Since the book has received many reviews (See, for example, A Devil's Catechism by PZ Myers), I'll not discuss it here.
But something caught my eye on page 341-3. Dawkins presents a long list of phrases from the Bible that have become a part of our literary culture, and that therefore should be familiar to us all. So I thought, what the heck, I'd list the phrases and provide links to the verses in the Bible in which they occur.
| 1 | Be fruitful and multiply | Genesis 1:28, 9:1, 9:7 |
| 2 | East of Eden | Genesis 4:16 |
| 3 | Adam's rib | Genesis 2:22 |
| 4 | Am I my brother's keeper | Genesis 4:9 |
| 5 | The mark of Cain | Genesis 4:16 |
| 6 | As old as Methuselah | Genesis 5:27 |
| 7 | A mess of potage | Genesis 25:34 |
| 8 | Sold his birthright | Genesis 25:34 |
| 9 | Jacob's ladder | Genesis 28:12 |
| 10 | Coat of many colors | Genesis 37:3 |
| 11 | Amid the alien corn | (The phrase occurs in John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale", but is not found in the KJV. Thanks Matthew for the correction.) |
| 12 | Eyeless in Gaza | Judges 16:21 |
| 13 | The fat of the land | Genesis 45:18 |
| 14 | The fatted calf | Luke 15:23, 27, 30 |
| 15 | Stranger in a strange land | Exodus 2:22 |
| 16 | Burning bush | Exodus 3:2 |
| 17 | A land flowing with milk and honey | Exodus 3:8, 17, 13:5, 33:3; Jeremiah 11:5, 32:22; Ezekiel 20:6 |
| 18 | Let my people go | Exodus 5:1, 7:16, 8:1, 20, 21, 9:1, 13, 10:3, 4 |
| 19 | Flesh pots | Exodus 16:3 |
| 20 | An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth | Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21, Matthew 5:38 |
| 21 | Be sure your sin will find you out | Numbers 32:23 |
| 22 | The apple of his eye | Deuteronomy 32:10, Zechariah 2:8 |
| 23 | The stars in their courses | Judges 5:20 |
| 24 | Butter in a lordly dish | Judges 5:25 |
| 25 | The host of Midian | Judges 7:8, 13, 15 |
| 26 | Shibboleth | Judges 12:6 |
| 27 | Out of the strong came forth sweetness | Judges 14:14 |
| 28 | He smote them hip and thigh | Judges 15:8 |
| 29 | Philistine | 1 Samuel 17:8-57, 18:6, 19:5, 21:9, 22:10, 2 Samuel 21:17 |
| 30 | A man after his own heart | 1 Samuel 13:14 |
| 31 | Like David and Jonathan | 1 Samuel 18:1 |
| 32 | Passing the love of women | 2 Samuel 1:26 |
| 33 | How are the mighty fallen | 2 Samuel 1:19, 25, 27 |
| 34 | Ewe lamb | Leviticus 14:10, Numbers 6:14, 2 Samuel 12:3 |
| 35 | Man of Belial | 1 Samuel 24:25, 2 Samuel 16:7, 20:1 |
| 36 | Jezebel | 1 Kings 16:31, 18:4,13, 19:1-2, 25:1-25, 2 Kings 9:7-37, Revelation 2:20 |
| 37 | Queen of Sheba | 1 Kings 10:4, 10, 13, 2 Chronicles 9:1,3,9,12 |
| 38 | Wisdom of Solomon | 1 Kings 4:34, 2 Chronicles 9:3, Matthew 12:42, Luke 11:31 |
| 39 | The half was not told me | 1 Kings 10:7 |
| 40 | Girded up his loins | 1 Kings 18:46 |
| 41 | Drew a bow at a venture | 1 Kings 22:34, 2 Chronicles 18:33 |
| 42 | Job's comforters | Job 16:2 |
| 43 | The patience of Job | James 5:11 |
| 44 | I am escaped with the skin of my teeth | Job 19:20 |
| 45 | The price of wisdom is above rubies | Job 28:18 |
| 46 | Leviathan | Job 41:1, Psalm 74:14, 104:26, Isaiah 27:1 |
| 47 | Go to the ant thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise | Proverbs 6:6 |
| 48 | Spare the rod and spoil the child | Proverbs 13:24 |
| 49 | A word in season | Isaiah 50:4 |
| 50 | Vanity of vanities | Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12:8 |
| 51 | To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose | Ecclesiastes 3:1 |
| 52 | The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong | Ecclesiastes 9:11 |
| 53 | Of making many books there is no end | Ecclesiastes 12:12 |
| 54 | I am the Rose of Sharon | Song of Songs 2:1 |
| 55 | A garden inclosed | Song of Songs 4:12 |
| 56 | The little foxes | Song of Songs 2:15 |
| 57 | Many waters cannot quench love | Song of Songs 8:7 |
| 58 | Beat their swords into plowshares | Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3 |
| 59 | Grind the faces on the poor | Isaiah 3:15 |
| 60 | The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid | Isaiah 11:6 |
| 61 | Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die | Isaiah 22:13, 1 Corinthians 15:32 |
