Whence-a-Word?: Skin of My Teeth
“I escaped by the skin of my teeth!” You may be familiar with this expression, but did you know that this phrase originates in the Bible? Well, kind of.
The idiom “skin of my teeth” is a result of the King James Version’s translation of Job 19:20. In the passage, the central character, Job, is complaining of his horrible plight. A series of physical ailments has riddled his body, completely emaciating him and leaving him nothing but skin and bones.
It is here in Job 19:20 that Job cries out (according to the NRSV), “My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.” The KJV renders this same verse, “My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.”
But is that what the Hebrew text actually says? Job 19:20 says:
שני בעור ואתמלטה
עצמי דבקה ובבשרי בעורי
The first thing to notice is that the last two words of the verse, בעור (“by/with skin”) and שני (“my teeth”) do not appear in construct. This means that they should not be read together as a construct possessive noun (i.e., “the skin (of) my teeth”). The ancient Hebrews may not have known much about advanced science or dental hygiene, but we’re pretty sure they knew that teeth didn’t have skin.
Actually, the key to understanding what is actually being said here is recognizing the Hebrew verbal root מלט (m-l-ṭ), which deals with saving and escaping. When used in the passive nif‘al form, it means “to flee, escape.” When used in the intensive pi‘el form, it means, “to save.” And when used in the causative hif‘il form, it means “to rescue.” However, in Job 19:20, the verb מלט is used in the reflexive hitpa‘el form. The Hebrew reflexive form is used when something happens repeatedly.
When the verb מלט is used in this form, as it is in Job 41:11, it means “to spew forth,” as if “escaping” over and over again. Because Job also uses this hitpa‘el form of מלט in the first person (“I”) in Job 19:20, he appears to be saying that not only is he so emaciated that his skin and muscles (flesh) are sticking to his bones (i.e., he has no fat on his body whatsoever because he is starving to death due to this horrible disease that is plaguing him), but that now his teeth (שן) are also beginning to “spew forth” (אתמלטה) and “escape” along with his skin (עור), which the text says is also sloughing off. Job 2:7-8 and Job 30:30 have already made abundantly clear that Job is losing skin due to severe lesions and likely leprosy.
Poor Job is starving to death, his skin is sloughing off, and his teeth are falling out.
Thus, the last line should be better translated, “and I am spewing forth with skin my teeth.” This translation better fits the context of the passage. Job is lamenting his predicament and the terrible disease that has ravaged his body, and in Job 19:20 he cries out in frustration: “My bones cling to my skin and my flesh, and I am pulling forth teeth with skin.”
But the King James Version of the Bible translated the end of Job 19:20, “I am escaped with the skin of my teeth,” and the famed idiom was born, taking on the meaning of barely managing to escape.
So once again, yes, “skin of my teeth,” originated with the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, but it doesn’t appear that the expression actually came from the Hebrew text of the Bible itself.—B.C.