The earliest recorded appearance of the phrases a house divided cannot stand and the powers that be occurred in early English translations of the Bible. Although the exact phrase a fly in the ointment isn’t in the Bible, the idea of a dead fly ruining an ointment does appear in Ecclesiastes 10:1, and apparently inspired the modern phrase. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “More Expressions from the Bible”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. Earlier in the show, we were talking about some phrases that come from the Bible that are really obvious. There’s some like forbidden fruit or salt of the earth. I mean, most of us know water into wine and that kind of thing. But there’s some of those that might surprise you. For example, a house divided.
Oh, interesting. You know, a house divided cannot. I associated that with Abraham Lincoln, but apparently he got it from Matthew 12, 25. Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.
Nice.
Yeah, that phrase was picked up later by biblical commentators, by Thomas Paine and Abraham Lincoln eventually. And another one of those is the powers that be.
Oh, how about that?
I know, right? I would expect that to come out of the French political tradition or something.
Yeah, me too. But apparently it’s from Paul’s letter to the Romans.
That’s fantastic.
Isn’t that wild?
Yeah. And a lot of them aren’t direct translations, but they’re ideas that have influenced the way that we say things. For example, fly in the ointment.
Oh, that’s biblical?
Yeah.
I didn’t know that.
Yeah, it doesn’t come directly from Ecclesiastes, but there’s a line in Ecclesiastes 10.1. Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor. So doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor.
Isn’t that wild?
Wow, yeah, that’s wild.
Yeah, there’s nothing new under the sun, which also comes from, guess where?
The Bible, of course.
Ecclesiastes. You know what I think of when I think of words from the Bible?
What?
It’s smote and smite.
Oh, those are good ones, right? Because they’re not phrases and they’re not idioms, but they have this flair of the other age about them.
Don’t they? There’s something biblical about the word smote.
Smote, yeah. I smite thee.
Well, I know we’ve got a lot of people of the cloth of all sorts of religions that listen to the show. Share with us the words and phrases that you know come into English from your religious tradition, 877-929-9673, or email words@waywordradio.org, or talk to us through our website. You can leave us a message there. Go to waywordradio.org.
