Idioms And Phrases From A To Z
Marsilius Boa
In the Western tradition, many phrases and terms from the Bible are utilized as allegory, metaphors, idioms, or simply to describe the characteristics of a known person or event. They have become an essential element of literature and descriptions of everyday life situations. Here is a list of the more popular references.
And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die." (Genesis 2:16-17)
The phrase comes from the story of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, which resulted in their fall from immortality in the Garden of Eden into mortality. It is repeated in the letters of Paul the Apostle:
Methuselah lived 969 years. In the genealogies of Genesis, it may be understood that the Patriarchs had longevity before God limited the age of humans to 120 years. To be as old as Methuselah is to be very old.
This is what God rained down on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins. It is symbolic of the appearance of the landscape in the Dead Sea area as if it had been wiped out by God, and it is used as a metaphor for impending disaster.
Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. (Deuteronomy 6:3)
While Moses was obtaining the ten commandments on Mount Sinai, the people convinced Aaron to fashion a golden calf from the gold they had looted when leaving Egypt. The golden calf has come to represent both idolatry (false worship) and love of gold.
Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury. (Leviticus 24:19-20)
You have heard that it was said, "Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth." But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. (Matthew 5:38-39)
During the wilderness years, God often sent food to help the Israelites survive. Manna was a wafer-like substance that appeared on plants with the morning dew. Manna from Heaven indicates a divine intervention or an unearned gift from God.
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:3)
The process of blaming another for one's mistakes. The ritual of the scapegoat was performed by the high priest. Two goats were chosen; one was slaughtered, and the other sent to the wilderness. This was done as a collective atonement for the sins of the people which were carried by the goat to the demon Azazel.
King Saul and his son Jonathan were both killed in a battle against the Philistines. This is part of a lament that even those who were raised up to the heights are nevertheless subject to fate (or God's will).
It is Joab's attempt to bring the rebellion of David's son Absalom to David's attention. He finds a widow and tells her to concoct a story about a loss of land compensation. "And Joab put the words in her mouth" (2 Samuel 14:3). It has come to mean a misunderstanding or literal interpretation of someone's original intent.
Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking. (Daniel 5:5-6)
He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he [Ahab] also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.
(1 Kings 16:31)
Delilah was the paramour of Samson and brought about his capture by the Philistines (Judges 13-16). Both names have become synonymous with harlots and wanton women. However, they are condemned in the Bible because of their idolatry, and not their sexual immorality.
So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 8:15).
This is from the suffering servant passages of Isaiah and utilized in the gospels telling the story of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. It is often used in the sense that an innocent has no idea what is going to happen to them.
John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." (Luke 3:16).
In context, this was a reference to Roman law that civilians could be forced to carry a legionary's equipment up to one mile. The saying is that you should go above and beyond what is required or necessary.
In the Parable of the Tenants in Matthew 20, they workmen who heeded the call got paid as much as the ones who were there earlier. The phrase came to mean that even at the eleventh hour, if someone repents, salvation is possible.
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!" (Matthew 27:24).
In the Book of Revelation (6:1-8), angels open sealed documents, and four riders issue forth as an indication of the coming wrath of God before he institutes his kingdom on earth. The scrolls reveal white, red, black, and pale horses. They indicate war, famine, inflation, and death. In times of crises, people look to these indicators to determine if they are omens for social or economic collapse.
This is where the nations gather to make the move south to Jerusalem for the final battle of John of Patmos' prediction. From the Hebrew har ("mountain"), har-Megiddo means the mountain of Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley. Armageddon is often used as a final battle that has already taken place in science-fiction films, where society must readjust to survive.
Babylon was the great evil enemy who destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon in 587 BCE. It is used in Revelation as symbolic of Rome. The whore of Babylon is utilized as a critique of oppressive governments and perceived persecution.
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At any rate, my point is, we use sayings, metaphors, and idioms on the regular, oftentimes thoughtlessly. And that thoughtlessness is how we end up using phrases with a checkered or all-out racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ, and/or ableist history. Thus, in this blog, I highlight some everyday sayings with racist implications that we should work to eliminate from our vocabulary.
Anti-Black idioms often stem from language used or developed during the U.S. enslavement of Africans, the Jim Crow era, as well as in relation to mass incarceration and the criminalization of Black people. Ian Haney Lopez penned a book, Dog Whistle Politics, that focuses on particularly politically developed anti-Black sayings and metaphors to drum up support among white people, drawing on white fear and racism.
In the past several years, we have seen sports teams shift away from using caricatures as mascots or racist slurs referring to Native Americans. But we continue to hear language that is offensive to Indigenous people, oftentimes not noticed by the non-Indigenous user. These anti-Indigenous phrases often erase Indigenous people and tribes or they turn Indigenous people, customs, and other sacred items into a caricature or a mockery.
At a glance, the English language seems easy to grasp. After all, with its lack of grammatical gender and simple conjugation system, it lacks many of the complexities of other languages. Dive a little deeper, however, and you'll quickly discover why so many language learners struggle in their attempts to master modern English.
English idioms and phrases, in particular, tend to cause confusion. This may initially seem a minor annoyance, but these idiomatic expressions can cause real problems when attempting to make content relevant to other cultures through localization.
This English word refers to the coincidental discovery of beneficial objects or events. The term was inspired by a previous name for the country Sri Lanka: Serendip. In the folk tale "The Three Princes of Serendip," a trio of royal figures makes a number of coincidental discoveries and relies on pure luck to pry themselves from difficult situations.
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