When a person sprays himself in front of someone to no avail, we, in order to save his strength and nervous system, can say: "You should not cast pearls in front of pigs." What exactly the latter means, we will analyze today.
Bible
The expression under consideration goes back to the Bible, namely to the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ. Let us quote the maxim in full: “Do not give holy things to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample it under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.”
Someone will ask, what does the beads have to do with it? Beads are here despite the fact that there is also another translation of the Bible - Church Slavonic. We will not give it here in full, because it is difficult for the perception of a modern person. Let's just say that there pearls are beads. Accordingly, the expression "throwing pearls before swine" is a kind of hybrid of two translations of the Bible: on the one hand, the Synodal, and on the other, Church Slavonic.
Meaning
The interpretation of Christ's instruction is multifaceted, but usually they say so when a person does not measure strengthhis eloquence with the possibilities of the audience. Moreover, of course, the form of the saying is quite harsh, but not always the person using it wants to offend people.
For example, there is an opinion that a teenager is able to perceive philosophy only from the age of 14-15, it makes no sense to pump him up with wisdom before, because he will not absorb it. Thus, if a teacher speaks to students who have not reached the designated age, then he will be doing exactly what can be defined as “throwing beads.”
Thus, we understand that when they say “don't throw pearls in front of pigs,” they just want to emphasize, albeit in an overly harsh form, the difference between the speaker and the addressees of his speech. In a more general form, one can also say that in this way a person is advised not to waste energy on those who do not appreciate it.
Cult film by E. Ryazanov and the saying about beads
Despite the fact that the film "Office Romance" was released in Soviet times, when, in general, references to the Bible were not welcomed at all, two very interesting quotes "crawled" into E. Ryazanov's masterpiece. One - referring us to the topic of our today's conversation, and the other, although not biblical, but also very curious.
Everyone is well aware that when a new deputy director, Yuri Grigoryevich Samokhvalov, came to the institution where the heroes work, he arranged an evening of acquaintance with subordinates and employees. On it, a former classmate of Novoseltsev incitedAnatoly Efremovich to hit on Lyudmila Prokofievna Kalugina, so that he could take the vacant position of the head of the light industry department.
Anatoly Efremovich, as a gentle person, for a long time did not dare to implement the plan of his institute friend, but now he is gaining courage and with the words: “Now I will refresh myself and start throwing pearls,” boldly rushes towards, as it turned out, his fate. True, the audience knows that all this was not at all easy, because the plot of the entire Ryazanov film is built around the hatred-love of Kalugina and Novoseltsev.
An incomplete quote from the Bible was covered up by an incomplete quote from a Spanish Communist?
In addition to the reference to Jesus Christ and the saying "throwing pearls before swine", there is something in the film that may have covered up biblical wisdom.
When Novoseltsev came the next day to apologize to his boss for his "concert" yesterday, the following dialogue took place between them:
- Sit down, comrade Novoseltsev…
- No, don't…
- Anatoly Efremovich, sit down, don't be shy.
- Better to die standing.
The last phrase is attributed to many people, but it was definitely said in 1936 at a rally in Paris by the Spanish communist Dolores Ibarruri: “The Spanish people prefer to die standing than to live on their knees.”
It's amazing, but two truncated, almost hidden quotes in Soviet cinema classics are connected by one theme - the preservation of human dignity. The difference is that “throwing beads in front of pigs” is a phraseological unit that calls not to get involved in disputesand disputes with people who are not worth it, and the saying of the Spanish communist suggests active resistance to evil by violence. Moreover, the rally at which the woman spoke was anti-fascist. After a rather fascinating, as it seems to us, linguistic journey into the world of cinema, we turn to the morality of expression.
Moral of phraseologism
Here God himself ordered to do the interpretation. The moral is simple and wise, like much of what is written in the most printed book in the world. If you are told “you should not cast pearls before swine” (the Bible gave us this expression), then this can mean in different variations that you should not pay attention to those who do not deserve it. In other words, it is better to save your strength and eloquence for another place, perhaps another time.
There is a more general moral here, it sounds like this: do not waste yourself. And here it doesn’t matter whether a person has an audience in the form of “pigs” or not. It is a pity that a person begins to understand such a simple morality only when the heat of youth subsides and the reasonable coldness of maturity replaces the youthful ardor.
When young, people usually scatter their pearls around them without regret. Youth has a lot of energy and time, so everything is spent without looking back, but when resources become scarce, a person begins to think.
Surprisingly, according to the history of the phraseologism "throwing pearls in front of pigs" (its origin clearly indicates this to us), a still young man in modern times reached such wisdom with his mindmeasure.
Conclusions from wisdom
There are many benefits to using your time wisely. Firstly, if a person does not get angry at many, then he gives more attention to those who deserve it. Secondly, he saves his nerves. Thirdly, as a consequence of the second, he lives longer and enjoys life.
One thing is bad: the ability not to throw beads in front of pigs (the meaning of the expression was considered a little earlier from many sides) comes to a person, as a rule, too late. Therefore, readers can be advised to quickly join the biblical wisdom and draw extremely useful and practical conclusions from it for themselves.
