| Let there be light | Forbidden fruit | Fall from grace | By the sweat of your brow | Ashes to ashes, dust to dust | My brother’s keeper |
| Land of milk and honey | Fire and brimstone | An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth | Man does not live on bread alone | Scapegoat | A man after my own heart |
| How the mighty have fallen | To put words in someone’s mouth | The writing is on the wall | Nothing but skin and bones | By the skin of my teeth | Bite the dust |
| At wits’ end | There is nothing new under the sun | Eat, drink, and be merry | A drop in a bucket | No rest for the wicked | Like a lamb to the slaughter |
| Baptism of fire | Head on a platter | Go the extra mile | Wolves in sheep’s clothing | The blind leading the blind | To move mountains |
| The eleventh hour | Kiss of death | Good Samaritan | Throw the first stone | Better to give than receive | The love of money is the root of all evil |
| Armageddon | The four horsemen of the apocalypse | Apple of my eye | A little birdie told me | Can a leopard change his spots? | To the ends of the earth |
| Salt of the earth | A cross to bear | He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword | Wash your hands of the matter | O ye, of little faith | The prodigal son returns |
| Fight the good fight | Reap what you sow | The powers that be | Labour of love | The truth will set you free | Flesh and blood |
Above is a list of 54 popular phrases, metaphors, and idioms that have originated from the Bible. This list is not all-encompassing; there is indubitably more than what I’ve included above. It’s interesting to note that meanings of each phrase do not necessarily align to its original context or intention. The contemporary definitions of these statements now represent its modern usage, which shifts across space and time due to changes in communities and culture. If one were to study the Bible, what is communicated through the scripture differs greatly to how we would use these phrases in daily life.
The theoretical process behind the use of idioms, both Biblical and not, derives from semiotic systems who have always functioned in this way. Individuals and communities reinterpret and manipulate language, signs, and symbols to fit the context of their system, resulting in new meanings. As Bridghet mentions in her blogpost: “if one is not a part of a system, they cannot make use of it. However, one does not need to know the origins of a sign or symbol, [but there] needs to be context of how it is used [within] that system.” Yet, I was struck with the question—how could atheists and those practicing non-Christian religions employ these phrases without having understood its Biblical contexts?
Perhaps it’s because of the sheer hold that Christianity has on history, literature, and art that these phrases permeate across generations and cultures. Take the phrase “no rest for the wicked” as an example. This proverb from the Book of Isaiah has been quoted in the Biblical sense for millennia, but its secular meaning gained popularity within the past century, spanning multiple mediums within music, film, art, and literature. Notable examples are Ozzy Osbourne’s 1988 album, the 2003 fantasy webcomic by Andrea Peterson, and the 2014 song by Swedish performer’s Lykke Li. Even if you were unaware of the original proverb, there is no rest for the wicked who want to escape this phrase.
Here, the denotation and reinterpretation of the connotation of such phrases is distinctly demonstrated. In the Old Testament, the proverb goes: “The Lord God said, peace is not to wicked men” (Isaiah 48:22). Wicked denotes the evil-doers who go against the word of God, and the absence of peace means that they must face eternal punishment and damnation for doing so. In popular culture, it means that a person’s work and responsibility, specifically in reference to one’s own laziness or work ethic. Although its original context is one of gloom and damnation, its contemporary usage is both casual and humorous. The aforementioned examples of its usage utilize this saying to by evoking the original sense of the proverb in application to flawed people who labour to complete something despite their failings. This secular turn of the proverb shows the perplexity of human communication—language allows us to build layers of conceptual representations that we adapt and conform to our habitus.
We see how the Bible can work to influence art and literature, but what about the literature influencing elements of Christianity? For example, when we think of imagery of Hell, we think of a blazing inferno—which is often attributed to Dante’s poem, Inferno. The Bible does provide us the “lake of fire,” but not much else in terms of physical descriptors. One must also acknowledge the medieval literature and art on the afterlife that influenced Dante at his time of writing. However, it was really Inferno, which describes a fictionalised version of Dante and his descent into Hell. Hence, the semiosis of Biblical symbolism works both ways; literature can also affect how religious iconography is represented in history.
This goes to show the evocative power of interpretation and reinterpretation within signs and language. Language is a performance—and it is one that matters, with real sociocultural implications. As mentioned in lecture, when the right person says the right thing in the right time and in the right place, it has effects and consequences. Dante created and sketched in impeccable detail and literary brilliance the dimensions of hell, and it continues to inform our abstract perceptions of the afterlife. Understanding can only be done when we put a concept in relation to what we already know, and literature is a medium for us to comprehend this.
