Expressions taken from the Bible
November 30, 2005
A reader asked me how "The scales fell from my eyes" should be translated in French. Very literally: "Les écailles me tombent des yeux". It is an expression taken from the Bible (Acts 9:18) and this led me to wonder what other expressions in current use have the same origin. This is what I found, mainly on bible.org.
Prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32)
Into the lions’ den (Daniel 6:17-24)
Faith that moves mountains (Matthew 17:20-21)
Live by the sword, die by the sword (Matthew 26:51-52)
Seek and you will find (Matthew 7:7)
The spirit is willing, but the body is weak (Matthew 26:41)
A colossus with clay feet (Daniel 2:31-45)
Let there be light, and there was light (Genesis 1)
To throw the first stone (Jean 8:7)
Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7)
Turn the other cheek (Luc 6:29)
Lost sheep (Matthew 18:12-14)
My brother’s keeper (Genesis 4)
The signs of the times (Matthew 16)
They made light of it (Matthew 22)
Eat, drink, and be merry (Luke 12)
Full of good works (Acts 9)
The patience of Job (James 5)
To lick the dust (Psalm 72:9)
To fall flat on his face (Numbers 22:31)
To pour out one's heart (Psalm 62:8)
The land of the living (Job 28:13)
Under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:3)
Sour grapes (Ezekiel 18:2)
From time to time (Ezekiel 4:10)
Pride goes before a fall (Proverbs 16:18)
The skin of my teeth (Job 19:20)
To stand in awe (Psalm 4:4)
To put words in his mouth (Exodus 4:15)
To go from strength to strength (Psalm 84:7)
Like a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7)
Rise and shine (Isaiah 60:1)
To see the writing on the wall (Daniel 5:5)
A fly in the ointment (Ecclesiastes 10:1)
The salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13)
A thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7)
The powers that be (Romans 13:1)
And it came to pass (Mark 1:9 and over 400 others)
From dust to dust (Genesis 3:19)
To wash one’s hands of something (Matthew 27:24)
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s (Matthew 22:21)
He who seeks finds (Matthew 7:8)
Scapegoat (Leviticus 16:10)
Did I mention to you that Saul was a child-sacrificing, blood-drinking, Satan-worshipping, extra-terrestrial reptile in human form?
Posted by trevor icke@k’alebøl on November 30, 2005 4:44 PMHow about scapegoat?
Etle bouc-émissaire ?
Ah, la Bible ! Avec Shakespeare, une mine d'expressions courantes.
"The scales fell from my eyes": euh... "mes yeux se sont déssillés"?
Sorry for the comment in French- wrong half of the blog !
The Bible is indeed a mine of expressions that have passed into everyday language. Shakespeare being the other classic. No wonder they're both given as a matter of course to guests on "Desert Island Discs".
Posted by Xavier Kreiss on December 1, 2005 12:12 AMThanks Marie-Louise, I've added "scapegoat" (more suggestions are welcome!), although "bouc émissaire" isn't actually in the French translation of the Bible. It looks like "scapegoat" was invented by a translator, more on that later probably...
Posted by céline on December 1, 2005 8:10 AMThe spirit is willing, but the body is weak (Matthew 26:41)
An old translators' joke: they say that in the early days of computer translation, a team of scientists ran this phrase through a program that translated it from English into Russian, and then ran it through a program that translated it from Russian back to English. The end result was:
"The vodka is good, but the steak is so-so."
Have you seen this site : Unbound Bible? It basically allows you to search bibles in nine languages simultaneously: a great tool for translation.
Posted by Lesley on December 1, 2005 7:40 PMOops the comments don't seem to like html. The URL is : http://unbound.biola.edu/
Posted by Lesley on December 1, 2005 7:42 PMGreat site! I wish I'd known it before I wrote this entry, it would have saved me a lot of time...
Posted by céline on December 2, 2005 2:20 PMPrevious: November 28, 2005
Why I love working in an office #3 >>
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