Biblical Idioms

[Motar]

"In Begat, David Crystal sets out to prove that the King James Bible has contributed more to the English language than any other literary source. If you've ever "fought the good fight" or chuckled at "what comes out of the mouths of babes," you just might agree with him.
Phrases with roots in the King James Bible are everywhere. Crystal tells NPR's Neal Conan that writing Begat began with his curiosity about a simple question: How many English language idioms come from the King James Bible? When Crystal posed this question to people, they guessed a wide range of answers — anywhere from 50 to 1,000. So he decided he'd better read the Bible and figure it out."
How The King James Bible 'Begat' English Idioms : NPR

How many contemporary English idioms have Biblical origins? Can you identify one?

How many contemporary English idioms have Biblical origins? Can you identify one?

"Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9 NIV)

"I am not my brother's keeper. and Am I my brother's keeper?
Prov. You are not responsible for another person's doings or whereabouts. (Biblical.) Fred: Where's Robert? Jane: Am I my brother's keeper? Jill: How could you let Jane run off like that? Alan: I'm not my brother's keeper." I am not my brother's keeper - Idioms - by the Free Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

The idiom "Am I my brother's keeper?" is not only used in everyday conversation, but is the inspiration for numerous television, movie, song and book titles and themes. How The King James Bible 'Begat' English Idioms : NPR

 

[Cliffy]

Nobody has contributed to the creative use of the English language like Tom Robbins.

Siwash Ridge had become as quiet and inanimate as the geology book that might describe its formations. Indian summer, the ham, was taking yet another curtain call, and the hills, warmed into an expansive mood, heaped bouquets of asters at its feet. Goldenrod, too. And butterfly weed. Giant sunflowers, like junkie scarecrows on the nod, dozed in one spot with their dry heads drooped upon their breastbones. Their lives extended another day, flies buzzed everything within their range, monotonously eulogizing themselves, like the patriots who persist in praising the glory of a culture long after it is decadent and doomed.


--from Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

 

[55Mercury]

The same can be said of baseball's expressions

and the roots go deep

why even in the Bible the very first words are "In the Big Inning"!

:?P

 

[MHz]

I'm pretty sure the proper context is easy to spot in the various uses.

Hebrew Lexicon :: H8104 (KJV)

 

[cj44]

"In Begat, David Crystal sets out to prove that the King James Bible has contributed more to the English language than any other literary source. If you've ever "fought the good fight" or chuckled at "what comes out of the mouths of babes," you just might agree with him.
Phrases with roots in the King James Bible are everywhere. Crystal tells NPR's Neal Conan that writing Begat began with his curiosity about a simple question: How many English language idioms come from the King James Bible? When Crystal posed this question to people, they guessed a wide range of answers — anywhere from 50 to 1,000. So he decided he'd better read the Bible and figure it out."
How The King James Bible 'Begat' English Idioms : NPR

How many contemporary English idioms have Biblical origins? Can you identify one?



"Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9 NIV)

"I am not my brother's keeper. and Am I my brother's keeper?
Prov. You are not responsible for another person's doings or whereabouts. (Biblical.) Fred: Where's Robert? Jane: Am I my brother's keeper? Jill: How could you let Jane run off like that? Alan: I'm not my brother's keeper." I am not my brother's keeper - Idioms - by the Free Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

The idiom "Am I my brother's keeper?" is not only used in everyday conversation, but is the inspiration for numerous television, movie, song and book titles and themes. How The King James Bible 'Begat' English Idioms : NPR

Not sure if this is technically an idiom, but it is often misquoted.

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It is often misquoted as, Money is the root of all evil."

 

[Machjo]

I can agree with teaching the Authorized Version of the Bible as literature in English class.

 

[Cliffy]

I can agree with teaching the Authorized Version of the Bible as literature in English class.

Whose authorized version - Catholic, King James, JW or...?

 

[Machjo]

Whose authorized version - Catholic, King James, JW or...?

'Authorized Version' is 'King James'.

 

[Cliffy]

'Authorized Version' is 'King James'.

Who authorized it?

 

[Machjo]

Who authorized it?

King James. But who cares who authorized it? The point is, it has had a significant impact on English literature.

To learn English and not read the king James Bible is like learning French and not have read Moliere, or Arabic and not read the Qur'an, or Persian and not read Rumi, regardless of whether it is 'authorized'. Authorized here is just a name given to the KJV. Native English speakers should know that.

 

[JLM]

King James. But who cares who authorized it? The point is, it has had a significant impact on English literature.

To learn English and not read the king James Bible is like learning French and not have read Moliere, or Arabic and not read the Qur'an, or Persian and not read Rumi, regardless of whether it is 'authorized'. Authorized here is just a name given to the KJV. Native English speakers should know that.

Then there's the one about the sins of the father visiting the sons to the third and fourth generation.

 

[Machjo]

Then there's the one about the sins of the father visiting the sons to the third and fourth generation.

That's why I said the KJV as literature, on the same footing as Shakespeare, and not the Bible as theology.

