An Inquiry into the Origins of 'The Wealth of Nations' : Exploring a Myth Concerning the Relationship between Adam Smith and Scripture

There is a subset of literature that asserts that the title of Adam Smith’s famous work, The Wealth of Nations, is an allusion to passages from the Bible, such as Isaiah 60:5, which reads, “Then you shall see and be radiant;/your heart shall thrill and exult,/because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,/the wealth of the nations shall come to you.” An implication of this claim is that Smith viewed his work as helping to usher in an eschatological period of peace and prosperity. Strong forms of the claim of this relationship between Smith and Scripture argue for a direct reliance of the former upon the latter. Weaker forms of the claim merely raise the possibility of the relationship or point more broadly to the significance and relevance of scriptural passages. This paper will examine these claims against the historical context of Smith and his work, raising serious doubts about the possibility that Smith could have intended a direct biblical allusion in the title of his magnum opus. The relationship between “the wealth of nations,” Adam Smith, and English translations of the Bible shows that Smith did not, in fact, allude to the passages in Isaiah and that the rise of political economy itself was part of the background for the appearance of the phrase in English bibles