In this largely faithless world of ours, few go bonkers for the bible.

Those in need of unbending moral instruction study The Daily Mail, instead.

Meanwhile, the Holy Book is relegated to the hotel drawer, where it huddles in the shadows, avoiding the constant babble of pay per view porn.

Yet the bible isn’t just a historical object, or a tome to be clutched by those on the way to the tomb.

It carries huge cultural and political significance, as is made clear by David Edgar’s weighty new play, Written On The Heart, about the political turmoil surrounding the translation of the bible into English.

This year marks the four hundredth anniversary of the King James Bible.

Edgar reveals that it was lucky to make it past conception.

Principal translator, William Tyndale, was executed for the audacity of dabbling with God’s words. His punishment was death by strangulation.

Tyndale viewed an English language bible as a democratising force. The common man could now study it in his own tongue, so no need for a pompous, powerful priesthood.