Expressions with Religious Origins 201
My 101 blog post focused on religious expressions that have the word Devil used in them. This blog post is a continuation on expressions with religious origins. My disclaimer is that religion is complicated and there can be different versions of stories and beliefs. The intention of this blog post is not to hurt anyone’s sentiments or feelings.
Angels
Angels are everywhere. Children are referred to as “angelic” and good Samaritans as “angels in disguise”. A popular quote from the movie It’s A Wonderful Life is
“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings”.
Angels are depicted as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or heaven) and humanity in Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).
Therefore, Deals made in hell aren’t witnessed by angels. It is a phrase commonly used in criminal law. The prosecution often must use witnesses which are not the most credible, sometimes they are even cooperating criminals.
This is the headline of an article on Michael Cohen, former campaign manager of the President,
“Conspiracies Hatched in Hell Don’t Have Angels as Witnesses”.
But Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Sometimes shortened to Fools rush in, the phrase was first used over 300 years ago when 22-year-old Alexander Pope wrote An Essay on Criticism. It essentially means that a less experienced or informed person will sometimes rush into a situation where a more informed one would not.
An interesting use is in the title of this Medium article,
“With COVID, Beware When Fools Rush in Where Angels Fear to Tread”.
Also, in this news headline
“Only fools rush in: Beware of Valentine’s Day scammers”.
Guardian angels protect and guide. Seen as custodians , defenders and sometimes, even saviors, as in the following headline.
“Barack Obama was Joe Biden’s guardian angel at the Democratic debate”.
Sometimes, citizens step up and protect their city when crime rates are high as in
“Guardian Angels to patrol NYC in anticipation of election unrest”.
Lucifer is not the only fallen angel. Per Investopedia, A fallen angel, in the investing world, is a bond that was initially given an investment-grade rating but has since been reduced to junk bond status. The downgrade is caused by a deterioration in the financial condition of the issuer.
The term is also sometimes used to describe a stock that has fallen precipitously from its all-time highs as in
“How Obscure Fallen Angel Penny Stocks Can Make You Rich”
“Potential fallen angels surpassed levels seen at depths of financial crisis, S&P says”.
Entrepreneurs especially love angels who can make financial investments. Per Investopedia, an angel investor (also known as a private investor, seed investor or angel funder) is a high-net-worth individual who provides financial backing for small startups or entrepreneurs, typically in exchange for ownership equity in the company.
Angel investors: are they a bad idea for starting a small business? From Harvard Business Review
“Do Algorithms Make Better — and Fairer — Investments Than Angel Investors”?
The halo effect affects social perception of a brand. Per Wikipedia, a halo is “is a crown of light rays, circle or disk of light that surrounds a person”. Angels have traditionally been represented with a halo and wings. The halo represents holiness.
The halo effect occurs when one positive experience with a brand, person or institute influences opinion positively in other areas or of other products from the same brand. As an article in Forbes is appropriately titled:
“Beware Of The Halo Effect: Choose Coaches For The Best ROI In The Digital New Normal”
Per this source, “Popular culture often presents the idea that angels must earn their wings by successfully completing certain missions. One of the most famous portrayals of that idea occurs in the classic Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life, in which a ‘second class’ angel in training named Clarence earns his wings after helping a suicidal man want to live again.”
The phrase is used on occasion to prove one’s merit as the following examples demonstrate,
“After pair of losses, Silver Hawks earn their wings late by finishing strong for first win of season”.
When used as follows on USA Network,
“An Angel Gets Its Wings! ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ ,
the phrase Gets Its Wing implies that a soul dies and becomes an angel, although this concept is disputed by many.
There are other anecdotal names with the word Angel. The popular American retail brand Victoria Secret’s supermodels were known as “Angels”. They would walk down the ramp during the annual fashion show with huge wings. Angel Fish is a species of shark with fins that appear like wings when spread horizontally. Angel food cake has a light and fluffy texture. Per Wikipedia, it earned its name because “it’s so light that angels could eat it and still fly without being weighted down”.
Popular legend states that an angel of death ushers’ people from death to the afterlife. Josef Mengele was a Nazi doctor who came to be known as the angel of death during World War 2 due to his experiments on Jews in concentration camps which resulted in painful deaths.
Heaven
Although there are numerous definitions of heaven, the one that I like the best is from Dictionary.com “The abode of God, the angels, and the spirits of the righteous after death; the place or state of existence of the blessed after the mortal life”.
