On the seventh day of trial, Raulston asked the defense if
it had any more evidence. What followed was What the New York Times described as
"the most amazing court scene on Anglo-Saxon history." Hays asked that William
Jennings Bryan be called to the stand as an expert on the Bible. Bryan assented,
stipulating only that he should have a chance to interrogate the defense
lawyers. Bryan, dismissing the concerns of his prosecution colleagues, took a
seat on the witness stand, and began fanning himself.
Darrow began his interrogation of Bryan with a quiet
question: "You have given considerable study to the Bible, haven't you, Mr.
Bryan?" Bryan replied, "Yes, I have. I have studied the Bible for about fifty
years." Thus began a series of questions designed to undermine a literalist
interpretation of the Bible. Bryan was asked about a whale swallowing Jonah,
Joshua making the sun stand still, Noah and the great flood, the temptation of
Adam in the garden of Eden, and the creation according to Genesis. After
initially contending that "everything in the Bible should be accepted as it is
given there," Bryan finally conceded that the words of the Bible should not
always be taken literally. In response to Darrow's relentless questions as to
whether the six days of creation, as described in Genesis, were twenty-four hour
days, Bryan said "My impression is that they were periods."
Bryan, who began his testimony calmly, stumbled badly
under Darrow's persistent prodding. At one point the exasperated Bryan said, "I
do not think about things I don't think about." Darrow asked, "Do you think
about the things you do think about?" Bryan responded, to the derisive laughter
of spectators, "Well, sometimes." Both old warriors grew testy as the
examination continued. Bryan accused Darrow of attempting to "slur at the
Bible." He said that he would continue to answer Darrow's impertinent questions
because "I want the world to know that this man, who does not believe in God, is
trying to use a court in Tennessee--." Darrow interrupted his witness by saying,
"I object to your statement" and to "your fool ideas that no intelligent
Christian on earth believes." After that outburst, Raulston ordered the court
adjourned. The next day, Raulston ruled that Bryan could not return to the stand
and that his testimony the previous day should be stricken from evidence.