Biblical Allusion in Bob Dylan's Lyrics--Part IV
John Wesley Harding

One critic once described the album John Wesley Harding as "the Book of Isaiah set to music."  I think, however, that the allusions are somewhat broader than that, and are drawn from the entire Bible, but particular emphasis is placed on the prophets.  

All Along the Watchtower

• "There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief.
  "There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief."
  If the joker is Christ, then this could be something like Christ saying, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?" (Matthew 17:17). (For more on the joker as Christ imagery, see "Jokerman")
• "Business men, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
  None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."
  "The Lord will enter into judgement with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses." (Isaiah 3:14).  All belongs to the Lord, but His creation has spoiled the earth, His bounty, His vineyard, and the poor.
• "No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke,
  "There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
  But you and I we've been through that, and this is not our fate.
  So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."
  "Then were there two thieves crucified with him. . . " (Matthew 27:38). One of the two thieves seemed to feel that life [was] but a joke, that is, "he railed on [Christ], saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us" (Luke 23:39).  But the other saw Christ for who He was. And, recognizing that the hour [was] getting late, he refused to talk falsely: "But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.  And it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth . . ." (Luke 23:39-44).
• All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
  "Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield" (Isaiah 21:5). 
• While all the women came and went . . .
  "When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them" (Isaiah 27:11).
  "As for my people . . . women rule over them" (Isaiah 3:12). 
  "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach (Isaiah 4:1). 
• . . . barefoot servants, too.
  "Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners . . . " (Isaiah 20:3-4).
• Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl
  Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.
  "And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: And, behold, there cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken down unto the ground" (Isaiah 21:8-9).
  "For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion" (Isaiah 31:4).
  "And I looked, and behold, a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him" (Revelation 6:8).
  There is no reference to the wind howling, but howling figures prominently in the Book of Isaiah--it is mentioned repeatedly (Isaiah 15:2-3, 16:7, 23:1, 23:6, 52:5, 65:14).

The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest

• The house, which is not a house but a home, with "four and twenty windows" could possibly be reminiscent of "my Father's house" in which are "many mansions," or rooms (John 14:2). Frankie Lee, apparently, mistakes it for Paradise.  
• The moral of the story is biblical in nature: (1) "So when you see your neighbor carryin' somethin' / Help him with his load" is similar to "love they neighbor as thyself" (Leviticus 18:19) and "bear ye one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2). (2) "And don't go mistaking Paradise / For that home across the road" reminds one that "thou shalt not covet they neighbor's house" (Exodus 20:17). 
• "Nothing is revealed" because the house is not really Paradise.  Before God, "there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed" (Luke 12:2).  On earth, the neighbor boy walks about with his "guilt so well concealed,"   but in heaven, there is nothing "hid, that shall not be known."
• Website visitor Bill Goldman notes: The house with 4 and 20 windows, in each one of which was a woman's face, is a
  brothel. That's what I always thought it was, anyway, since someone suggested that to me about 30 years ago! (Note that he begins his "midnight creep" to go there.) A foolish thing to mistake it for Paradise! I am given to understand that Highway 61 is a) the Highway Elvis Presley - and Bob Dylan himself were born on, or just off, and b) is the Highway on which Bessie Smith (whom we know Dylan admired/admires) was killed - in fact she was involved in a motor accident and her life would have been saved except the first ambulance that arrived refused to take her because of the colour of her skin. That's what I seem to remember hearing. In addition, I was once listening to a Bessie Smith album - unfortunately can't remember which one - and was astonished to hear on one song that whiney sound (is it a policeman's whistle?) that you hear on Dylan's song! I have been unable to find this Bessie Smith track since, though I no doubt simply haven't looked hard enough. Anyway, this presumably means he was specifically referencing her song in his. Since he once said in an interview (I quote from memory) something about "If you want to hear the roots of rock n roll, listen to Bessie Smith. That's rock n roll." - and since as I say Highway 61 is where she died and both Elvis and he were born, he seems to be tracing some kind of heritage here: the black roots of, and the black suffering and sacrifice that went into rock music? - Like "Blind Wille McTell", maybe.