 

[L Gilbert]

"In Begat, David Crystal sets out to prove that the King James Bible has contributed more to the English language than any other literary source. If you've ever "fought the good fight" or chuckled at "what comes out of the mouths of babes," you just might agree with him.
Phrases with roots in the King James Bible are everywhere. Crystal tells NPR's Neal Conan that writing Begat began with his curiosity about a simple question: How many English language idioms come from the King James Bible? When Crystal posed this question to people, they guessed a wide range of answers — anywhere from 50 to 1,000. So he decided he'd better read the Bible and figure it out."
How The King James Bible 'Begat' English Idioms : NPR

How many contemporary English idioms have Biblical origins? Can you identify one?



"Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9 NIV)

"I am not my brother's keeper. and Am I my brother's keeper?
Prov. You are not responsible for another person's doings or whereabouts. (Biblical.) Fred: Where's Robert? Jane: Am I my brother's keeper? Jill: How could you let Jane run off like that? Alan: I'm not my brother's keeper." I am not my brother's keeper - Idioms - by the Free Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

The idiom "Am I my brother's keeper?" is not only used in everyday conversation, but is the inspiration for numerous television, movie, song and book titles and themes. How The King James Bible 'Begat' English Idioms : NPR

Considering that the vast majority of English-speaking people have been and are Christians, I would not be surprised. Being an atheist, however, I cannot recall ever using words like "begat" or phrases like "Am I my brother's keeper?". I do recall mentioning phrases such as "treat others as you'd wish to be treated" but phrases related to that go back long before the first books of the Bible were written.

 

[darkbeaver]

Indeed there is not one original tract in the Bible. It was looted in its entirety from older texts. It's a compendium of previously owned verbal vehicles.

 

[Spade]

What the hell!?
-one of my favourites

 

[MHz]

Indeed there is not one original tract in the Bible. It was looted in its entirety from older texts. It's a compendium of previously owned verbal vehicles.

Next you will be claiming that is a trait common to any translation of anything into anything else.

 

[Spade]

'Hell' as an invention of the church - YouTube

What the hell!?
-one of my favourites

 

[Cliffy]

Next you will be claiming that is a trait common to any translation of anything into anything else.

That is not what he said. He rightly said that the bible is the most plagiarized book. All the stories were borrowed from older texts of other older civilizations, like Babylon, Egypt and Assyria.

Htz, did not Jesus admonish the pharisees by saying, "You read the scriptures daily, for in them you think you find life"? I think you may be a pharisee wannabe.

 

[MHz]

You expect me to take you seriously in that you have done your research in the best possible manner yet when it comes to actual knowledge you are at zero.
The little verse you think you know can't even be quoted accurately yet it is burned into that rock you call a brain. Without looking, how many other claims are made in that same passage? (misquoted and you missed 1/3 of it altogether, how much of your current belief system is there because you are sloppy in your original research?) A little is a way too much as you use (try to) use your level of 'knowledge' as the bar between reality and stupidity.

Joh:5:39:
Search the scriptures;
for in them ye think ye have eternal life:
and they are they which testify of me.

Take the actual words and the claim is the Bible covers the claims that fall on the shoulders of the Messiah, aka Christ as defined in the many passages in the NT and the OT.

Joh:5:19:
Then answered Jesus and said unto them,
Verily,
verily,
I say unto you,
The Son can do nothing of himself,
but what he seeth the Father do:
for what things soever he doeth,
these also doeth the Son likewise.

This is where you claim that the Bible is only a collection of stories gleaned from older stories. Moses did for the first five books what the council in 323AD did for the NT. The most accurate version was kept and the rest put into deep storage.
Name one that says that time changed between 4 billion yeas ago and 4 million years ago. If you mess up on the context of the first verse you throw out then how far off the page are you going to be by the time you have covered all the OT prophecy based on just the verse below.

Lu:24:27:
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets,
he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

How many verses does your imagination allow for that to have in reality, I can pick 24 with just one phrase. What does your imagination say those references say as far as painting a picture. (Is it even a common picture?). Your method would allow you to (demand is the better term) have all the knowledge that is hinted at in the verse above by the time you read the verses below. Gather all the references and then read them and your knowledge will have increases. Shortcuts like yours only shows how not to gain any knowledge and the fault fall on the method taken rather than it being with the material available.

Lu:24:32:
And they said one to another,
Did not our heart burn within us,
while he talked with us by the way,
and while he opened to us the scriptures?

Lu:24:45:
Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the scriptures,

If you can't describe what the 10 missing verses say you don't have a clue as to what picture comes with them yet you know the Bible.

Joe:2:11:
And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army:
for his camp is very great:
for he is strong that executeth his word:
for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible;
and who can abide it?

 

[Cliffy]

You expect me to take you seriously in that you have done your research in the best possible manner yet when it comes to actual knowledge you are at zero.
The little verse you think you know can't even be quoted accurately yet it is burned into that rock you call a brain. Without looking, how many other claims are made in that same passage? (misquoted and you missed 1/3 of it altogether, how much of your current belief system is there because you are sloppy in your original research?) A little is a way too much as you use (try to) use your level of 'knowledge' as the bar between reality and stupidity.

So in it you think you have found eternal life? When one knows that a book is plagiarized, why would one have one on hand to read or educate someone who thinks said plagiarized book is the key to eternal life. I have news for you Htz, everybody has eternal life and it has nothing to do with reading scripture or belief in any god.