PHRASES FROM THE BIBLE

Southland Times, Issue 23676, 26 November 1938, Page 14

PHRASES FROM THE BIBLE

Most Quoted, And Misquoted, Book In The World (SPECIALLY WRITTEN FOR THE SOUTHLAND TIMES)

By

RUDOLPH DE CORDOVA

In the cool of the evening I walked through the narrow path until I saw a shining light. As I watched the sparks fly upwards, I heard the still small voice of her who was the apple of his eye murmur in ecstasy, “My . beloved is mine and I am my beloved’s.” But one mall heard my eavesdropping presence for, in the twinkling of an eye, he rushed at me with a knife in his hand, and I only escaped by the skin of my teeth. No. That paragraph is not the beginning of a chapter of a thriller. It is made of 10 common quotations from the Bible in order to show how the words of Holy Writ have so impressed themselves on our language that the least educated constantly quote them, either exactly or very slightly altered, without any idea of their place of origin. Consider some of these famous everyday expressions, even though only a small fraction of them can be got within the limits of this article. How often, in speaking of a generous man, do we say: “He never lets his left hand know what his right is doing.” It is a command from the Gospel of St. Matthew. “When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth”; when, referring to someone doing something gracious which is not appreciated, we speak of “Casting pearls before swine,” we have merely changed slightly the words, “Neither cast ye your pearls before swine.”

Other famous phrases from the same book are: “Man does not live by bread alone,” which only substitutes “does,” for “shall” in the text; “A prophet is not without honour save in his own country,” which omits the rest of the phrase “and in his own house”; while in these days of frequent divorce we often hear those opposed to the practice declare: “Whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder,” the proper text on the subject being “What, therefore, God hath joined together let no man put asunder.” People who are inconsistent are often said to “strain at a _ gnat and swallow a camel,” forgetting or not knowing that the phrase had a specific application, “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.” Apropos the blind, we often talk of “the blind leading the blind,” implying that they will come to grief, _as does the original line, “And if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch.” Frequently we hear people, when advised to adopt a certain course, confess their inability to do so, averring that “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This is part of the exhortation, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

“PEARL OF GREAT PRICE” How many lovers who speak of the woman whom they regard as a pearl of great price are also aware that the words refer to one of the parables, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls who, when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all he had, and bought it.” Who has not talked about the heat and burden of the day” merely transposing the two nouns, or called some hypocritical individual a ‘whited sepulchre” lifting the words from their context, “Ye are like, unto whited sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones.” Consider the following from Mark: “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” which omits the second phrase “that house cannot stand.” "Their name is legion,” the correct reading of which is “My name is legion,” the reply of the unclean spirit which Christ removed from the man in the country of the Gadarenes. From Luke we. get the constantly heard advice which, although, as a rule, spoken in jest, “Physician heal thyself,” was a proverb quoted by the Saviour Himself; while the frequently heard exhortation, “Go thou and do likewise” are words originally applied by Jesus to thb particular case of the Good Samaritan who succoured and was therefore “neighbour unto the man that fell among thieves. “The poor are always with us” is slightly altered from “For the poor always ye have with you,” from the Gospel of St. John, as is the familiar “Never judge by appearances,”, which should be “Judge not according to the appearance.” “It is more blessed to give than to receive” is directly from the Acts of the Apostles, while “He is no respecter of persons” is adapted from Romans, “There is no respect df person with God.” “Heaping coals of fire on one’s head” is also part of a verse from the same book. “Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink, for in doing so thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.” How often in parting do friends say

to each other, “I shall be with you in spirit if not in the flesh,” which is merely a transposition of part of a verse in the first Epistle to the Corinthians. “For I verily, as absent in body but present in spirit . . .” The often heard “As in a glass darkly,” which has frequently been used as the title of a short story or novel, is a corruption of “For now we see through a glass darkly.” “Of the earth earthy” is the beginning of the verse “The first man is of earth earthy, the second man is the Lord from Heaven.” “In the twinklifig of an eye, like all the above, also comes from Corinthians. “We shall not all sleep, but shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall all be changed.” It is part of that portion of the burial service with its marvellous promise, “This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.” FROM BOTH TESTAMENTS

How frequently do we hear the exhortation “Do not let the sun go down upon your wrath,” which, in Ephesians, is written “Let not,” and so on.

When we do a service to a friend and are thanked for it, we deprecate the expressions of appreciation by the assurance that it is “A labour of love,” even though we do- not know that the words occur in a verse of Thessalonians, “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The often heard expression “filthy lucre” comes from the first Epistle to Timothy where we read “A Bishop must be not greedy of filthy lucre,” and in the sixth chapter is the often heard statement, “The love of money is the root of all evil,” while “Unto the pure all things, are pure” comes directly from Titus 1:15.

“Entertaining an angel unawares” is part of the command “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” The gracious assurance that “Charity covers a multitude of sins” transfers to the present what was, in the original, written of the future, but “Perfect love casteth out fear” is merely the second emphasising half of the verse “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear.”

The foregoing are all from the New Testament. Here are some from the

Old Testament, which, being considerably longer, offer correspondingly more examples for selection. The often-heard “Naked and unashamed” is practically from the last verse of the second chapter of Genesis, the text being “Naked and’ were not ashamed.” Cain’s evasive question to the Lord, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” when asked about Abel, like his cowardly cry, “My punishment is greater than I can bear,” occurs in the fourth chapter. “He is a man after my own heart” changes but one word, for the text reads “his” instead of “my.” “How are the mighty fallen,” usually applied to any failure in ordinary life, was really written in 2 Samuel in reference to one “In the midst of the battle.” “Where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest” is the popular alteration of “There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest,”, which occurs in the Book of Job. This book is prolific of phrases familiar in our mouths as household words, like “The King of Terrors,” “Eyes to the Blind,” “His place shall know him no more,” the correct words being “Neither shall his place know him any more,” and that supposedly oftrepeated desire of the fraternity of authors, “Oh that mine enemy had written a book.” THE PSALMS The Psalms are, as might be expected, full of popular expressions. Witness “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,” “A little lower than the angels,” “Lines have fallen in pleasant places,” “Fly upon the wings of the wind,” “Like a green bay tree,” and “Deep calleth unto deep.” “The pen of the ready writer” should really be “My tongue is the pen of a rapid writer,” and might well be used by all writers who dictate their work; “Oh that I had wings like a dove” is invariably modernized into “Oh that I had the wings of a dove.” There are “They go from strength to strength”; “Wine that gladdens the heart of man,” which .is more colloquial than the real text, “Wine that maketh glad the heart of man”; “All men are liars,” and the often heard ■ reference to children as “olive branches” derives from “children like olive-plants round about thy table,” with, for a final selection, “Put not your trust in Princes.” As with the Psalms, so in Proverbs,

there are scores of phrases in everyday use.

“Go to the ant, thou sluggard”; “In a multitude of counsellors there is safety,” often incorrectly quoted by substituting “wisdom” for safety”; “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick”; “The way of transgressors is hard” ; “A soft answer tumeth away wrath”; “Pride goeth before a fall,” which should really be “Pride goeth before- destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”; “Riches take wings unto themselves”; “Led like a lamb to the slaughter,” which should be “He leads him like a lamb to the slaughter”; “Can a leopard change his spots?” the full quotation being “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard his spots.”

The above take no notice of 33 of the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 14 of the Apocrypha, a statement which gives some idea of the wealth of quotations into which the curious may delve with interest and profit.