I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine

     St. Augustine post-dates the Bible; next to the Bible, his writings are probably the greatest source of Christian theology, and he is the first clear exponent of the doctrine of original sin, predestination, and natural depravity, which arguably had its seeds in the writings of Paul. He fought with a British monk, Pelagius, who argued that man was capable of doing good and that God would never command what He knew man could not do. Pelagius saw Christianity as a force for moral reform in a behaviorally corrupt society; he was unable to reconcile the concept of original sin with his idea of God's justice. 
     This is one of my favorite Dylan songs, amazing in the depth of its emotion, a surprising reflection to come from the pen of a Jewish song writer whose allusions in this album rely heavily on Hebrew scripture.  What exactly Dylan means by saying he dreamed he was "amongst the ones that put [Augustine] out to death" I do not know, for I do not believe he was martyred.  It could be Dylan did not know how he died, and merely assumed his martyrdom; or he could mean putting Augustine out to death figuratively, by putting his doctrines out to death. At any rate, it is a powerful song.

I Am A Lonesome Hobo

The moral of the story is biblical:

• "Stay free from petty jealousies," because "jealousy is as cruel as the grave" (Song of Solomon 8:6) and "envy slayeth the silly one" (Job 5:2).
• "Live by no man's code," because "we ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29) and Paul's because, if we are dead to the world, why would we subject ourselves "to ordinances...after the commandments and doctrines of men?"  (Col. 2:22). 
• "And hold your judgment for yourself / Lest you wind up on this road" is not far from Christ's teaching: "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.  Why do you behold the mote that is in your brother's eye, but consider not the beam in your own?  Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of your own eye." (Luke 6:37-43) The hearer should be warned that "with what measure you mete, it shall be measured unto you" (Mark 4:24). 

I Pity the Poor Immigrant

• "Who uses all his power to do evil"
  "Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil...because it is in the power of their hand" (Micah 2:1)
• "Who eats but is not satisfied"
  "..and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied" (Leviticus 26:26)
  "And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm" (Isaiah 9:20)
  "Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied" (Micah 6:14)
• "Who hears but does not see"
  "Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he hearth not." (Isaiah 42:20) 
  "...they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not." (Matthew 13:13)
• "Who falls in love with wealth itself"
  "...if riches increase, set not your heart upon them." (Psalms 62:10)
  "..how hard it is for them that trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!" (Mark 10:24)
  "Lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth . . . For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:20)
  "They that trust in their wealth...none of them can by any means redeem his brother...this their way is their folly." (Psalm 49: 6-13)
• "Who fills his mouth with laughing"
  This phrase is used in the Bible, but with a positive meaning, by one of Job's comforters: "God will not cast away a perfect man...'till he fill thy mouth with laughing" (Job 8:21).  By laughing here, however, I imagine Dylan does not mean rejoicing but mocking. "Fools make a mock at sin," says Proverbs 14:9. 
• "Who build his town with blood"
  "They build upon Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity" (Micah 3:10)

The Wicked Messenger

• "For his tongue it could not speak, but only flatter"
  "..they flatter with their tongue" (Psalms 5:9)
• I do not think the song explicitly refers to any one single messenger story in the Bible, but it seems rather to draw from many.  The most obvious parallels are to be found in 2 Samuel 18, when David's rebel son Absalom is slain.  Cushi is sent to bring the king news of what has happened, but Ahimaaz the son of Zadok outruns him ("The soles of my feet I swear they're burning") and when he reached David, he will "only flatter," saying that God has delivered David from the rebels.  When David asks about Absalom, he says there was a tulmult but he didn't see what happened.  Thus, he gives David only the good news ("If ye cannot bring good news then don't bring any").  Cushi, who was outrun, now shows up, and tells David his son is dead, and David loudly mourns, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee..."  Elsewhere in Samuel, there is a messenger who brings news of the capture of the ark, and upon hearing it, Eli falls and breaks his neck (to Eli rather than from, however).

More Songs Coming Soon!

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