Very quickly
The earliest known record of this expression is in the New Testament: "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed."
- Paul's 1st Letter To The Corinthians. 15: 51-52 (NIV)
Robert Manning of Brunne used the expression in his early 14th century devotional, Handlyng Synne: "Yn twynkelyng of an ye"
Shakespeare also used the expression in The Merchant Of Venice, 1596: "I'll take my leave of the Jew in the twinkling of an eye."
More expressions and their source
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