Unnamed Authors of the Bible
Character Key Number:
2754
Display Name:
Unnamed Authors of the Bible
Sort Name:
Unnamed Authors of the Bible
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?:
No
Biography:
The first time Ike refers to the Bible in Go Down, Moses, he talks about it as the word of God: "He told in the Book," etc. (243). But when Cass challenges him on the subject of race in the Bible, repeating the familiar pro-slavery argument that the enslaved Africans were the accursed "sons of Ham" (246), Ike introduces the idea of "the men who wrote His Book for Him" (246), i.e. the human authors who "transcribed His Words," and often misquoted Him, or misrepresented His will, despite their desire to "write down the heart's truth" (247).