| 62 | Set thine house in order | 2 Kings 20:1, Isaiah 38:1 |
| 63 | A voice crying in the wilderness | Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4, John 1:23 |
| 64 | No peace for the wicked | Isaiah 48:22, Isaiah 57:21 |
| 65 | See eye to eye | Isaiah 52:8 |
| 66 | Cut off out of the land of the living | Isaiah 53:8 |
| 67 | Balm in Gilead | Jeremiah 8:2 |
| 68 | Can the leopard change his spots? | Jeremiah 13:12 |
| 69 | The parting of the ways | Ezekiel 21:21 |
| 70 | A Daniel in the lions' den | Daniel 6:16 |
| 71 | They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind | Hosea 8:7 |
| 72 | Sodom and Gomorrah | Genesis 13:10, 14:10-11, 18:20, 19:28, Isaiah 13:19, Jeremiah 49:18, Amos 4:11, Matthew 10:15, Mark 6:11, 2 Peter 2:6, Jude 7 |
| 73 | Man shall not live by bread alone | Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4 |
| 74 | Get thee behind me Satan | Matthew 16:23, Mark 8:33, Luke 4:8 |
| 75 | The salt of the earth | Matthew 5:13 |
| 76 | Hide your light under a bushel | Matthew 5:15, Mark 4:21, Luke 11:33 |
| 77 | Turn the other cheek | Matthew 5:39 |
| 78 | Go the extra mile | Matthew 5:41 |
| 79 | Moth and rust doth corrupt | Matthew 6:19 |
| 80 | Cast your pearls before swine | Matthew 7:6 |
| 81 | Wolf in sheep's clothing | Matthew 7:15 |
| 82 | Weeping and gnashing of teeth | Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30, Luke 13:28 |
| 83 | Gadarene swine | Mark 5:1-13, Luke 8:26-33 |
| 84 | New wine in old bottles | Mark 9:17, Luke 5:37 |
| 85 | Shake off the dust of your feet | Matthew 10:14, Mark 6:11, Luke 9:5 |
| 86 | He that is not with me is against me | Matthew 12:30, Luke 11:23 |
| 87 | Fell upon stony ground | Mark 4:5, 16 |
| 88 | A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country | Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4 |
| 89 | The crumbs from the table | Matthew 15:27, Mark 7:28, Luke 16:21 |
| 90 | Signs of the times | Matthew 16:3 |
| 91 | Den of thieves | Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46 |
| 92 | Pharisee | Matthew 23:6, Luke 7:39, 11:37-38, 18:10-11, Acts 5:34, 23:6, 26:5, Philippians 3:5 |
| 93 | Whited sepulchre | Matthew 23:37 |
| 94 | Wars and rumours of wars | Mathew 24:6, Mark 13:7 |
| 95 | Good and faithful servant | Matthew 25:21,23 |
| 96 | Separate the sheep from the goats | Matthew 25:32 |
| 97 | I wash my hands of it | Matthew 27:24 |
| 98 | the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath | Mark 2:27 |
| 99 | Suffer the little children | Matthew 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16 |
| 100 | The widow's mite | Mark 12:42, Luke 21:2 |
| 101 | Physician heal thyself | Luke 4:23 |
| 102 | Good Samaritan | Luke 10:30-37 |
| 103 | Passed by on the other side | Luke 10:31-32 |
| 104 | Grapes of wrath | Revelation 14:18-19 |
| 105 | Lost sheep | Psalm 119:176, Jeremiah 50:6, Matthew 10:6, 15:24 |
| 106 | Prodigal son | Luke 15:11-32 |
| 107 | A great gulf fixed | Luke 16:26 |
| 108 | Whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose | Mark 1:7, Luke 3:16, John 1:27 |
| 109 | Cast the first stone | John 8:7 |
| 110 | Jesus wept | John 11:35 |
| 111 | Greater love hath no man than this | John 15:13 |
| 112 | Doubting Thomas | John 20:25 |
| 113 | Road to Damascus | Acts 9:3-8 |
| 114 | Through a glass darkly | 1 Corinthians 13:12 |
| 115 | Death where is thy sting? | 1 Corinthians 15:55 |
| 116 | A thorn in the flesh | 2 Corinthians 12:7 |
| 117 | Fallen from grace | Galatians 5:4 |
| 118 | Filthy lucre | 1 Timothy 3:3,8, Titus 1:7, 1 Peter 5:2 |
| 119 | The root of all evil | 1 Timothy 6:10 |
| 120 | Fight the good fight | 1 Timothy 6:12 |
| 121 | All flesh is as grass | Isaiah 40:6, 1 Peter 1:24 |
| 122 | The weaker vessel | 1 Peter 3:7 |
| 123 | I am the Alpha and the Omega | Revelation 1:8,11, 21:6, 22:13 |
| 124 | Armageddon | Revelation 16:16 |
| 125 | De profundis (Out of the depths) | Psalm 130:1 |
| 126 | Quo vadis (Whither goest thou) | John 16:5 |
| 127 | Rain on the just and the unjust | Matthew 5:45 |
7 comments:
So, its really good? Richard Dawkins is awesome. So, I should figure this would be good.
