You Never Knew These Words Were from Bible

‘A house divided against itself’

Without unity there can be no strength In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells a crowd of impudent Pharisees, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.’ However, the phrase didn’t enter the modern lexicon until it was memorably quoted by Abraham Lincoln in his famous nomination acceptance speech of 1858. Addressing the contentious issue of slavery in the United States, he told an audience of Republican politicians that ‘a house divided against itself cannot stand.

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.’ His words were prophetic. Three years later, the U.S. government did indeed split, and the resulting civil war between slave and free states cost more than 600,000 lives. The phrase meanwhile, became famous, immortalized as the title of a 1913 movie, a 1935 novel, and, rather grandiosely, an episode of the hit TV series Dallas. Not exactly what Jesus had in mind.