God bless you - wikipedia God bless you For the song by Martha & the Vandellas, see Bless You ( song ). Look up God bless you in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. God bless you ( variants include God bless or bless you ) is a common English expression, used to wish a person blessings in various situations, especially as a response to a sneeze, and also, when parting or writing a valediction. The phrase has been used in the Hebrew Bible by Jews ( cf. Numbers 6 : 24 ), and by Christians, since the time of the early Church as a benediction, 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 ''. A typical polite response after being told `` bless you '' in response to sneezing is to thank the person who has said it. Origins and Legends The Elder Pliny says, `` Why do we say ' Bless you ' when people sneeze ? '' ( Penguin : Pliny the Elder, Natural History : A Selection, p. 254 paragraph 22, `` Superstitions '' ) Pliny died in 79 CE trying to save people from the eruption of Vesuvius. Therefore this custom was a mystery 2000 years ago give or take. Since its origin was a mystery to him at the time, the Romans may perhaps, for example, have got it from the Greeks. Therefore it started as a pagan blessing, not a Christian one, and in its origins had nothing to do with plagues or popes. National Geographic reports that during the plague of AD 590, `` Pope Gregory I ordered unceasing prayer for 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. The practice of blessing someone who sneezes dates as far back as at least AD 77, although it is far older than most specific explanations can account for. Some have offered an explanation suggesting that people once held the folk belief that a person 's soul could be thrown from their body when they sneezed, that sneezing otherwise opened the body to invasion by the Devil or evil spirits, 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, collected by William Butler Yeats, 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. In some cultures, sneezing is seen as a sign of good fortune or God 's beneficence. As such, alternative responses to sneezing are the German word Gesundheit ( meaning `` health '' ) sometimes adopted by English speakers, the Irish word sláinte ( meaning `` good health '' ), the Spanish salud ( also meaning `` health '' ) and the Hebrew laBri'ut ( colloquial ) or liVriut ( classic ) ( both spelled : `` לבריאות '' ) ( meaning `` to health '' ). In Persian culture, sneezing sometimes is called `` sabr = صبر, '' meaning `` to wait or be patient. '' And when trying to do something or go somewhere and suddenly sneezing, one should stop or sit for a few minutes and then re-start. By this act the `` bad thing '' passes and one will be saved. This is observed in Indian culture as well. In Greek culture, sneezing was widely recognized as a divine omen. In Book 17 of Homer 's Odyssey, Penelope speaks to Eumaeus in private about the suitors feasting in the halls of the king 's palace, and how surely Odysseus will return and kill them. Suddenly her son Telemachus sneezes and Penelope laughed. A sneeze meant the intercession of the gods to make her statement come true. It was a blessing from the gods, connecting the sneeze to the `` God Bless You. '' References ^ Jump up to : Jucker, Andreas H. ; Taavitsainen, Irma ( 10 April 2008 ). Speech Acts in the History of English. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 171. ISBN 9789027291417. God bless you has been attested as a leave - taking term since 1740 and can be today heard in the US as an explicit wish or blessing and as an implicit leave - taking term. Some also use the reduced variant of God bless. Jump up ^ Alhujelan, Naser S. ( 2008 ). Worldviews of the Peoples of the Arabian Peninsula : A Study of Cultural System. ProQuest. p. 369. ISBN 9780549703549. The expression `` May God bless you '' includes blessing, meaning growth, happiness, and many other good things. It is often said by family and loved ones as a kind of prayer. Jump up ^ Lewis, Roger ( 1997 ). The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Applause. p. 415. ISBN 9781557832481. The letter ends with the solemn valediction ' God bless you. ' Jump up ^ Everett, Isaac ( 1 May 2009 ). The Emergent Psalter. Church Publishing, Inc. p. 132. ISBN 9780898696172. The beginning of this psalm echoes the priestly benediction from Numbers 6 : May God bless you and keep you. Jump up ^ Wachspress, Amy ( 8 June 2012 ). Memories from Cherry Harvest. Counterpoint LLC. p. 91. ISBN 9781593764890. reciting the ancient Jewish benediction a parent gives to a child : `` May God bless you and keep you and may God 's countenance shine upon you and bring you peace. '' Jump up ^ Driscoll, Rev. Michael S. ; Hilgartner, Rev. Msgr. Richard B. ; Kelly, Maureen A. ; John Thomas Lane ; James Presta ; Corinna Laughlin ; Jim Schellman ; D. Todd Williamson ; Paul Turner ; Catherine Combier - Donovan ; Diana Macalintal ; Sr. Genevieve ( 2012 ). The Liturgy Documents, Volume Two : Essential Documents for Parish Sacramental Rites and Other Liturgies. Liturgy Training Publications. p. 439. ISBN 9781616710279. Thus, the the ( sic ? ) Book of Blessings, as in the Divine Office, while clergy may close with a true blessing ( `` May almighty God bless you. '' ), laypersons can only request God 's blessing ( `` May the Lord bless us. '' ) Jump up ^ Patrick, Bethanne Kelly ; Thompson, John Milliken ( 2009 ). An Uncommon History of Common Things. National Geographic. p. 74. ISBN 9781426204203. In Rome during the plague of 590, Pope Gregory I ordered unceasing prayer for 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. Although the populace did not understand that the sneeze was the source of transmittal, they may have sensed it was connected to the disease. `` God bless you '' became a verbal totem invoking divine mercy on the sneezer. Jump up ^ Whiting, Bartl Jere ( 1977 ). Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases. Harvard University Press. p. 178. ISBN 9780674219816. The year 750, is commonly reckoned the era of the custom of saying `` God bless you, '' to one who happens to sneeze, etc. ^ Jump up to : Snopes Urban Legends - Bless You ! ^ Jump up to : Ed Zotti, Editor. Why Do We Say `` God Bless You '' After a Sneeze ?, Straight Dope, 27 September 2001. ^ Jump up to : Madsci.org, Mad Scientist posting by Tom Wilson, M.D. / PhD, Pathology, Div. of Molecular Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine Jump up ^ Stollznow, Karen ( 2014 ). `` `` God Bless You ! '' -- A Blessing in Disguise ? ``. Skeptic Magazine. 19 ( 4 ). Retrieved 21 August 2015. Jump up ^ Gutenberg.org, Project Gutenberg story by T. Crofton Croker, 1898. Jump up ^ Re : Why does plucking my eyebrows make me sneeze ?, MadSci Network posting by Robert West, Post-doc / Fellow, 1997 - 08 - 05 Opie, Iona, and Moira Tatem. A Dictionary of Superstitions. Oxford University Press ; Oxford, 1992. ISBN 0 - 19 - 282916 - 5 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=God_bless_you&oldid=801928682 '' Categories : English phrases Parting phrases Parting traditions Hidden categories : Use dmy dates from June 2013 Talk About Wikipedia Dansk Bahasa Indonesia Norsk Norsk nynorsk Edit links This page was last edited on 22 September 2017, at 20 : 48. About Wikipedia

Question: where does the saying bless you come from
Answer: the Hebrew Bible