Discussion Groups / English Usage / June 2008

It's commonly used in reference to a past time (not necessarily biblical)
when a particular sort of creature or person was very abundant or dominant,
e.g., "When dinosaurs walked the earth...".  

Another famous biblical earth walker is Satan, who appears in Job fresh from
a stint of "going to and fro in the earth, and ... walking up and down in
it"

Is there any connection to "all walks of life"?

Deepr than what?

Though the KJV has

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth.

And the NIV has

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let
them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the
livestock, over all the earth, [b] and over all the creatures that move
along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number;
fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of
the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

But the use is old and the older translations, such as the KJV, have
it as "creepeth upon the earth" and "moveth upon the earth".
Actually, which translation is that?  The ones at Biblos all give the
first one as "creeps" or "crawls" or "goes flat" or "moves" and the
second as "moves" or "crawls" or "creeps".

The first hit I see on Google Books is from 1786 in a work quoting
Milton:

   Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
   Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep.

                          P.L. IV. 277

which would push it back to the seventeenth century.

For a biblical allusion, I had thought that it was Genesis 6:4, about
the Nephilim ("giants" in the KJV), but all the translations I see are
either "in the earth" or "on the earth".

I see it mostly with supernatural entities: gods, angels, ghosts,
Jesus.  The notion appears to be that it's somebody who's just
visiting for a while, but who belongs someplace else.  So when I see
it extended to dinosaurs or the like, there's something of a note of
reverence or awe.