Bible, Shakespeare or other?
An exercise to show that verses from the Bible have become part of our
everyday language and that often we do not realise the influence that
the Bible has had.
Download the PowerPoint entitled ‘Bible, Shakespeare or other?’ from
www.bmsworldmission.org/face
Explain to your congregation that we often say phrases every day without
knowing their origins and many sayings come from the Bible. Split the
congregation into small groups and give each group a pen and a piece of
paper. Run the quiz on a projector and when each phrase comes up on the
screen, each team has just ten seconds to decide whether it’s from ‘the Bible’,
‘Shakespeare’, or ‘other’ and write it down on their sheet of paper. At the end,
go through each saying and give its correct origin. Ask each team to add their
scores up, with one point for each correct answer, and whichever team scores
the highest wins.
The answers are below:
Answers
1
“A foregone conclusion” = SHAKESPEARE (Othello)
2
“Salt of the earth” = BIBLE (Matthew 5: 13)
3
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder” = OTHER (writer, Thomas
Haynes Bayly)
4
“Go the extra mile” = BIBLE (Matthew 5: 41)
5
“Cleanliness is next to godliness” = OTHER (ancient proverb)
6
“Eaten out of house and home” = SHAKESPEARE (Henry V, part 2)
7
“At my wits’ end” = BIBLE (Psalm 107: 27)
8
“Steal my thunder” = OTHER (critic and playwright, John Dennis)
9
“More fool you” = SHAKESPEARE (The taming of the shrew)
10
“Pride goes before a fall” = BIBLE (Proverbs 16: 19)
11
“Mum's the word” = SHAKESPEARE (Henry VI, part 2)
12
“Blind leading the blind” = BIBLE (Matthew 15: 14, Luke 6: 39)
13
“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t” = OTHER (American
evangelist, Lorenzo Dow)
14
“Don't count your chickens before they are hatched” = OTHER (Aesop)
15
“Can a leopard change his spots?” = BIBLE (Jeremiah 13: 23)
16
“A man after his own heart” = BIBLE (1 Samuel 13: 14)
17
“There's method in my madness” = SHAKESPEARE (Hamlet)
18
“I will wear my heart upon my sleeve” = SHAKESPEARE (Othello)
19
“Truth is stranger than fiction” = OTHER (Lord Byron)
20
“Love is blind” = SHAKESPEARE (The merchant of Venice)
21
“Neither here nor there” = SHAKESPEARE (Othello)
22
“A law unto themselves” = BIBLE (Romans 2: 14)
23
“Send him packing” = SHAKESPEARE (Henry IV)
24
“By the skin of our teeth” = BIBLE (Job 19: 20)
25
“Live to fight another day” = OTHER (Athenian orator and statesman,
Demosthenes)