What’s the common thread that connects the phrases pour out your heart, from time to time, fell flat on his face, the skin of my teeth, and the root of the matter? They all come from or were popularized by the King James Bible, first published in 1611. The Manifold Greatness exhibit is now traveling to libraries and schools nationwide, demonstrating, among other things, this translation’s profound impact on the English language. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Expressions from the Bible”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. Grant, I have a quiz for you.
Oh, please.
Here we go. What’s the common thread that unites all of the following phrases?
Pour out your heart, a still small voice. A man after his own heart turned the world upside down.
Any guesses?
No.
No. I’ll give you some more clues.
Okay.
Okay. These are more phrases in the same category.
Fell flat on his face, the root of the matter, from time to time, the skin of my teeth.
Are these cliches that come from Shakespeare?
Not cliches.
Sayings, expressions?
Close.
Here’s one more.
To everything there is a season.
From the Bible.
Yes.
Yes.
These are all classic phrases that were introduced into English or popularized by the King James Bible.
And it’s the kind of thing that you can learn from a very cool exhibit that’s now traveling across the country for the next couple of years.
It’s going to schools and libraries.
And it celebrates the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.
It’s called Manifold Greatness, the Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible.
And it’s funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
And to find out where the exhibit is now, you can go to their fabulous website, which is manifoldgreatness.org.
Manifold greatness being a poetic phrase from the Psalms.
Oh, pretty cool.
And if you forget the web address, you can go to our website, waywordradio.org,
And we’ll have more information about the exhibit as well.
And we’re taking your calls about language, 877-929-9673.
Send them to us in email to words@waywordradio.org,
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