In the movie Billy Elliot, which I’m told uses a Northeast England dialect, there’s a scene in which Billy is in his room feverishly trying to hide his ballet slippers under the mattress. In walks his dad just as the shoes are covered.
“What’r y’doin’ sneakin’ ‘round in here like a creepin’ Jesus?”
Is it an allusion to the Biblical passage about Jesus coming quietly and stealthily “like a thief in the night”?
I would have thought you’d got it right there, Liberal, until I came across this reference. Whenever I hear it used (almost always by my Mum) it’s when someone has crept up on her unawares. I can’t think of any usage in my presence that has the connotation of hypocrisy - perhaps that is an Irish use, that Scotland has lost the original meaning of.
Creeping Jesus sounds like a really bad drink, perhaps involving Newky Brown mixed with, well, anything.
IME it generally refers to people who metaphorically sneak up on you and mug you with religion. Basically anybody who practices their religion in a manner which emphasises their piety while pretending not to. The false modesty of religion if you will.
We’re not really an overtly religious people and experiencing those who are often leaves a sense of puzzlement and discomfort.
I looked up the same reference as Struan cites, but I got the impression of ostentatious piety rather than hypocrisy per se. I vaguely remember my grandparents using the term to reference a vetch-style plant that spreads itself by creepers, though whether that was a purely local usage I have no clue.
I’m not British, but I’ve only ever heard it used following the word “sweet”, to mean surprise or shock, as in: “Sweet creeping Jesus, you scared the fuck outta me!”
I never assigned any more meaning to the words “sweet” or “creeping” than I did to the middle initial in “Jesus H Christ!” I guess I just thought of it as a cute-ism. I didn’t think of it as particularly British either.
Well, there’s a plant called “Wandering Jew” so this seems plausable.