TOWARD THE END OF his acceptance speech Barack Obama borrowed twice from the New Testament. The first was when he said that “what makes us rich” and “strong” and “what keeps the world coming to our shores” is “that American spirit–that American promise–that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.”

Collin Hansen at Christianity Today says that here Obama borrowed from II Corinthians 4:18. That seems right. Obama’s “fix our eye not on what is seen but what is unseen” is almost the same as the first half of that verse, which says, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen” (New International Version). But II Corinthians 4:18 may not be the only New Testament influence upon this Obama sentence.