Today we connect the phrase with self-righteousness—a “holier-than- thou” attitude. In the Bible God condemned this attitude and mocked the words of self-righteous people: “I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; a people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; . . . which say, ‘Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou’” (Isa. 65:2–5 KJV).