references to the Bible

 One of the earliest English translations of the Bible was the King James Version which influenced English literature as well as being central to the religious belief of the day.

 This was a shared text, so meaningful references could be made to it in the same way that we refer to popular culture today.  Some of these references are:

 Jezabel

Jezabel was a Biblical character who was reputed to be sexually promiscuous. Google Ngram says that Jezabel had its peak use in the early 1800s. It flatlined in the 1850s and has bumped along the bottom ever since. 

 Lazarus 

This became the archetype of someone who has recovered from a major setback. Howard used the term in a press conference held in May 1989, after his loss as leader, where he said that the idea of him returning to the leadership was "Lazarus with a triple by-pass".

 Armageddon

This one is still with us thanks to epic and horror movies.  It is often combined with another word to give the idea of wht particular style of Armageddon we are dealing with.

Zombiegeddon is a 2003 horror comedy film directed by Chris Watson.  

Mobilegeddon occurred in  2015 when Google changed its search algorithm to give higher priority to mobile-friendly sites. The result was that a site that had ranked high previously suddenly plunged down the rankings overnight. 

 Carmageddon is a more recent coinage to label the sudden surge in traffic on our roads when everyone abandoned public transport because of the coronavirus.

 Stories in the Bible are again points of reference.  There is the Tower of Babel giving rise to Babel meaning a confused and discordant medley of sounds.  A David and Goliath situation is one in which an obviously more powerful entity is undone by a much less powerful one.  We can still praise someone for demonstrating the wisdom of Solomon.

 However, while we still talk about the writing on the wall, it is less certain that we actually know that that comes from the Bible story of Belshazzar’s feast where God wrote a message to the king on the wall to the effect that his time was up.  Do we have any clue as to who the Wise Virgins were and that their wisdom was to anticipate future needs by bringing lamps with them? The foolish ones had to go home to fetch the lamps and so missed the passing of the king.

 There are so many phrases still in use that have been drawn from the Bible. I drove past a truck advertising Manna-from-heaven foods, but does the truck driver know that manna was the food miraculously provided each day to the Israelites as they wandered in the desert after leaving Egypt?  We can still hold out an olive branch, but do we think back to Noah on the Arc welcoming back a dove with an olive leaf in its mouth because this signified that there was dry land somewhere and that God had relented and was signalling peace?

 I think there is a decline in the use of the Bible as a reference point.  I’m not sure that if I described myself as a Wise Virgin these days the younger generation would know what I meant.  They would be more likely to take it literally and look at me askance.