Hey, welcome back. Today we're looking at idioms, sayings from the Bible. "Why would
we do that?" you might ask. Well, as a student of English literature, I'm well aware that
the Bible and Shakespeare rank as two of the greatest contributions to the English dictionary,
and there's a rich body of sayings that are often used in news stories, in literature,
so let's delve in.
Now, bad stuff happening. A lot of the Old Testament, that big old bit at the beginning,
has a lot of bad stuff happening, like floods and plagues and that, and it all kicks off
in the Garden of Eden with Eve eating from the apple tree and having the forbidden fruit.
So, if you eat the forbidden fruit, it means to enjoy or to have something that you're
not meant to have. So, you might talk about a politician who's having an affair as enjoying
some forbidden fruit.
The writings on the wall. This means it's like it's all over. Quite an interesting story
behind this one. So, there was a huge kind of court, everyone was having a banquet, I
can't remember the name of the king, and they're all sat there kind of, you know, enjoying
this great big feast, and then this hand, disconnected from a body, just this kind of
wandering hand, wrote on the wall behind the king, "It is finished" or words to these effect.
No one really understood what it meant, and they asked a prophet, "What does this word
mean?" And he said, "Oh no, death and destruction. Everyone's going to die." And then everyone
died.
So, the writings on the wall means bad news. "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword."
So, the sword, a symbol for violence, here. To live by it means like that is how you're
going to live your life. The origin of this saying is Jesus, just before he got crucified,
etc., he was just about to be arrested by a Roman soldier, and Peter, who is his buddy,
pulls out his sword, and Jesus was like, "No, no, no, no, no. It's okay. He who lives by
the sword, dies by the sword." Meaning, if you're going to be violent, then bad things
are going to happen to you, and you're going to have a violent end.
A fool from grace. So, I'm thinking now of, like, an English football manager who some
journalist did an undercover investigation of him and saw that he was open to accepting
bribes, which wasn't great, and he had a fool from grace. So, he was in a position of responsibility,
and then all of that was taken away from him. Maybe you could write a comment if you know
the guy's name. Poor guy. Fool from grace when you're good, and then it all goes wrong.
To fool by the wayside. So, wayside is like a path, and there's a story in the Bible about
someone planting some crop, and the farmer, he puts the seed in the nice bit of ground
and it all grows up, but the stuff that he plants on the path isn't very good soil, so
it doesn't grow. So, if something fools by the wayside, then it's not nurtured. I'm thinking
about, like, maybe you've got a hobby or something. If it fools by the wayside, you stop doing
it. Bite the dust. Can you think of a popular song that has that lyric in it? Freddie Mercury,
Queen, another one, bites the dust. It means another person fails, yeah? If you're down
on the ground eating dirt, then things aren't going too well.
To be at one's wits end. Wits, they're not a physical part of your body, it's like kind
of an emotional entity. So, if you're at your wits end, you don't know what to do. This
saying came from when there was some fishermen in a boat, and there was a huge storm raging,
and they're like, "Oh no, this huge wall of water's going to come on us." And it said
they were at their wits end. They have reached the end of their ability to cope with the
situation. Now, we might use it if you're saying, "I'm really, really, really, really
worried about something. I'm at my wits end. Can't cope anymore."
A scapegoat. Lots of sacrificing of goats in the Old Testament. A scapegoat is like
a sacrificial goat, yeah? You go off and get killed, goat, and then we'll all be all okay
because you've got killed. Now, we use that, a scapegoat is the person that takes the punishment.
"Oh yeah, blame him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, his problem. He did all that."
Going on this animal theme, a wolf in sheep's clothing. I'm getting a kind of an image of
Little Red Riding Hood, of the kind of wolf inside the granny, so to speak. So, sheep,
we have associations with innocence. Wolf, danger. So, we have something nasty pretending
to be something nice. And this, what the purpose of this phrase is saying is like, just because
someone appears to be nice, it doesn't mean that they have good intentions, like be wary.
Okay, more bad stuff. Could there be more?
Like a lamb to the slaughter. Slaughter, death, yeah? The little lamb, yeah, very sweet and
innocent, but he doesn't know, or she doesn't know that they're about to get killed. So,
they're like, "Oh, I'm dead." So, if you are like a lamb to the slaughter, it means you're
unaware of what is about to happen to you. Might say, "Starting my new job, I was like
a lamb to the slaughter. I had no idea what I was about to experience."
To wash your hands of the matter. I imagine this comes from Pontius Pilate, yep, there's
a ritualistic scene where he goes, "I'm finished. Not my problem anymore." And that's exactly
what it means. If you wash your hands of the matter, it's like, "Not my problem."
