Author’s Note

For thousands of years, men and women have revered the Bible as something holy and inspired by God. Even those who don’t believe it to be inspired agree that the Bible is a great work of literature and contains some of the best writing in the world.

Whether the Bible is read for love of God or for love of beauty, no other book has ever been read so much or so faithfully. Words and phrases from the Bible have entered every language, including English, so that even people who never read the Bible are always filling their speech with bits and pieces of it.

What I would like to do in this book is to trace down some of the words and phrases we use, or come across in our reading, that stem from the Bible, or that have been influenced by the Bible. In order to keep my book a reasonable size, I shall restrict myself only to the very first part of the Bible, the book of Genesis. This contains some of the most famous stories of the Bible—Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, Joseph and his brothers.

In doing this, I may be able to help show that the Bible is not just something to place on a pulpit, or something to take an oath on. Perhaps I can show you that it is a book that is very much part of all of us at all times, not only in religion, but in our everyday life and speech.

Words in Genesis