Bible-Based American Idioms contains about 125 American-language idioms that stem from verses in the Old and New Testaments. For each idiom I have provided a meaning and a Biblical source or sources. For the sources, I have cited books, chapters, and verses in the Old and New Testaments. Presumably, the idioms listed in this book had their origins in the King James Version of the Bible, the version owned and read by our recent ancestors. I have quoted primarily from the King James Version here, and secondarily from the New International Version for easier reading.
I was surprised to find that so many of our American idioms have Scriptural bases. I hope that the reader will be as intrigued as I was by these modern connections to ancient texts. Perhaps the connections made here will be useful for teachers of Scripture and of language.
I have stated often that one cannot understand human nature and Western civilization adequately without studying, in depth and in context, the Old and New Testaments. This small compilation of links between ancient Scriptural statements and modern idioms seems to fit into that domain of understanding. Biblical wisdom has been passed down to us through the generations, just as parents and grandparents mentor their children and grandchildren. As Solomon noted in Proverbs 16:16, "How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!" And, as he wrote later in Ecclesiastes 1:9, "there is nothing new under the sun."