An Analysis on the Influence of Christianity on English Language Essay Example

English language, such as “go to church” “damn it” “power of the keys” and so on.

2. 2 Taboo Words Taboos’ existence has promoted the development of language and enriched the vocabulary. Surely, different background, different taboos.

Due to their unique cultural background, the British and American taboos show distinctive traces of bible culture. The New Testament recorded that Judas, the betrayer, was the 13th in the Last Supper. Therefore, in the West, 13 is a taboo number. In all hotels, there shall be no 13th floors or No. 13 rooms. Similarly, because of Good Friday, Friday became an unauspicious day. Thus, on the friday before Easter, symbolic activities related to jesus crucifixion are absolutely avoided. Such as having one’s hair cut , nailing horseshoes, and carpentry with nailing..

In addition, according to the Bible, man kind are born guity because adam and eve ate the forbidden fruit. Therefore, sexual intercourse is considered guilty. So strict Puritans don’t use sexual words in public. Sexual words became taboos, thus sexual euphemism came into being : make love, art of pleasure. to approach. , act of love and so on.

2. 3 Names Most British names came directly from the characters in Bible stories, such as David, Alexander, Helen, and Christian itself means the follower of chritianity. Nowadays, in the west, even many atheists use Christian names.

Andre, Mark, Mattew, Timothy, Steve, John, Paul, Peter, which came from the new testament, are widely used among males. The well-known names Micheal, Daniel Adam, Joseph, Jacob, Benjam in which came from the old testament are also very popular. Some Christian names in the new

testament are also widely used among females, such as Mary, Lydia. Even Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel are famous characters in the old testament. In English-speaking countries, people gave their children names of the bible characters. This is a portrayal of the profound effects of christianity upon western culture.

This custom has existed for nearly 2000 years. English names are not just a series of simple language symbols, but also a series of cultural phenomenon with abundant intention.

III. On Idioms and Mottoes

In the context of Christian culture, English language is rather religious in a large extent. The legend of “man is created by God” expresses westerners’ mindset that God is universal and sacred. Bible stories about God, Jesus ,Adam and the Devil and segments of some educational stories came down dueto people’s preferences or even some historical and political reasons.

Many allusions are household, but not everyone necessarily knows that they came from Bible.

3. 1 From Matthew The salt of the earth . Salt serves a dual role of seasoning and preservative in the world and salt must be dissolved in order to make the food tasteful. Jesus warned Christians to prevent people’s moral depravity. Cast pearls before swine. Jesus told his disciples to have insight, but not arbitrarily judge others, not waste energy passing gospels to those ungrateful people, it will only fall on deaf ears in vain. Judas’s kiss Students greeting their teachers with a kiss is a practice for jews.

But judas’s kiss implied officers and men: this person is the one they want to arrest. This kiss made clear the hypocrisy and shifty and Judah, and later refers to betrayal.

It is thus evident that to know more about Bible stories can both increase our understandings about western culture, and grasp the authentic English idioms and mottoes, both entertain and inform.

3. 2 From Exodus An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is an ordinance to punish the atrocities of the OldTestament. In ancient times, the concept of punishment was based on equivalent compensation.

Not only the Hebrews of the Old Testament time comply with this principle , but also the rather civilized societies.

3. 3 From Book of Job The patience of Job Refers to great patience. God preached to Satan, Job's virtue and piety, Satan disapproved. Job, of course, very pious, because you gave him enormous riches and glory, he said,wait until he suffered enough to see if he believe you or not. So the battle of satan and God made job suffered horribly. He lost his wealth, children and health one after another. Job endured great suffering, but did not betray God; at last, he got God-given happiness.

3. 4 From Book of Daniel The writing on the wall refers to approaching calamity. It is the story about the Babylonia Nebuchadnezzar's son Belshazzar the king. One day, he and thousands of ministers in the palace drinking and playing, someone used a finger writing down a line in the palace wall that no one understood. The whey-faced king sent for world talents to interpret its meaning, at last the prophet of Israel, Daniel deciphered these strange words which to the effect said that been ignoring the existence of god, Babylon would perish and Belshazzar would be killed.

Sure enough, the king was killed that night. Since then , the writing on the wall ,as an idiom, means impending doom.

IV. British and American Literature

In colorful western works of literature and art, the impact of Bible must not underestimate. The deposit of Bible is deeply underlying in Anglo-American national consciousness and influences all aspects of western writers. For instance,

in Italian poet Dante’s imperishable work The Divine Comedy, the sleepwalking of the writer is constructed with the three realms of hell, purgatory and paradise.

The Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci’s famous work The Last Supper is drawn from the story of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. In Works of the English poet John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, not only the characters but also some sentences are molded from Bible. From the extraordinary playwright Shakespeare to the famous poet Byron, from the distinguished novelist Charlotte Bronte to Nobel Prize winning Hemingway, their works flash the brilliance of Bible. As for western literature, the influence of Bible is extremely distinct and profound.

Bible not only provides with numerous source material but also infuse flesh blood to English vocabulary. The French writer Victor Hugo once said: England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare but Bible made England. We should say that it is Bible that gave birth to western culture, without Bible, the west would lose its pillar of strength. In west, the Bible teachings permeate all orders of society, its power spread all over philosophy, politics, economics, literature and art, even every field of life.

Christianity is a key that unlock the western culture, so for English learners, to understand it is obviously important.

V. Conclusion

As we can see, Christianity has its unique influence upon English language. Learning language does not only mean grasping vocabulary and grammar, to understand well of the underlying Christian culture is fairly important.

References

Good News Bible [M] United Bible Societies 1981 Miller. John. W. The Origins

of The Bible [M ] New York: Paulist Press, 1994 Freeborn. D, From Old English To Standard English [M]