I've no idea which Bibles Twain read, but the phrasing "people sitting in the 
darkness," "sinners [or heathens] sitting in the darkness," or a "heathen world 
sitting in the darkness" was pretty common in 19th century sermons and 
theological writings, ranging throughout the century (even Mary Baker Eddy uses 
it--don't recall whether Twain's critique of her engages that phrase or not, 
though).  


You can find a number of examples by doing an Advanced Search in Google Books 
online, limiting it to pre-1900.  I imagine that Clemens would have heard the 
phrase throughout his life.  Why he might choose, rhetorically, to narrow it to 
a single person, is of course open to interpretation of its impact.

Cheers,
Sharon





________________________________
From: Harold Bush <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, April 18, 2012 8:13:13 PM
Subject: MT, the KJV, and Matt. 4:16

Folks;  I'm attempting to explain some things about MT's "To the Person
Sitting in Darkness," and I guess I should have figured this out years ago,
but:

Why did he use that exact phrasing?  Everyone recognizes he alludes to
Matt. 4:16:  King James Version (KJV) which reads:

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in
the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

This verse in Matthew alludes to Isaiah 9:2 :

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell
in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Both are from the KJV (sidenote:  I've always assumed MT read, and used,
the KJV).  I have checked all the other translations and none of them at
that time used "sitting."

(More arcane = why the Hebrew Bible quote says "walked," NT says "sat"; why
switch it up from walking to sitting?  (some commentators suggest the
change to "sat" makes their conditions even more desperate; Anyway that is
true textual hairsplitting)

the questions I really have are:

Why change the "people which sat" to "the person sitting"?  I guess to
bring it up to date??  To personalize it even more??

More generally:  I wonder now that I think of it, about the element of
directly addressing this "person," and the rhetorical strategy of that form
of address:  how and why did he choose that title and method?
Even more generally: is it basically the case the we should always assume
MT's reading was always in the KJV, and his use of and references to the
Bible are based on the KJV?  Seems like common sense, but the Revised
Version did come out in the 1880s, (1881 I believe), making a fairly big
splash in fact.

thanks, --hb

-- 
Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
Professor of English
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO  63108
314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
<www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>