What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Powers that be - The’?
This phrase derives from the Bible, Romans 13 - first appearing in print in English in Tyndale’s Bible, 1526:
13:1 1 Let every soule submit him selfe vnto the auctorite of ye hyer powers. For there is no power but of God.
13:2 The powers that be are ordeyned of God. Whosoever therfore resysteth power resisteth the ordinaunce of God. And they that resist shall receave to the selfe damnacio.