Holy Smoke!!!!

Holy smoke!!!!

Where did the term 'holy smoke' come from? This article suggests it's a relatively recent figure of speech.

Is that likely though given the number of smoking volcanoes there will have been around the world over the last ten thousand years? Surely, wherever there was a volcano, and before volcanoes were understood, the local inhabitants would have called the volcanic smoke 'holy smoke' as every volcano would have been a god to its surrounding people. Given the inhabitants would also have been unnerved on seeing new emissions, the term would have been punctuated with exclamation marks. Surely they would have blurted something out and what could be more fitting than 'Holy smoke!!!'?

This article has explanations for the origins of holy cow, holy mackerel and holy smoke, and it suggest holy smoke refers to the smoke from burnt offerings. Smoke/smoke clouds are of course considered 'holy' due to the tabernacle tent clouds and the cloud of smoke on Mount Sinai.

I believe the original smoke of 'Holy smoke!' was the smoke from the 'holy' volcanos. It is my guess this is in fact the first ever Abrahamic (and earlier) blasphemous curse that originated as a curse (expressing shock) and one that is used today in many countries in the world, especially those with volcanoes.

See THIS LIST of Biblical verses that suggest Yahweh, the Abrahamic god, was an imaginary volcano deity.

Exodus 19:18

Exodus 19:18 'And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.'

I have several times seen on forums the argument that this verse disproves the volcano god theory. However, I believe it helps to prove it. The argument is that if the Lord descended upon the mountain that it proves he was a separate entity to the mountain; he was not the volcano or the magma. This is not correct because it does not take into account the ignorance of the ancient Hebrews who did not understand what volcanoes were. They did not know volcanoes were a vessel with a liquid rising up them; they thought they were solid mountains and that the fiery liquid had been put onto the top. The fiery liquid was flowing downwards and it would therefore have appeared to be coming from above. The 'pillar of smoke' was rising and they say it looked like the smoke coming out of a furnace despite not realising it was actually coming out of a type of furnace.

Their knowledge will have increased as time passed to the point at which they realised to their horror how silly it was to anthropomorphise such a natural phenomena, which may have been the cause of the name banning and wiping from memory. Discovering 'lakes of fire' obviously did not dampen their beliefs but added to the awe and wonder at the glory of their god. At this point in Exodus, however, they only knew what they could see from a distance.