The phrase a fly in the ointment means “a small thing that ruins something larger.” The phrase goes all the way back to a passage in Ecclesiastes: “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor.” Here the word...
Chances are you recognize the expressions Judgment Day and root of all evil as phrases from the Bible. There are many others, such as the powers that be and bottomless pit, which both first appeared in scripture. • There’s a term for when the...
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...