What is an Idiom?

A idiom is an expression or phrase that is not interpreted literally.  The phrase is meant to mean something quite different than the literal words imply.  The phrase is interpreted in a figurative sense and varies from cultures and country to country. The purpose behind idioms is to make language richer and spicier.  Idioms help in conveying subtle meanings to the intended audience.

To those of us who were born in the USA, idioms like “thinking outside the box”, “deer in the headlights” or “snowed under” are easily understood.  But to an American the German idiom, “to tie a bear to someone” (to confess to someone), the 

Japanese idiom, “my cheeks are falling off” (I think this food is delicious), or the Dutch idiom, “to have hair on your teeth” (to be self assertive) make no sense apart from their native context.  Trying to decode idioms by breaking down each word into their literal meaning can lead us to wildly wrong conclusions!

Dr. Ron Moseley in his book Yeshua A Guide to the Real Jesus and the Original Church explains, “Today modern scholars have access to more first-century documents such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, portions of the Mishnah, and various references preserved in Talmudic references preserved from the second Temple period than any other time in history.  Over the past 50 years studies of the Jewish nature of the early church have brought new insight and fresh understanding concerning the idioms and Galilean teaching methods of Jesus.”

The Hebrew language has 100’s of idioms.  Properly understanding the idioms Jesus and the other Biblical writers used and how their audience understood them helps us to better understand His message and then live it out in our daily lives.

More information on this topic my be found on the Books / Video page of this website.  

We recommend the book:

New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus by David Bivin