Tracing the Sacred Tongue: English Biblical Idioms from Greek Origins to the King James Version

Abstract

This study examines biblical idioms as dynamic linguistic and cultural signs, tracing their transformation from the Greek text of the New Testament to their stable integration in modern English phraseology. Drawing on Saussure’s concept of arbitrariness, Peirce’s triadic semiosis, and cognitive prototype theory, this study redefines idioms as semiotic entities whose meaning emerges through historical interpretation rather than fixed equivalence. Through a comparative analysis of the Textus Receptus and several major English Bible translations—from Wycliffe and Tyndale to the King James Version—the paper investigates how idiomatic meaning, originally embedded in Greek conceptual and theological frameworks, has been re-categorized within the evolving linguistic consciousness of English. Data from the GloWbE corpus and Google Ngrams substantiate the hypothesis that while the semantics of biblical idioms have sometimes been modified through translation, their prototypical biblical core has survived, ensuring continuity of form and meaning. Idioms such as the blind leading the blind, to wash one’s hands of, thirty pieces of silver, and to cast pearls before swine illustrate this semantic resilience and global vitality. Their persistence across English varieties confirms that biblical phraseology functions as a shared system of cultural memory and moral reference within the global lexicon. This paper uses a linguosemiotic framework—phraseological semiotics—for interpreting idioms as living signs shaped by translation, interpretation, and tradition.