)
Rev
6:10 (Part 2)
Isaiah
6:5 (Part 3)
|
|
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Bradbury:
Something Wicked this way Comes (1962)
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Prov
4:16-17
|
|
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Vonnegut,
“Slaughterhouse-Five” (1969)
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“Away
in a Manger” lyrics:
“The
cattle are lowing,/The Baby awakes. / But the little Lord Jesus / No crying
He makes.”
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*not quite biblical, but a
hymn derived from Luke's Gospel. |
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William
Blatty, The Exorcist (1971)
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Luke
8:27-30
|
|
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Morrison,
Tar Baby (1981)
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1
Cor. 1:11
|
|
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Stephen
King, Pet Sematary (1983)
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John
11:11-15
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cited
as “John’s Gospel (paraphrase)
|
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Atwood:
Handmaid’s Tale (1985)
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Gen
30: 1-3
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Swift,
Modest Proposal; Sufi proverb also
|
|
Dillard:
An American Childhood (1987)
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Ps
26: 8
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*only
writes “Psalm 26”
|
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Morrison,
Beloved (1987)
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Romans
9:25
|
|
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Alan
Moore, Watchmen (1987)
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Genesis
18:25 (chapter 3
Job
30:29-30 (chapter 7)
|
|
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Gaiman:
Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes (1988)
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Job:
28:12, 13, 18
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writes”
THE BOOK OF JOB, Chapter 28, verses 12,13, 18”
|
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Philip
Roth, Operation Shylock (1993)
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Genesis
32:24
|
|
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John
Wagner: A History of Violence (1997)
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Hosea
8:7
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Chapter
3: “With Evil Intent”
|
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Banks:
Cloudsplitter (1998)
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Job
1:16
|
|
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Irving
Warner: In Memory of Hawks (1998)
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Psalm
39:12-13
|
|
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Ken
Abraham and Daniel Hart, “The Prodigal Project” Book 1 (2003)
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1
Thess. 4:16-18
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xian
|
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Ken
Abraham and Daniel Hart, “The Prodigal Project” Book 2 (2003)
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Rev.
1:3
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xian
|
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Lynn
Austin, For by Night (2003)
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Ex.
13:21; John 8:12
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xian
|
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Kate
Atkinson, Not the End of the World (2004)
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1
Cor. 13:7 (ch. Dissonance)
Prov
31:28
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epigraphs
among Ovid, Virgil, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
|
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Lynn
Austin, A Light to My Path (2004)
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Ps.
119:105, 108
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xian
|
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Caputo:
Acts of Faith (2005)
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Eccl
4: 15-17
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*only
cites “Ecclesiastes”
|
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Lynn
Austin, All She Ever Wanted (2005
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Prov
3:8-9
|
xian
|
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Stephanie
Meyer, Twilight (2005)
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Genesis
2:17
|
|
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Randy
Alcorn, Deception (2008)
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Ps.
38:12
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xian
|
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Lynn
Austin, Until We Reach Home (2008)
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John
14:23 (part III)
|
xian
|
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Michael
Crummey: Galore (2009)
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Psalm
68:22
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cited
as “Psalms”
|
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T.C.
Boyle: When the Killing’s Done (2011)
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Genesis
1:28
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