The Bible probably popularized the word almighty in English. If you do an online search in the Bible for “almighty,” you’ll find dozens of uses associated with God.
He is referred to as “Almighty God,” “God Almighty,” “Lord Almighty,” “Lord God Almighty” – and, for short, “the Almighty.”
The term “the almighty dollar” is not in the Bible.
That was coined by the American author Washington Irving (1783-1859), whose best known works include the short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.”
Irving used the phrase in a travel story he wrote about a steamboat trip he took in the Louisiana bayous in the 1830s.
The story, titled “The Creole Village,” was first published in the November 12, 1836 issue of Knickerbocker Magazine.
Irving – who was from New York City – was impressed by the comparatively laid back lifestyle of the Creole people and how unconcerned they seemed about making money.
He wrote:
“The inhabitants, moreover, have none of that eagerness for gain and rage for improvement which keep our people continually on the move...In a word, the almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages; and unless some of its missionaries penetrate there, and erect banking houses and other pious shrines, there is no knowing how long the inhabitants may remain in their present state of contented poverty.”
Like many people who have plenty of money, Irving probably overestimated how content people were to be poor.
And, fifty years later, when “The Creole Village” was published in a book collecting Irving’s stories, called The Crayon Book (1887), he made it clear that he hadn’t meant any offense – to the almighty dollar, that is.
In a satirical footnote he added to the story in the book, Irving said:
“This phrase [the almighty dollar], used for the first time in this sketch, has since passed into current circulation, and by some has been questioned as savoring I fear, however, my prayer is of irreverence. The author, therefore, owes it to his orthodoxy to declare that no irreverence was intended even to the dollar itself; which he is aware is daily becoming more and more an object of worship.”
Or, going back to the Bible, as it’s said in Job 22:25, “Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.”
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