The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

separate the sheep from the goats To cull the
good or useful from the bad or useless. <strong>The</strong> expression
originated from Matthew 25:31–33: “<strong>The</strong>
Son of Man . . . shall separate them one from
another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the
goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand,
but the goats on the left.” It is also encountered in
the form divide the sheep from the goats. “<strong>The</strong>
po liti cal feelings of the country are, as a rule, so
well marked that it is easy, as to almost every
question, to separate the sheep from the goats”
(Anthony Trollope, Phineas Redux, 1869). See also
separate the wheat from the chaff.
separate the wheat from the chaff To divide
what is valuable from what is worthless. <strong>The</strong>
expression comes from Matthew 3:12, in which
John the Baptist describes how Christ will judge
the good and the bad on judgment day. Chaff
describes the husks and other outer material of
seed, which is separated from the good grain, in
this case wheat, during threshing or winnowing.
“Everything is most carefully gone into; we endeavour
to sift the wheat from the chaff ” (John Galsworthy,
<strong>The</strong> Forsyte Saga, 1922). See also separate
the sheep from the goats.
September 11 See 9/11.
seraphic (sbrafi k) Serene; rapt. <strong>The</strong> word alludes
to the seraphim, or seraphs, the highest of the nine
orders of angels. According to the account in Isaiah
6:1–7 the seraphim are God’s fi ery six- winged
attendants, who sing his praises around his throne.
<strong>The</strong> word comes from saraph (meaning “to burn”
in Hebrew). “<strong>The</strong>re was a beggar in the street,
when I went down; and as I turned my head
towards the window, thinking of her calm seraphic
eyes, he made me start by muttering, as if he were
Sermon on the Mount
an echo of the morning: ‘Blind! Blind! Blind!’ ”
(Charles Dickens, David Copperfi eld, 1849–50).
Serbonian bog (serboneebn) A situation from
which it is impossible to extricate oneself. <strong>The</strong>
allusion is to a vast area of marshland of the same
name that stretched from the isthmus of Suez to
the Nile delta in ancient times and in which many
armies were said to have been lost. It is now covered
in sand. “<strong>The</strong> lingering twilight served to
show them through this Serbonian bog, but
deserted them almost totally at the bottom of a
steep and very stony hill, which it was the traveller’s
next toilsome task to ascend” (Sir Walter
Scott, Waverley, 1814).
Sermon on the Mount A lengthy and authoritative
statement of principle, policy, etc. <strong>The</strong> allusion
is to the Sermon on the Mount given by Jesus Christ
to his disciples, as described in Matthew 5–7. <strong>The</strong>
passage begins with the beatitudes and contains
the Lord’s Prayer. “This was the fi rst of a series of
moral lectures or Sermons on the Mount, which
were to be delivered from the same place every
Sunday afternoon as long as the fi ne weather lasted”
(Thomas Hardy, <strong>The</strong> Return of the Native, 1880). See
also city on a hill; deliver us from evil; enter
into one’s closet; go the extra/second mile;
hide one’s light under a bushel; if thy right
eye offend thee; jot or tittle; judge not, that
ye be not judged; lay not up trea sures upon
earth; lead us not into temptation; left hand
know what your right hand is doing, do not
let your; lilies of the fi eld; love your enemies;
mote and beam; rain falls on the just and the
unjust, the; salt of the earth; suffi cient unto
the day is the evil thereof; tomorrow will
take care of itself; turn the other cheek;
wolf in sheep’s clothing.
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