SOURCE: “‘Streams of Scripture Comfort’: Mary Rowlandson's Typographical Use of the Bible,” in Early American Literature, Vol. 15, No. 3, Winter, 1980, pp. 252-59.

In the essay that follows, Downing analyzes how Rowlandson uses the Bible and biblical phrases in her Narrative.

Mary Rowlandson's Indian captivity narrative is saturated with references to the Bible. In her account of the ordeal (about twenty thousand words), Rowlandson draws on Scripture more than eighty times in the form of direct quotations, allusions to biblical characters, or echoes of biblical phrases.¹ These frequent references to the Bible are used to interpret her experience typologically and thereby to provide spiritual lessons for herself and for the Puritan community as a whole. She presents what occurred during her captivity in the language of spiritual autobiography and gives evidence of God's sovereignty and grace, and of her own place among the elect. She also views her captivity broadly...