Hundreds of years later in the first century AD, a similar phrase appeared in the biblical New Testament – translated into English from historic Greek in Mark 3:25 as "And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand".
The first known modern usage of the phrase was in 1768, in The Liberty Song by John Dickinson, a song protesting a British Monarchy. A chorus reads…
“Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all,
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall;
In so righteous a cause let us hope to succeed,
For heaven approves of each generous deed.”
Dickinson went on to become a signer of the Constitution.