When a person is sprayed in front of someone to no avail, we, to save his strength and nervous system, we can say: "Do not throw beads in front of pigs." What exactly means the last, we will analyze today.
Bible
The expression in question goes back to the Bible, namely to the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ. Let’s give the whole saying: “Do not give the shrine to the dogs and do not throw your pearls before the pigs, so that they do not trample it underfoot with their feet and, turning, do not tear you to pieces.”
Someone asks, 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 completely, because it is difficult for the perception of modern man. Let's just say that there pearls are beads. Accordingly, the expression “throw beads in front of pigs” is a hybrid of two Bible translations: on the one hand, the synodal, and on the other, Church Slavonic.
Value
The interpretation of Christ's instruction is multifaceted, but they usually say so when a person does not balance the strength of his eloquence with the capabilities of the audience. Moreover, of course, the form of the saying is quite sharp, but not always the person using it wants to insult people.
For example, there is an opinion that a teenager is able to perceive philosophy only from the age of 14–15, it does not make sense to pump it with wisdom before, because he does not absorb it. Thus, if a teacher speaks to schoolchildren who have not reached the indicated age, then he will be engaged in exactly what can be defined as "throwing beads."
Thus, we understand that when they say “do not throw beads in front of pigs”, they just want to emphasize, albeit in an excessively harsh form, the difference between the speaker and the addressees of his speech. In a more general form, one can also say that people are advised not to waste their energy on those who do not appreciate it.
The cult film of E. Ryazanov and the dictum 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 is referring us to the topic of our conversation today, and the other, although not biblical, is also very curious.
Everyone knows that when the new deputy director, Yuri Grigorievich Samokhvalov, came to the institution where the heroes work, he arranged an evening of acquaintance with his subordinates and employees. On it, a former fellow student of Novoseltsev beat Anatoly Efremovich to strike for Lyudmila Prokofievna Kalugina, so that he could take the vacant place as head of the light industry department.
Anatoly Efremovich as a soft man for a long time did not dare to implement the plan of his institute friend, but he gathered courage and said: “Now I will have some refreshment and start throwing beads,” she boldly rushes to meet her fate, as it turned out. True, viewers know that all this was not easy at all, because around the hatred and love of Kalugina and Novoseltsev, the plot of the entire Ryazanov film was built.
An incomplete quote from the Bible was blocked by an incomplete quote from a Spanish Communist?
In addition to the reference to Jesus Christ and the dictum of “throwing beads before the pigs,” the film also contains what may have covered biblical wisdom.
When Novoseltsev came the next day to apologize to the boss for his “concert” yesterday, the following dialogue took place between them:
- Sit down, comrade Novoseltsev ...
- No, thanks…
- Anatoly Efremovich, sit down, do not be shy.
“Better to die standing up.”
The last phrase is attributed to many people, but the Spanish Communist Dolores Ibarruri uttered it exactly at a rally in Paris in 1936: "The Spanish people prefer to die standing rather than live on their knees."
Surprisingly, 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 before pigs” is a phraseology that calls not to get involved in disputes and 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 moral of expression.
Moral phraseology
Then God himself commanded to engage in interpretation. Morality is simple and wise, like much of what is written in the book most published in the world. If you are told “it is not necessary to throw beads before pigs” (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 strength and eloquence for another place, perhaps for another time.
There is a more general morality, it sounds like this: you should 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 youthful ardor is replaced by a reasonable coldness of maturity.
In youth, people usually scatter their pearls around themselves without regret. Youth has a lot of time and energy, so everything is wasted without looking back, when resources become scarce, a person begins to think.
Surprisingly, according to the history of phraseology “throwing beads in front of pigs” (its origin clearly indicates this to us), still a young man by his standards reached such wisdom with his mind.
Conclusions from Wisdom
The wise use of one’s time has many advantages. Firstly, if a person does not become inflamed by many, then he pays more attention to those who deserve it. Secondly, he retains 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 from it extremely useful and practical conclusions for themselves.