God helps those who help themselves: A Saying Travels
Angela L. Shannon spent years telling friends, relatives, and church members that a familiar religious saying was absent from the Bible. One parishioner half-joked that if it was not there, it ought to be. The line was "God helps those who help themselves," a motto whose history reaches through Greek drama, fables, English proverbs, and Benjamin Franklin's almanac. Its association with Scripture became common in the United States, even though no biblical book contains it. The journey of the saying begins beyond Christian Scripture, with stories and dramatic speeches about taking action while seeking assistance from the gods.
Ancient Greek writers expressed the sentiment in several forms. Sophocles linked heavenly assistance to action rather than purposeless leisure. Euripides gave Orestes words connecting a person's striving with the gods striving alongside him. In another work, Euripides expressed the idea that a person should try first and call on God afterward. Ovid offered a related formulation about divinity helping those who dare. In his story, Hippomenes considers racing Atalanta for her hand in marriage, despite the prospect of death if he loses. He enters the race and wins with Venus' assistance, joining a human decision to act with divine help.
Fables made the same sentiment practical. In Hercules and the Wagoner, a wagon falls into a ravine, or becomes stuck in later versions. Its driver appeals to Hercules and receives an instruction to get to work himself. Another fable credited to Aesop follows a shipwrecked man calling on Athena, who is advised to try swimming first. These tales may have illustrated a proverb already circulating rather than originated it. The situations behind "God helps" language were therefore concrete predicaments: a vehicle that would not move and a man in the water, each requiring effort alongside an appeal to a deity.
The sentiment continued into European proverbial writing. George Herbert included a related formulation in his collection Jacula Prudentum in 1651, telling a person to help himself and receive God's help. Jean de La Fontaine adapted the wagoner fable and drew a similar moral about help from Heaven. The English political theorist Algernon Sidney used the familiar modern wording, "God helps those who help themselves." Franklin later included it in Poor Richard's Almanack in 1736. Its frequent association with Franklin recognizes a widely quoted use, but Herbert's proverb and Sidney's wording belong to earlier stages of its English history.
Biblical language about diligence gave the saying a setting in religious discussion even without containing the sentence. Proverbs connects working the land with abundant food and diligent hands with rule. It also describes a horse made ready for battle while assigning victory to the Lord. In the New Testament, Colossians calls for wholehearted work as for the Lord. First Timothy speaks of providing for relatives, especially immediate family, and James compares faith without works to a body without the spirit. Christians have used these teachings to discuss initiative and personal agency, bringing work and dependence on God into the same conversation.
Shannon's concern with "God helps" extended beyond its absence from Scripture. She argued that the adage tied God's presence to human abilities that are limited and fragile. Applied to people regarded as lazy or unwilling to act, it could become a judgment against them. Job loss, accidents, illness, natural disasters, and other crises can leave people helpless despite the value and dignity of hard work. For Shannon, grace meant God's assistance and presence did not depend on a person's fluctuating feelings, thoughts, or activity. Her response placed divine love in circumstances where human effort could no longer resolve the difficulty.
The saying's biblical association also became a subject for Christian demographer and pollster George Barna. Across a series of polls, 53 percent of Americans strongly agreed that the Bible teaches God helps those who help themselves, while 22 percent agreed somewhat. Some respondents even associated the line with the Ten Commandments. Other Christian interpretations emphasize Jesus serving or healing people unable to help themselves. Minister Erwin Lutzer finds some biblical support for the sentiment but stresses that God more often helps those who cannot help themselves. These differing approaches connect the proverb with debates over grace, work, and reliance on God.
Related language appears in other religious traditions. A Quranic statement says Allah will not change a population's conditions until people change what is within themselves. A Chinese idiom expresses Heaven's reward for the diligent. A reported saying of Muhammad gives the relationship between trust and action an animal and a practical precaution. In the accompanying story, a Bedouin leaves his camel untied. Asked why, he explains that he has placed his trust in Allah. Muhammad tells him to tie the camel and place his trust in Allah, joining an act of securing the animal with the trust the man had expressed.
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (Living Lutheran), Adages — www.livinglutheran.org
- Wikipedia, God helps those who help themselves — en.wikipedia.org