There's a Little Hand Writing on the Wall

DESCRIPTION: "There's a little hand writing on the wall, There's a little hand writing on the wall, All I say and all I do, that hand writing on the wall."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 519, "There's a Little Hand Writing on the Wall" (1 fragment)
Roud #7123
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Handwriting on the Wall" (subject)
NOTES [221 words]: The "hand writing on the wall" is obviously an allusion to Daniel 5. But, as 5:24-28 reveal, it was not writing the actions of King Belshazzar (who, incidentally, was never King of Babylon; he was the son of the last King, Nabonidas, if he is historical at all). Rather, the hand wrote a message of condemnation.
For more on this subject, see "The Handwriting on the Wall."
The bit about "all I say and all I do" may be an allusion to John 8:6, 8, where Jesus writes upon the ground. A few late manuscripts say that he wrote "the sins of every one of them," though most omit (and the earliest manuscripts all omit John 7:53-8:11).
If it is not an allusion to John 8, it may be a reminiscence to John 4:29, where Jesus told the Samaritan woman "all that I ever did."
Steve Roud initially separated "The Handwriting on the Wall" (#7123) and "There's a Little Hand Writing on the Wall" (#11814); he has now combined them under the former number. He may be right; they are obviously about the same topic. But the Writing on the Wall is one of the most vivid and famous of Old Testament stories, and has been the subject of much later writing. Given the difference in form, I (tentatively) continue to split them; the lyrics of "There's a Little Hand" do not occur in Knowles Shaw's original text of "The Handwriting on the Wall." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: Be3519

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