William Shakespeare may be the second most quoted source in the history of English literature. You know what the most quoted source still is . .. The Bible. What you may not know is that every day Shakespeare scholarship adds to the pile an average of 8.8 articles and books. I don’t know what biblical scholarship adds every day to the pile of knowledge, but I suspect it’s much, much more than that. If the French novelist Gustave Flaubert could write, “When I read Shakespeare I become greater, wiser, purer,” how much more true is it that when we read the Scriptures we become greater, wiser, purer, truer?

William Shakespeare is credited with elevating the English language to new heights, finding words to express truths and emotions in ways no English-speaking writer had ever done before. B…