Hebrew Idioms in the Gospels

Revised: 4 June 2015

There are many expressions in the Greek texts of Matthew, Mark and Luke that seem to derive from Hebrew idioms. These are phrases that mean something different from the literal meaning of their words. Every language has its own idioms, many of which seem strange when translated literally out of their native setting.

Think of such common English idioms as “hit the ceiling,” “kill time,” “eat one’s heart out,” “lose one’s head,” “be in hot water,” “throw in the towel,” and “kick the bucket.” A non-English speaker who heard these idioms translated literally into his or her language would probably find them amusing. However, if he or she did not suspect that they were literal translations of English idioms and took them at face value, the information the person received would be very misleading.

The Hebrew language has thousands of idioms. Modern Hebrew has fascinating idioms that developed from expressions found in Biblical Hebrew and Rabbinic Hebrew, for example: בְּאַרְבַּע עֵינַיִם (be‘arba enayim), literally, “with four eyes,” means face to face without the presence of a third person, as in, “The two men met with four eyes.” The idiom לֹא דֻּבִּים וְלֹא יַעַר (lo dubim velo ya’ar) is, literally, “[There are] neither bears nor forest,” but means that something is completely false. And the idiom טָמַן אֶת יָדוֹ בַּצַּלַּחַת (taman et yado batsalahat), literally, “buried his hand in the dish,” means that someone idled away his time. A translator faced with putting these idioms into another language such as English must be careful to find an equivalent idiom for each Hebrew expression. If the translator merely translates the idioms word for word, he or she will not end up with English, but Hebrew in English dress.

For more on Gospel idioms, see:

And check out these recent JP articles:

• 
  Bible Versus Scriptures: Part 5—Holiness of the Text
  The fifth part in JP’s series on the nature of the Scriptures.
• 
  Bible Versus Scriptures: Part 4—Wherein Lies the Authority?
  The fourth part in JP’s series on the nature of the Scriptures.
• 
  Love Your Neighbor: The Greatness Behind Mister Rogers’ Songwriting
  Mister Rogers might not make a future New York Times list, but he will always be at the top of the list of my life’s greatest songwriters.
• 
  Bible Versus Scriptures: Part 3—Models of Inspiration
  The third part in JP’s series on the nature of the Scriptures.
• 
  Bible Versus Scriptures: Part 2—What Goes into the Canon?
  The second part in JP’s series on the nature of the Scriptures.
• 
  Bible Versus Scriptures: Part 1—More Different Than You’d Think
  The first part in JP’s series on the nature of the Scriptures.