Indeed, the Bible itself may be the most influential and enduring pieces of literature to ever grace the Earth. Biblical wonder and fear have pervasive impacts on our conceptions of fundamental human issues. It is common knowledge that you would have a difficult time understanding a lot of Western classic literature without having a base-level understanding of the Bible. Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Steinbeck’s East of Eden, and Milton’s Paradise Lost are few exemplars that come to mind. It is more uncommon to know that Biblical knowledge, or lack thereof, can also aid or impede your understanding of prevalent idioms and sayings. In a world where the Church and the State already struggle to be separated, this may not be a good thing, but can a leopard really change his spots? How Christianity permeates within language is simply a cross we must bear as media-making individuals entrenched within society.
By Xelena Ilon
Sources
- Culbertson, H. (n.d.). More than 300 common sayings from the Bible: Timeless phrases.
- Southern Nazarene University. https://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/sayings.htm.
- Pop culture dictionary: No rest for the wicked. (2018. April 3). Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/e/pop-culture/no-rest-wicked/.
- New International Version. (1984). Biblica. (Original work published 1978).
- Wood, B. (2025, November 5). Escaped hell by the skin of my teeth: Semiotic systems and context. Approaches to Writing for Media Studies. https://blogs.ubc.ca/mdia300/archives/743.
Really Interesting, Xelena! It’s crazy to see how extensive of a list of phrases you were able to compile. A big part of why I think language and etymology is so fascinating is because of how strong and clear a connection it has to history, even in our culture that we like to think of as being hyper-modern and beyond the past. I think your question of why people continue to use these terms despite not having ties to christianity is great because it gets at the heart of why language change happens. The current consensus among linguists is that the #1 factor driving language change is kids. Every generation, an entirely new set of people basically starts learning a language all over again, and though we like to think that we ‘teach’ language, the vast majority of words and phrases are simply picked up gradually through context. That means that we lose basically everything other than the functional purpose of those phrases. As long as a kid’s understanding does the job and is understandable to everyone else, they will go into an adulthood with an often skewed idea of what words and phrases mean exactly, and no knowledge of their origin. As that process keeps layering and layering, we’re left with this huge Frankenstein assortment of words and phrases from all over the world and all over history that we have completely forgotten, despite being ingrained into our everyday lives and communication. That’s what makes it so cool when we can peel back those layers and understand the history that’s baked into the very fabric of our day-to-day communication, like you did so well in your paper!
Super cool, Xelena! I love this deep dive into common vocabulary with Christian roots, and I definitely agree that although the quantity is surprising, the widespread use of these words can definitely be at least partially attributed to the widespread popularity and assimilation of the religion. One section I resonated with was when you refer back to Bridghet’s post, where she states that “if one is not a part of a system, they cannot make use of it. However, one does not need to know the origins of a sign or symbol, [but there] needs to be context of how it is used [within] that system.” You accurately noted that non-Christians were still able to effectively employ these phrases without having understood its Biblical contexts. This reminds me of something I saw recently, which is that the phrase “no can do” was originally created to mock Chinese immigrants’ speech patterns. I felt a sense of guilt when I learned this, worrying that I was perpetuating stereotypes of my own people or keeping a problematic phrase alive. However, after some thought, I realized these words have a completely different use in our contemporary context — it is always harmless, and those who weren’t aware of the background wouldn’t even be able to tell that the phrase had a discriminatory background. I wonder then, if you think that the use contexts of certain terms are able to change the semiotics and actual meaning of a phrase?
I grew up hearing many of these phrases without ever knowing them from the Bible, and it wasn’t until much later that I realized how deep their origins run, once I also entered Catholic high school. That realization alone says a lot about how strong yet unnoticed semiotic systems can be. It also made me think about how these Biblical phrases act almost like early “memes” because they were (and currently) used widely, changing across time, and gaining layers of connotation that don’t necessarily align with their origins. Even people who aren’t religious still inherit these linguistic structures, which says something about how culture inserts itself in us.
Hi Xelena! I really enjoyed your deep dive into Biblical idioms and how they’ve shaped everyday language. It’s fascinating to see how pervasive Christianity’s influence is in our cultural lexicon, often in ways we don’t consciously notice. I liked your point about language being analogical—understanding words in relation to other things really explains why these Biblical phrases carry such layered meaning.