It is not a new phenomena

Did you see it? Yet again a modern man extracts words from an ancient poet and is vilified: better be careful then when we quote Shakespeare, who did not mince his words but it must be said was careful in his allusions, or even our more recent Gilbert of G&S fame, who was certainly more colourful in his language than we would be permitted to be. We must not of course forget the villainous John Green who in the middle of civil conflict was unable to quench his patriotic fervour when he wrote his Babylonian work.

But such things are not new. The first burning of books, of which Coco is aware, please let me know of any earlier, took place around the time of the events related in Green’s opera. Nabucco had invaded Judah, as foretold by Isaiah, and left Jehoiakim as a vassal king in Jerusalem, and probably at this time had taken away Daniel when returning to Babylon as emperor. Jeremiah had spoken many true words to the king, but the king hated him, but there were still some in the city who afforded protection to Jeremiah. Jeremiah had his secretary Baruch to write down his words on a scroll. Some months later in 604 BC the opportunity arose to read the words in the temple to the people and some of the leaders, who decided that these words must be heard by the king. They were afraid of what Nebuchadnezzar would do, he having returned to receive tribute from his vassals. King Jehoiakim not being impressed, ordered in vain that Jeremiah and his scribe be abducted, but they were already well hidden. He did however allow the scroll to be read to him, and as it was read he displayed his contempt of it by cutting off the scroll each section after it had been read to throw it into his fire pot.

We are aware of the trade routes across Asia, which existed at this time. The words which Jeremiah had spoken were taken by Nebuchadnezzar’s captives to Babylon. His empire stretched afar to the east and his successors were influenced by the Jews who lived in the empire, some attaining exceedingly high rank in its government. It is not unreasonable to consider that something of these things would be taken outside the empire. However perhaps the book burning that we find in China by the king Qin Shi Huang is altogether uninfluenced by the history of another king in Jerusalem some four hundred years earlier.

We must not forget however that the burning of books has taken place in our own land and much more recently. Just as Jehoiakim showed contempt for the word of God spoken by Jeremiah, the bishop of London did also in 1526 AD. There was a fear of the word of God. Reading it would expose the cracks in the religion of the day, actually I would like to suggest that it would expose the shroud over the true religion which had been hidden under precept upon precept of man in a rather similar way that the true faith of Abraham and the prophets had been hidden by the rabbis and teachers of the law in Jesus’s day. William Tyndale had completed his translation of the New Testament into contemporary English and it had been published on the continent. When the books became available in England the Bishop bought up the books to burn. They were dangerous books. If the people read them they would see the errors that were being taught in the church, and understand what true religion is all about. This would upset the status quo and the authority of the leaders. Coco reckons it was the similar for Qin Shi Huang though for somewhat different reasons. Coco would like to suggest that this book burning continues today, but some would say that Coco is then being uncharitable to do so, perhaps as we do not see the literal burning of the Book, but the ignoring of its teaching is the first step towards the book burning pit.

The burning of the books did however have a number of good effects. It brought attention to the availability of the translation and secondly the price paid could finance a new edition to remove the errors of the first. The burning of the scroll by Jehoiakim also had similar benefits. Jeremiah and his scribe wrote the content out again on a new scroll with many similar words added to it. So we are able to read today the words that Jehoiakim burned.

Returning to the poem written by Zhang Jie briefly,
焚書坑
竹帛煙銷帝業虛，關河空鎖祖龍居。
坑灰未冷山東亂，劉項原來不讀書。
Coco was unimpressed by the translation offered, though it seemed literal enough, and Google did no better, which was somewhat shocking as Coco would have thought that such a famous text would have translation already stored: ah, well. So here is another, based purely upon a single commentary on the words:

	It was books in the burning			That destroyed the Qin.
	In vain flood and pass were guarding			As the Dragon fell in.
	Before the ash cold had turned			Shandong’s riot burned.
	To illiterate peasants now			The people all must bow.

Coco is sure fault may be found with it, and you can do better, but it serves its purpose. There are many today who would suppress free thought, as there were in the past. Rome sought to suppress the truth. A simple ‘Caesar is lord’ would save many a life, but many died. The Lord taught us that his kingdom is like yeast in bread, it will as it is mixed in fill every part, and just so his kingdom will fill every part of this world. Rome fell in. Other empires will fall in under the sway of the King of kings.

Jehoiakim tried to destroy the word of God; The bishop of London tried to do so; Men still do so today; The grass withers, the flowers fades away but the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

The Book Burning Pit
By Zhang Jie, a poet in the late Tang Dynasty (618–907AD)