Biblical Sources of Common English Phrases: Laughter is the best medicine

 

Laughter is the best medicine is a popular saying in English. The origin of the phrase is believed to have come from Proverbs 17:22 (NIV): "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."  (שָׂמֵחַ sameach joyful, gleeful, happy, merry: Strong’s 8056)

לֵב שָׂמֵחַ יֵיטִב גֵּהָה וְרוּחַ נְכֵאָה תְּיַבֶּשׁ־גָּרֶם

Biblical Sources of Common English Language Phrases: In Your Mind’s Eye

 

 

 

I am one of the 1% to 4% of the world’s population who experience aphantasia, the complete inability to voluntarily visualize mental images. We cannot see a cat or our child’s face in our mind’s eye. We see only a blank mental screen. We do know what a cat looks like. Most people with the condition do not even realize that they have it. I was in my 70’s before I became aware of my condition.

 

Aphantasia is a condition of neurodivergence but is not considered to be a disability or disease. The condition can be congenital (from birth) or acquired after a brain injury.

 

While the condition is not normative, it does not interfere with normal activities, even the production of artworks. Persons with aphantasia may exhibit enhanced verbal skills, conceptual thought, and an enhanced and very accurate spatial memory.

 

The phrase, in my mind’s eye, sounds like it could be from the Bible, but it is not. Ephesians 1:18 speaks of the eyes of your heart and Matthew 6:22 speaks of your focused inner eye. These seem to be speaking of spiritual discernment and not of visualizing mental images.

 

The first known appearance of the phrase in the English language is seen from Geoffrey Chaucer in 1390 as the eyen of his mynde. Not until 1577 does it appear as mind’s eye. By 1620, the phrase was in common use as is shown when William Shakespeare used it in his play, Hamlet.

There is nothing new under the sun

 

"There is nothing new under the sun." William Shakespeare said that, right?  Nope. It is from the Bible in Ecclesiastes 1:9.

Biblical Sources of Phrases in Common Use: Forbidden Fruits

Recently, on the bulletin board in the place in which I work, someone wrote , “Do NOT Read This!”  Seeing this, almost everyone’s immediate response is “Why not?”  We do not respond well to being told what to do.

When an action or a thing is forbidden to us, it often becomes very attractive.  Many will risk their reputations, or their fortune, or their career, or even their family, to have it.  This is the idea behind “forbidden fruit.”

The allusion is to the biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Everything was permitted to them except the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Of course, they had to have that fruit. (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:1-6)

The English language phrase is a metaphor for any pleasure, vice, or indulgence that is considered to be immoral, illegal, or “forbidden.”  

Biblical Sources of Phrases in Common Use: A Drop in a Bucket

The phrase, “a drop in a bucket,” is an idiomatic saying which speaks of an insignificant, overwhelmed thing.  Something too small to make any sort of difference to a situation.  The phrase, “a drop in the ocean” has the same meaning.

The first known use of the phrase is believed to have been in Isaiah 40:15.

“Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” Isaiah 40:15

Biblical Sources of Phrases in Common Use: A Fool and His Money Are Soon Parted

This phrase, "A fool and his money are soon parted," sounds biblical, but it is not.  A man named Thomas Tusser (1524 - 1580) wrote it in 1573 in his book, Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie.  The original phrase was a line in a poem.  "A foole and his monie be soone to debate, which after with sorrow repents him too late."

Tusser was an English poet, farmer, chorister, and musician.

The idea that this is a phrase of biblical origin probably comes from Proverbs 21:20 where the wise store up their wealth but the fools gulp theirs down. (NIV)

Something to Think About: Render Unto Caesar

As tempers flare in the escalating confrontation between the Tea Party Movement and the Obama Administration, here is something to think about. "The Christian's Responsibility to Government."
http:www.biblebb.com/files/mac/sg45-97.htm