Discuss the role of the Bible in the arts of the seventeenth century

What will be an ideal response?

The King James Bible was produced at a time when the English language reached its peak in eloquence. This new English translation of the Bible would shape the English language and all subsequent English literature.
This Bible influenced many English writers, such as John Donne whose poetry and prose were unconventional. His writing abounds in "conceits," that is, elaborate metaphors that compare two apparently dissimilar objects or emotions, often with the intention of shocking or surprising. In that the conceits of Donne borrowed words and images from the new science, critics called these devices and the poetry they embellished "metaphysical." Showing off the subtleties of the English language, Donne creates paradoxes that highlight religious questions: in his Sonnet 10, he concludes that Death itself shall die—in the eternal life afforded by Christianity.
John Milton, persistent defender of religious, political, and intellectual freedom, also was under the influence of the King James Bible. In his Paradise Lost, Milton created a cosmic (and earth-centered) vision of Heaven, Hell, and Paradise comparable to that drawn by Dante but more philosophic in its concern with the human experience of knowledge, sin, and free will. Considered the greatest of modern epics, Paradise Lost is impressive in its vast intellectual sweep, its wide-ranging allusions to history and literature, and its effort to embrace matters of time, space, and causality. Inspired by the Bible's eloquence, the language of Paradise Lost is intentionally lofty; it is designed to convey epic breadth and to narrate (as Milton promised) "things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme."