The Bible in the early United States was, possibly the most distributed and read text in the former Thirteen British Colonies until the initial part of the nineteenth century. With that point in mind, this brief discussion considers the important research conducted by Eran Shalev in the book, American Zion, wherein Shalev analyses the central role that the Old Testament played in the political debates during the turbulent years before the American Revolution. Shalev surpasses the evident political expediency of the Exodus narrative to investigate more obscure but proportionately significant examples of various Founders adopting the Old Testament as a framework for their political ends. Among these are the stories of Asa, Gideon, Rehoboam, and Jeroboham, names that were known to the “common herd” or “middling sort” given their intimacy with the Bible during that period. Shalev’s work effectively demonstrates how the Founders employed Biblical examples to frame their arguments for political separation from Britain, which are exemplified by Jonathan Mayhew’s interpretation of Romans 13:1-7.

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Bibliography

Beneke, Chris. “The Critical Turn: Jonathan Mayhew, the British Empire, and the Idea of Resistance in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Boston.” Massachusetts Historical Review 10 (2008): 23-56. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25478696.

Kuyper, Abraham. Pro Rege: Living Under Christs Kingship. Edited by John H. Kok. 3 vols. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.

Mayhew, Jonathan. “A Discourse concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-resistance to the Higher Powers.” The Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/12019678/.

Shalev, Eran. American Zion: The Old Testament as a Political Text from the Revolution to the Civil War. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.

Willson, James M. The Establishment and Limits of Civil Government: An Exposition of Romans 13:1-7. Powder Springs, GA: American Vision Press, 2009.