"there but for the grace of God go I" meaning in English

See there but for the grace of God go I in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: There are several variants of this phrase, but all make reference to the same concept: an admission of humility that were it not for the work of God's grace (and perhaps also one's upbringing among those also formed in God's grace), any number of trials or tribulations could have befallen a person. The original is most often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, who may well have been quoting or paraphrasing the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:8–10, which states, "Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am..." It has also been attributed to a mid-16th-century statement by a reformer, John Bradford: "There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford", in reference to a group of prisoners being led to execution. Head templates: {{head|en|proverb}} there but for the grace of God go I
  1. A recognition that others' misfortune could be one's own, if it weren't for the blessing of the Divine, or for fortune or fate. Wikipedia link: John Bradford Related terms: but for the grace of God, good graces, so help me God Translations (humankind's fate is in God's hands): все под Богом хо́дим (vse pod Bogom xódim) (Russian) Translations (others' misfortune could be one's own): ⁧רק במזל אני לא שם⁩ (Hebrew), ⁧רק בחסדי אלוהים זה לא קרה גם לי⁩ (Hebrew)
    Sense id: en-there_but_for_the_grace_of_God_go_I-en-proverb-NqQVYjq- Categories (other): English proverbs

Download JSON data for there but for the grace of God go I meaning in English (2.1kB)

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  "etymology_text": "There are several variants of this phrase, but all make reference to the same concept: an admission of humility that were it not for the work of God's grace (and perhaps also one's upbringing among those also formed in God's grace), any number of trials or tribulations could have befallen a person. The original is most often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, who may well have been quoting or paraphrasing the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:8–10, which states, \"Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am...\"\nIt has also been attributed to a mid-16th-century statement by a reformer, John Bradford: \"There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford\", in reference to a group of prisoners being led to execution.",
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          "name": "English proverbs",
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      "glosses": [
        "A recognition that others' misfortune could be one's own, if it weren't for the blessing of the Divine, or for fortune or fate."
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      "id": "en-there_but_for_the_grace_of_God_go_I-en-proverb-NqQVYjq-",
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          "word": "but for the grace of God"
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          "word": "so help me God"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "vse pod Bogom xódim",
          "sense": "humankind's fate is in God's hands",
          "word": "все под Богом хо́дим"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "sense": "others' misfortune could be one's own",
          "word": "⁧רק במזל אני לא שם⁩"
        },
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "sense": "others' misfortune could be one's own",
          "word": "⁧רק בחסדי אלוהים זה לא קרה גם לי⁩"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "John Bradford"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "there but for the grace of God go I"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [],
  "etymology_text": "There are several variants of this phrase, but all make reference to the same concept: an admission of humility that were it not for the work of God's grace (and perhaps also one's upbringing among those also formed in God's grace), any number of trials or tribulations could have befallen a person. The original is most often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, who may well have been quoting or paraphrasing the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:8–10, which states, \"Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am...\"\nIt has also been attributed to a mid-16th-century statement by a reformer, John Bradford: \"There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford\", in reference to a group of prisoners being led to execution.",
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  "lang_code": "en",
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  "related": [
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      "word": "but for the grace of God"
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    {
      "word": "good graces"
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    {
      "word": "so help me God"
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      "glosses": [
        "A recognition that others' misfortune could be one's own, if it weren't for the blessing of the Divine, or for fortune or fate."
      ],
      "links": [
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        ],
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "vse pod Bogom xódim",
      "sense": "humankind's fate is in God's hands",
      "word": "все под Богом хо́дим"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "others' misfortune could be one's own",
      "word": "⁧רק במזל אני לא שם⁩"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "others' misfortune could be one's own",
      "word": "⁧רק בחסדי אלוהים זה לא קרה גם לי⁩"
    }
  ],
  "word": "there but for the grace of God go I"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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