Apple of one's eye (Deuteronomy 32:10)

Bible Verse:
「In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye…」 (Deuteronomy 32:10)

Meaning:
A precious thing, a favourite of someone

Origin and Application:
You may wonder how the image of an apple is related to our eyes. The apple in our eye refers to the pupil, which was believed to be as solid as an apple in the old days. The phrase, appearing five times in the Old Testament, refers to a favourite of someone.
It is generally thought that this idiom appeared first in the Bible. But according to historians, the idiom appeared as early as in the ninth century by King Alfred who translated the original Latin phrase 「pupillam」, meaning 「pupil」, into Old English. The image of apple was added to sound poetic. Apple of one's eye now describes something considered as precious as one's eyes.

Example:
Alice, a very capable student, is the apple of her teacher's eye.

Apple of one's eye心肝寶貝/掌上明珠（申命記32：10）

Bible Verse:
「In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye…」 (Deuteronomy 32:10)
「耶和華遇見他在狂野荒涼野獸吼叫之地，就環繞他，看顧他，保護他，如同保護眼中的瞳人。」（申命記32：10）

Meaning:
意旨掌上明珠。

Origin and Application:
在古代，人們一直以為眼瞳是個實心的球體，如蘋果一般。「apple」指的是瞳孔，即眼睛裡最敏感最珍貴的部分。因此，「apple of his eye」譯為「眼中的瞳人」，亦為「心肝寶貝」。 這個短語在《舊約》中共出現了五次。
人們普遍認為「apple of his eye」這個說法是在《聖經》裡首次出現的。但歷史學家認為，它是在公元9世紀艾爾弗雷德國王把拉丁文譯為古英語時出現的，從此開始廣泛流傳。

Example:
Alice, a very capable student, is the apple of her teacher's eye.
愛麗絲品學兼優，是老師的掌上明珠。

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