Page 46 - Bible Doctrine Survey I- Student Textbook

• The saying “No rest for the wicked” is usually said as a joke, suggesting that because you’re
wicked you have to work hard.
Origin: Isaiah 57:20-21 “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves
cast up mire and mud. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”” (NIV)

• The powers that be are unknown people who control things:
“This company could be much better if the powers that be actually listened to what their staff
think.”
Origin: Romans 13:11 “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power
but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” (KJV)

• To put words in someone’s mouth is to say what you think someone else means, or what they
should say:
“I tried to explain what had happened but my mother kept putting words in my mouth.”
Origin: 2 Samuel 14:3 “And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put
the words in her mouth.” (KJV)

• The root of the matter refers to the focal point or most important element of a problem or
topic:
“I feel like we haven’t yet reached the root of the matter in our discussions.”
Origin: Job 19:28 “But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the Root of the matter is
found in me?” (KJV)

• If something happens in the twinkling of an eye, it happens very quickly:
“Their eyes met across a crowded room but in the twinkling of an eye, she was gone.”
Origin: 1 Corinthians 15:52 “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the
trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (NIV)

• There’s nothing new under the sun is a way of saying that everything has been seen before;
there is nothing new or original these days.
Origin: Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be
done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” (ESV)

• If you wash your hands of a matter, you refuse to accept responsibility for it, or abandon it:
“If Laura refuses to accept my advice then I’m washing my hands of the matter.”
Origin: Matthew 27:24 “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an
uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent
of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”” (NIV)

• A wolf in sheep’s clothing is an enemy disguised as a friend, or a dangerous person pretending
to be harmless. This term was popularized in the fable where a wolf disguises himself as a sheep
so that he can sneak up on the flock.
“In this competitive industry we must be vigilant against wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
Origin: Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (KJV)

• The saying “The writing is on the wall” means that something bad is about to happen, or there
is no way for something to succeed:

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