God bless you (''variants include'' God bless or bless you) is a common English expression generally used to wish a person

blessing In religion, a blessing (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the impartation of something with grace, holiness, spiritual redemption, or divine will. Etymology and Germanic paganism The modern English language term ''bless'' likely ...

s in various situations, especially to "will the good of another person", as a response to a sneeze, and also, when parting or writing a

valediction A valediction (Derivation (linguistics), derivation from Latin ''vale dicere'', "to say farewell"), or complimentary close in American English, is an expression used to say farewell, especially a word or phrase used to end a letter or message,

. The phrase has been used in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

(cf. ), and by Christians, since the time of the

early Church Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish ...

as a

benediction A benediction (Latin: ''bene'', well + ''dicere'', to speak) is a short invocation for divine help, blessing and guidance, usually at the end of worship service. It can also refer to a specific Christian religious service including the expositio ...

, as well as a means of bidding a person Godspeed. Many clergy, when blessing their congregants individually or as a group, use the phrase "God bless you".

Origins and legends

The locution "God bless you" is used in

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

s. In the

Aaronic blessing The Priestly Blessing or priestly benediction, ( he, ברכת כהנים; translit. ''birkat kohanim''), also known in rabbinic literature as raising of the hands (Hebrew ''nesiat kapayim'') or rising to the platform (Hebrew ''aliyah ledukhan'') ...

, "Invoking the name of the Lord in this benediction transferred the name, the identity and presence, of God onto his people." While used by clergy in

Christian liturgy Christian liturgy is a pattern for Christian worship, worship used (whether recommended or prescribed) by a Christian congregation or Christian denomination, denomination on a regular basis. The term liturgy comes from Greek and means "public wor ...

(especially during the benediction), the phrase "God bless you" is regularly used among believers with one another, who call upon God to grant the recipient of the phrase favour and protection. In the periodical ''

Christianity Today ''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "evange ...

'', the philosopher

Dallas Willard Dallas Albert Willard (September 4, 1935 – May 8, 2013) was an American philosopher also known for his writings on Christian spiritual formation. Much of his work in philosophy was related to phenomenology, particularly the work of Edmund H ...

wrote: ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

'' reports that during the Roman Plague of 590, "

Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregori ...

ordered unceasing prayer for

divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

intercession. Part of his command was that anyone sneezing be blessed immediately ("God bless you"), since sneezing was often the first sign that someone was falling ill with the plague." By AD 750, it became customary to say "God bless you" as a response to one sneezing. Some have offered an explanation suggesting that people once held the folk belief that a person's

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

could be thrown from their body when they sneezed,Snopes Urban Legends
– Bless You! that sneezing otherwise opened the body to invasion by the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

evil spirit Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is generally ...

s,Ed Zotti, Editor
''Why Do We Say "God Bless You" After a Sneeze?''

Straight Dope "The Straight Dope" was a question-and-answer newspaper column written under the pseudonym Cecil Adams. Contributions were made by multiple authors, and it was illustrated (also pseudonymously) by Slug Signorino. It was first published in 1973 i ...

, 27 September 2001. or that sneezing was the body's effort to force out an invading evil presence. In these cases, "God bless you" or "bless you" is used as a sort of shield against evil. The Irish Folk story "Master and Man" by

Thomas Crofton Croker Thomas Crofton Croker (15 January 1798 – 8 August 1854) was an Irish antiquary, best known for his ''Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland'' (1825–1828), and who also showed considerable interest in Irish song and music. ...

, collected by

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

, describes this variation. Moreover, in the past some people may have thought that the heart stops beating during a sneeze, and that the phrase "God bless you" encourages the heart to continue beating.Madsci.org

Mad Scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly amb ...

posting by Tom Wilson, M.D./PhD, Pathology, Div. of Molecular Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine In some cultures, sneezing is seen as a sign of good fortune or God's beneficence.Re: Why does plucking my eyebrows make me sneeze?

MadSci Network The Madsci Network is a website known primarily for its ''Ask-A-Scientist'' forum where users can ask questions to a panel of volunteer scientists. Each question, submitted via a Web interface, is reviewed by a volunteer moderator. If the questio ...

posting by Robert West, Post-doc/Fellow, 1997-08-05 Alternative responses to sneezing exist in various languages.

References

* Opie, Iona, and Moira Tatem. ''A Dictionary of Superstitions''. Oxford University Press; Oxford, 1992. {{ISBN, 0-19-282916-5 English phrases Parting phrases Parting traditions

Origins and legends

See also

References