I haven't really liked his previous books so much. But I liked him and his documentaries.
So, I'll check it out!
Nice list... Minor detail: #11, "amid the alien corn" is not a phrase from the bible, but is a description of Ruth (from the biblical book of the same name) from Keat's Ode to a Nightingale:
"Through the sad heart of Ruth, when sick from home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn."
I listened to Dawkins' Book, all 14 unabridged Cd's of it, on the way to a family gathering in, of all places, Alabama. It was fabulous, read by the author himself and his wife. We enjoyed it immensely.
Thank you so much for your list. At present I am translating Dawkins' book for Russian publisher, and your worked had wonderfully supported the tired translator at the end of the jouney :) Many thanks!
VERSION 1
Thanks very much for the list. I literally went to our public library a couple of days ago, copied the verses from Dawkins’ book, typed them into a file, and started searching for the biblical sources. Somehow I got sidetracked about half-way through the list, and eventually wound up on dwindlinginunbelief where I found this. You saved me a lot of time. In return, I found a list in Alister McGrath’s excellent book, “In The Beginning”, which I am contributing.
Some are duplicates of Dawkins’ list, like “A man after his own heart". There is probably (certainly?) at typo somewhere.
Alister McGrath, “In The Beginning”, 2001, Random House, ISBN 0-385-49890-X
Pages 263-264
“to lick the dust” (Psalm 72:9, Isaiah 49:23; Micah 7:17)
“to fall flat on his face” (Numbers 22:31)
“a man after his own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14)
“to pour out one’s heart” (Psalm 62:8, Lamentations 2:19)
“the land of the living” (Job 28:13; Psalm 27:13; Psalm 52:5; Isaiah 38:11; Jeremiah 11:19; Ezekiel 32:23-27)
“under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:4 and at least twenty other occurrences in this biblical book)
“sour grapes” (Ezekiel 18:2)
“from time to time” (Ezekiel 4:10)
“pride goes before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18)
“the skin of my teeth (Job 19:20)
“to stand in awe” (Psalm 4:4; Psalm 33:8)
“to put words in his mouth” (Exodus 4:15; Deuteronomy 18:18 2 Samuel 14:3; 2 Samuel 14:19; Jeremiah 1:9)
“to go from strength to strength” (Psalm 84:7)
“like a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7)
“rise and shine” (a minor variant on “arise, ashine” Isaiah 60:1)
“to see the writing on the wall” (from Daniel 5:5)
“a fly in the ointment” (from Ecclesiastes 10:1)
“a drop in the bucket” (a slight variant on Isaiah 40:15)
“the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13)
“a thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7)
“to give up the ghost” (Mark 15:37; John 19:30)
“the powers that be” (Romans 13:1)
“and it came to pass” (Mark 1:9 and more than four hundred other passages)
“the scales fell from his eyes” (based on Acts 9:18)
I know I'm about seven years too late to get a response, but I just wanted to say that Dawkins was wrong on one count: "Amid the alien corn" is not in the Judges passage listed. It's not even from the Bible; it's a quote from John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale".
The passage IS, however, a reference to something from the Bible; specifically, from the Book of Ruth, when Ruth is noticed for the first time by Boaz.
Really wish somebody had corrected Dr. Dawkins on that. :-(
Thanks for the correction, Matthew.
You're right, the phrase "amid the alien corn" does not exist in the King James Version of the Bible. It is, as you say, from John Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale".
However the error was partly mine. I cited Judges 15:5 which has the phrase "into the standing corn of the Philistines", but Ruth 2:2 is probably what Keats was referencing.
I'll make the correction in the post. Thanks.
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