The Influence of the Bible on English Idioms.doc

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1、The Influence of the Bible on English Idioms英语语言文学系 AbstractEnglish idiom is the most vigorous part in the language which was greatly influenced by the religious classic of western society the Holy Bible. This paper probes into the influence of the Bible on English idioms in two ways: allusion of bi

2、blical story and original saying, so as to better understand the cultural connotation of English idioms and relationship between English idioms and the Bible.Key words: English idioms; cultural connotation; the Bible. I. The Definition of Idiom“Idioms refer to the language peculiar to a people, coun

3、try, class, community or more rarely, an individual, which have grown out of the linguistic practice of the people ever since the language came into being.”(张维友著，英语词汇学教程，华中师范大学出版社，2004) Strictly speaking, idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meanings of indiv

4、idual constituents.Idioms are rooted in the soil on which the people live and are realized as formulaic phrases in its language system. Therefore the character of the people is clearly branded n its idioms. By comparing idioms of different people with each other, we can find that each peoples charac

5、teristics, history, cultural tradition, morality, sense of value, geographical environments and other aspects are fully expressed in its idioms. Consequently, in order to understand idioms, we should observe them in relation with such conditions as its religion, history, culture, customs, geography

6、and sense of value, etc. II. The Significance of the BibleReligion, as one of special culture morphologies, almost came into being and developed at the same pace as human civilization. The Christian Church, instead of the monarch, controlled the whole European society, which then spread Christianity

7、 throughout the continent and molded unique European culture during two thousand of years. Religion is very important many westerners. In Britain, almost everyone reads the Holy Bible, and most of people go to church on Sundays. Newly-born children are baptized in church. Peoples lives are closely r

8、elated with religion.The Bible is a library of different literary types rather than a single book. The larger part, the Old Testament, is a collection of Jewish sacred writings, originally in Hebrew and consisting of teaching, history, prophecy, and poetry. The New Testament, originally in Greek, al

9、so includes diverse literary formsletters of Paul and other apostles, historical narrative, apocalyptic writing, and four Gospels which are not history but arrangements of remembered acts and sayings of Jesus.III. Epurated from the Story of the BibleIdioms have grown out of the linguistic practice o

10、f a people and are realized as formulaic phrases in its language system. On the other hand, the Bible, as a public chrestomathy and cultural enlightenment text in western countries, facilitated the development of the English language along the history of thousands of years. More specifically speakin

11、g, since every individual is familiar with the classical allusions of the Bible, idioms epurated from them become commonly understood and circulate as formulaic phrases in such a culture.According to Matthew, as a result of the day of last trail when the Christ separated people one from another, the

12、 righteous people would go to heaven while the sinner would go to hell. “All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goat.”(房龙著，秦立彦译，圣经的故事（中英双语版），广西师范大学出版社，2006) Therefore, “the sheep” and “the goat” respectively g

13、et the connotation of righteous people and the opposite while “tell the sheep from the goat” get the meaning of dividing good or useful people from bad or useless ones, which nowadays, however， is mainly used to distinguish between the efficient enterprises and inefficient ones.The idiom “the hand w

14、riting on the wall” is another illustration for this sort. In the Old Testament, Daniel, Chapter 5, Belshazzar and his buddies were on a drunken toot and used golden vessels from the temple of God which was at Jerusalem to drink wine. Then in the same hour, came forth fingers of a mans hand, and wro

15、te over against the candlestick upon the plasters of the wall of the kings palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Daniel “in whom is the spirit of the holy gods” interpreted the handwriting for the king: “God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Thou art weighted in the bal

16、ances, and art found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” (by Hodder and Stroughton，The Holy Bible（New International version）， New York: International Bible Society，1983.) In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans slain. Refined from the Biblical story

17、, the idiom “handwriting on the wall” means a threat of impending doom. As an instance, the sentence “The hand-writing is on the wall for the private company” has the similar meaning as “The bankruptcy of the private company seems certain”.IV. Cited from the Original Saying of the BibleIn the mind o

18、f Christians, the Bible is not only a religious classic or a prominent masterpiece, but also an unprecedentedly collection of wisdom. The original sayings of Cod or Jesus are being preaching in the church through out the world every Sunday, so that some of the most pious Christians even can recite t

19、hem fluently. Many classic original sayings in the Bible have functioned as important sources of English idioms, which make the topic in question more comprehensive and visualized.The idiom “salt of the earth” comes from Matthew, chapter 5. When Jesus taught his disciples, he said that, “You are the

20、 salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?” As is known to us all, salt is an important flavoring in food without which peoples health will surely collapse. Therefore, salt is greatly cherished by many nations and sometimes regarded as a valuable gift for g

21、uests. Here, “the salt of the earth” can be explained as “the most valuable members of society”, “the finest type of the humanity” or “a person or a group of people having the best character”.When comes to the idiom “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than”, you may think tha

22、t Jesus really has great sense of humor. According to Matthew, chapter 19, Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Obviously, this expression refers to the difficulty or impossibility of doing things. Based on this, we can paraphrase the sentence “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for Johnny to enter Harvard before he is thirteen” as “It is impossible for Johnny to enter Harvard before he is thirteen”.