Nothing but skin and bones. This is a description of someone's physicality. All they are is
skin and bones. There's no flesh, there's no fat. They're very, very emaciated, that's
a good word for you. Should we write it down? Where should we do it? Here. Emaciated, yeah?
And you're really, really thin. Next one. Still concentrating? You still there? Good,
hope you're learning something.
A millstone around your neck. Now, in the old days, a mill was where grains like wheat
was processed, was ground. So, the millstone was this huge, great big, heavy stone. Now,
imagine having one of those around your neck. "Oh, I can hardly move." Yeah? So, a millstone
around your neck is like a responsibility that is very hard to cope with. It's, you
know, it's a bit of a pain in the neck. So, you might say, if I had a friend that was
doing the marathon and they were doing, like, 20 mile runs every morning at, like, 5am,
I'd say, you know, "It's really impressive what you're doing, but it's a bit of a millstone
around your neck. It's a bit of a difficult responsibility."
Okay, so we're not finished yet, but I've taught you lots of things so far, and you're
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It's not all bad news in the Bible. In fact, it's actually called the Good News Bible sometimes,
so let's get some good stuff. "Rise and shine", this is something you say when you want them
to get up. "Rise and shine!" Yep. "Rise, get up, and be like the sunshine. Be happy. The
land of milk and honey." That sounds quite nice. This describes a place where there's
lots of everything. So, if I think of when Christian... Sorry, Gareth Bale joined Real
Madrid, there was a picture of Cristiano Ronaldo, like, shaking his hand, and they both had
their amazing cars and looked kind of very swish. So, it was like Ronaldo was welcoming
Gareth Bale to the land of milk and honey, to the land of plenty.
A good Samaritan. So, don't know if you know that story, but it's a guy who helps someone
who is like the total... From a totally different race, and ethnicity, and religion, but he
didn't care. So, being a good Samaritan is helping your neighbours.
Right, we've got some words of wisdom, so let's get them up on the board. Okay, a few
more sayings. "Can a leopard change his spots?" So, that's a rhetorical question. The answer
is obviously no. The leopard has spots, and what this means is that if someone is a certain
way, then they're not going to change. If someone loves drinking and going out to parties,
then they're not going to change their spots. They're always going to be like that, is the
suggestion. "Can a leopard change his spots?"
"Feed comes before a fool." So, a fool when you go from a great place to a terrible place
where you're very uncertain. So, this is warning people from being too complacent about their
situation and not being grateful for what they do have. It's often kind of said in jest
as well, "Oh yeah, pride comes before a fool." So, it doesn't always have serious connotations.
"There is nothing new under the sun." Nothing new under the sun, this referring to how everything
is just basically recycled. It might be used, I don't know, a review of a theatre show or
something. It's just nice to recognize this expression when it comes up.
For everything, there's a time and a season. A time for everything, okay? It means like,
you know, there are going to be times when everything's going well, times when not, the
time for sorrow, time for joy. Again, just nice to be able to recognize that expression.
Comes from Ecclesiastes. Okay, just a few more to look at.
The powers that be. So, this is like a sort of unknown authority. A decision was made
from the powers that be, from the people right at the top of the organization that we had
to come to work 15 minutes earlier. Okay, the unknown group, the powers that be.
If you don't see eye to eye with someone, that means you can't look at them face to
face. So, if you don't see eye to eye, then you don't really get on with that person.
Okay, so this is a particularly useful expression. The blind leading the blind. I had the good
fortune to go on a school ski trip a couple of years ago, and I had to teach other children
skiing, but I hadn't been skiing for about 20 years. So, when I first got on the slope,
I was falling all over the place, and the students I was teaching, like the 10, 11-year-olds,
were like flying by going, "Sir, are you okay?" I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, absolutely fine." So,
the idea here is it like someone totally incompetent trying to teach someone else who also can't
do it.
At the 11th, that's not meant to be door, it's meant to be hour. So, let's change that
one. I was just talking about a door, that's why I wrote it. At the 11th hour, that means
at the very last moment. So, maybe negotiations are going all the way through the night, and
the UK's trying to find a solution to Brexit, and at the 11th hour, a rescue happened and
some kind of compromise was found.
By the skin of your teeth. I'm not going to show you my teeth, but you know, it's a little
bit of skin in there. It means just, they just found a solution. You might say, "I caught
the train by the skin of my teeth. I only just made it."
Okay, hope there's some useful stuff in that. Remember, you can do the quiz. If you want
any more help from me, HoneYourEnglish.com, and I will see you very soon.