Richard Lederer gives us a few Good Words
Four hundred years ago, in 1611,
the most renowned of all biblical translations was completed and printed. Among the many wonders of the King James Bible is that it stands as one of the few great accomplishments achieved by a committee
Another of its amazements is that, along with the works of William Shakespeare, the King James Bible is the most fruitful source of everyday phrases in the English speaking world.
Many such expressions are direct borrowings, such as “kingdom come,” in Matthew 6:10, and “the eleventh hour,” from Matthew’s version of Jesus’s parable of the workers in the vineyard who gained employment so late in the day (Matthew 20:6).
Others have entered our modern idiom in a slightly revised form, as “crystal clear” (from “clear as crystal” in Revelation 22:1) and “by the skin of my teeth.” The latter echoes Job’s lament in Job 19:20: “My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth” (“by the skin of my teeth” in the Revised Standard Version). “But teeth don’t have any skin,” you protest. In the biblical phrase, the “skin” refers to a margin of safety as thin as the enamel on the teeth.
In the Song of Solomon 7:4, the beloved is told, “Thy neck is as a tower of ivory.” From this comparison derives the modern cliché “an ivory tower,” which picks up the sense of beauty, loftiness, and unassailability implied by the original words.
Still other expressions are general references to a biblical story, like “to raise Cain” and “Adam’s apple,” so called because many men, but few women, exhibit a bulge of laryngeal cartilage in front of their throats. According to male-dominated folklore, Eve swallowed her apple without care or residue, while a chunk of the fruit stuck in the throat of the innocent and misled Adam.
Here, listed in the order they occur in the King James Bible, are 50 biblical turns of phrase that have survived the centuries pretty much unscathed. Complete each item. Answers appear right after the quiz.
1. Saw the ______ (Genesis 1:4)
2. My brother’s ______ (Genesis 4:9)
3. Sold his ______ for a mess of ______ (Genesis 25:33-34)
4. The ______ of the land (Genesis 45:18)
5. A land flowing with ______ and ______ (Exodus 3:17)
6. Man doth not live by ______ alone (Deuteronomy 8:3)
7. The ______ of his eye (Deuteronomy 32:10)
8. A hair’s ______ (Judges 20:16)
9. A man after his own ______ (I Samuel 13:14)
10. Played the ______ (I Samuel 26:21)
11. A still small ______ (I Kings 19:12)
12. Weeping and ______ (Esther 4:3)
13. Give up the ______ (Job 3:11)
14. In the land of the ______ (Job 28:13)
15. Out of the mouths of ______ (Psalms 8:2)
16. His heart’s ______ (Psalms 10:3)
17. At their wit’s ______ (Psalms 107:27)
18. Labor in ______ (Psalms 127:1)
19. Out of the ______ (Psalms 130:1)
20. Pride goeth. . . before a ______ (Proverbs 16:18)
21. Vanity of ______ (Ecclesiastes 1:2)
22. There is nothing new under the ______ (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
23. Eat, drink, and be ______ (Ecclesiastes 8:15)
24. As white as ______ (Isaiah: 1:18)
25. They shall beat their ______ into ______ (Isaiah 2:4)
26. Woe is ______! (Isaiah 6:5)
27. See eye to ______ (Isaiah 52:8)
28. Holier than ______ (Isaiah 65:5)
29. Weighed in the ______ (Daniel 5:27)
30. Salt of the ______ (Matthew 5:13)
31. Good for ______ (Matthew 5:13)
32. An eye for an ______, and a tooth for a ______ (Matthew 5:38)
33. Pearls before ______ (Matthew 7:6)
34. House ______ against itself (Matthew 12:25)
35. Fell by the ______ (Matthew 13:4)
36. Signs of the ______ (Matthew 16:3)
37. A den of ______ (Matthew 21:13)
38. Blood ______ (Matthew 27:6)
39. In his right ______ (Mark 5:15)
40. Physician, ______ thyself (Luke 4:23)
41. A law unto ______ (Romans 2:14)
42. The powers that ______ (Romans 13:1)
43. It is high ______ (Romans 13:11)
44. In the twinkling of an ______
(I Corinthians 15:52)
45. A ______ in the flesh (II Corinthians 12:7)
46. Labor of ______ (I Thessalonians 1:3)
47. The root of all ______ (I Timothy 6:10)
48. Keep the ______ (II Timothy 4:7)
49. Cover a ______ of sins (I Peter 4:8)
50. Bottomless ______ (Revelation 9:1, 20:1)
Answers
1. light 2. keeper 3. birthright, pottage 4. fat
5. milk, honey 6. bread 7. apple 8. breadth
9. heart 10. fool 11. voice 12. wailing
13. ghost 14. living 15. babes 16. desire
17. end 18. vain 19. depths 20. fall
21. vanities 22. sun 23. merry 24. snow
25. swords, plowshares 26. me 27. eye
28. thou 29. balances 30. earth 31. nothing
32. eye, tooth 33. swine 34. divided
35. wayside 36. times 37. thieves 38. money
39. mind 40. heal 41. themselves 42. be
43. time 44. eye 45. thorn 46. love
47. evil 48. faith 49. multitude 50. pit
Richard Lederer M.A.T. English and Education, Ph.D. Linguistics, is the author of more than 35 books on language, history, and humor. Explore his web site www.verbivore.com. Write him at richard.lederer@pobox.com.
