The Influence of the Bible on English Idioms
英语语言文学系
2009桃花源记级1班
赵闻悦
裁减冗员
雾霾的成因Abstract
English 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 biblical 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, country, 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 individual constituents.
Idioms are rooted in the soil on which the people live and are realized as formulaic phras 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 people’s characteristics, history, cultural tradition, morality, n of value, geographical environments and other aspects are fully expresd in its idioms. Conquently, in order to understand idioms, we should obrve them in relation with such conditions as its religion, history, culture, customs, geography and n of value, etc.
II. The Significance of the Bible
Religion, 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 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. People’s lives are cloly related 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, also includes diver literary forms—letters 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 Bible
Idioms have grown out of the linguistic practice of a people and are realized as formulaic phras 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 speaking, since every individual is familiar with the classical allusions of the Bible, idioms epurated from them become commonly understood and circulate as formulaic phras in such a culture.
新武松打虎
According to Matthew, as a result of the day of last trail when the Christ parated people one from another, the righteous people would go to heaven while the sinner would go to hell. “All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will parate 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)牛奶和羊奶的区别
Therefore, “the sheep” and “the goat” respectively get the connotation of righteous people
and the opposite while “tell the sheep from the goat” get the meaning of dividing good or uful people from bad or uless ones, which nowadays, however， is mainly ud to distinguish between the efficient enterpris and inefficient ones.
The idiom “the hand writing 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 ud golden vesls from the temple of God which was at Jerusalem to drink wine. Then in the same hour, came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plasters of the wall of the king's 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 balances, 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.)
粉色壁纸纯色门作文
三星照相机 In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans slain. Refined from the Biblical st
ory, the idiom “handwriting on the wall” means a threat of impending doom. As an instance, the ntence “The hand-writing is on the wall for the private company” has the similar meaning as “The bankruptcy of the private company ems certain”.
IV. Cited from the Original Saying of the Bible
In the mind of 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 them 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.
