Strata: The Bible in the News

When considering a topic for this column, I often wonder if I am striking the right balance between sayings that originate in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and those that come from the New Testament. Every so often, I am lucky: The phrase is found in both places. So it is with “out of the mouths of babes.” I suspect that most readers know this expression from Matthew 21:16 (in the now-classic wording of the King James Version), where Jesus says, “Yea; have ye never read: Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings…” But of course, Jesus’ hearers would, or at least could, have read these words, since they come from Psalm 8:2.