I grew up accepting that the idiom “To be in seventh heaven” meant being in a state of blissfulness or happiness, but never really thought deeply about why it referred to the seventh heaven. Were there multiple different levels in heaven? Popular Hindu legends do talk about Swarga (Heaven) and a God named Indra ruling over it. On further research, I discovered that some Hindu religious books (Puranas) also describe seven levels of heaven. Abrahamic religions also have this concept, as did ancient Mesopotamians. It makes sense that the highest level would be the happiest one.
When Disney announced that its theme parks would be serving vegan food, the founder of a vegan dining guide wrote,
“Vegans and those seeking plant-based options are in seventh heaven with all the good news and awareness“
This news headline described Australia’s cricket win against England in the multi-format women’s Ashes as,
“Seventh heaven: The day Perry destroyed England“
To be “In Nirvana” also has a similar meaning. The literal meaning of “Nirvana” in Sanskrit, is blowing out or quenching. Most associated with Buddhism, it is a state of freedom, from suffering and happiness. Nirvana is not a place; it is a blissful state of consciousness. Here are a few examples of its use in recent headlines.
“Alibaba Regulatory Woes A ‘Nirvana Set Up’ For FAANG Stocks, Says Analyst“
The tech companies Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google are commonly referred to by the acronym FAANG.
“Top JPMorgan strategist explains how stocks hit market nirvana in 2021“
A similar idiom is “To be on Cloud Nine“. The origin of this one is uncertain, but one theory is that Cloud nine refers to the Cumulonimbus cloud in a couple of weather classification systems. This thunderstorm cloud nine can rise above thirty thousand feet (6 miles) and would be quite close to heaven. However, the classification system has a total of ten clouds with the tenth number being the highest altitude one, so it does not make sense that the ninth one was chosen to be the happiest one. The upper altar of the Temple of Heaven, located in Beijing, China, is decorated with nine stones symbolizing the importance of the number nine in Chinese cosmology and the nine levels of heaven.
Cloud nine was also the name of a popular album released by George Harrison (Of the Beatles fame) in 1987. This news headline describes the mental state of football fans on hearing news about an offer made to a popular professional football player.
“Let the Games Begin: Some Manchester City Fans on Cloud Nine after seeing Harry Kane Update”
If my blog post went viral, I would also be on cloud nine.
Another idiom that refers to the altitude of heaven is “Stinks to high heaven“. The origin of this one is also not reliably known but it is used to either signal a very corrupt practice or a really bad smell. A similar phrase is used in Shakespeare’s Hamlet where Hamlet’s uncle says,
“O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldest curse upon it, A brother’s murder“.
Here are some examples of its usage,
“Russia’s doping ban lifted: ‘Frankly, it stinks to high heaven“
“Lawyer says case against ex-Selma cops stinks to high heaven“.
Another way of conveying that you are ecstatic could be to say “I died and went to heaven“. This would be analogous to saying, “I’m floating on cloud nine” or “I’m in the seventh heaven“. By the way, several food sites have a recipe for Died-and-Went-to-Heaven chocolate cake. A news headline screams,
“I have died and gone to heaven: Domino’s launches new chocolate orange cookies – and fans are already going wild for the gooey treat“.
Per Wikipedia, “Pearly gates is an informal name for the gateway to Heaven according to some Christian denominations. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate being made from a single pearl“. The phrase is often used to denote that someone has died, as in these articles,
“They were holding hands when they left this world and went to the pearly gates“
“From a distance, the swaying leaves appear like happy children playing, while a closer view makes me wonder if this is what the wind chimes at the Pearly Gates look like“.
A news heading references this as ,
“Dogs in Heaven? Pope Francis Leaves Pearly Gates Open”.
A match made in heaven implies perfect compatibility. When the news of SalesForce acquiring Slack hit the media, Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, called it a match made in heaven.
Pennies from heaven denotes a windfall or unexpected money. As in this article that discusses the federal paycheck protection program,
“But for some, as grotesque as it seems, the pandemic has been a bonanza. Pennies from heaven. Except they weren’t pennies. And the cash didn’t come from heaven, but from taxpayers“.
Music on earth has also been associated with heaven. Tears in Heaven, about the death of his four-year- old son, was Eric Clapton’s bestselling single song in the US. Stairway to Heaven , a classic rock song released in 1971 by the English Rock Band Led Zeppelin, has been voted on in several lists to be the most popular song ever.
Heaven forbid, you use some of these expressions in the wrong context. Which is why it is so necessary to understand them properly. And of course, I am willing to move heaven and earth to write posts that will get you to a complete understanding. For heaven’s sake, do read all my other posts in this category too.