http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/05/thats-not-in-the-bible/?hpt=hp_c2

Actually, that’s not in the Bible

NFL legend Mike Ditka was giving a news conference one day after being fired as the coach of the Chicago Bears when he decided to quote the Bible.

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When phantom Bible passages turn dangerous

People may get verses wrong, but they also mangle plenty of well-known biblical stories as well.

Two examples: The scripture never says a whale swallowed Jonah, the Old Testament prophet, nor did any New Testament passages say that three wise men visited baby Jesus, scholars say.

Those details may seem minor, but scholars say one popular phantom Bible story stands above the rest: The Genesis story about the fall of humanity.

Most people know the popular version - Satan in the guise of a serpent tempts Eve to pick the forbidden apple from the Tree of Life. It

“God helps those who help themselves” is pretty close to the English translation of Aesop’s “Hercules and the Wagoner”:

A Waggoner was once driving a heavy load along a very muddy way. At last he came to a part of the road where the wheels sank half-way into the mire, and the more the horses pulled, the deeper sank the wheels. So the Waggoner threw down his whip, and knelt down and prayed to Hercules the Strong.

“O Hercules, help me in this my hour of distress,” quoth he.

But Hercules appeared to him, and said:

“Tut, man, don’t sprawl there. Get up and put your shoulder to the wheel.”

The gods help them that help themselves

Franklin might have been the first to use “God” in the singular or possibly it was translated differently prior to Franklin’s remark.

Whatever the case this is by far the most common non-Biblical Bible verse I encounter.

I

Another good example of non-biblical verses ( or misquoted verses) is the 10 Commandments… or what are commonly ( and mistakenly) reffered to as the 10 Commandments. 

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WE ALWAYS SEE AREN’T THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS

First Amendment battles continue to rage across the US over the posting of the Ten
Command-ments in public places

Yeah, there’s actually a LOT of Commandments. ‘Be Fruitful and Multiply’? A Commandment. The jews especially recognize more than just the Decalogue for their godly advice.

The one I’ve always got folks on is when they say Eve ate an apple.. I ask them to show me in the book where it says ‘apple’. ‘Apple’ was pretty much a catch-all term for any kind of fruit in the middle ages. The German word for potato translates into ‘dirt apple’, for example. Figs, lemons, pears, even dates could all fall under ‘apple’.

Personally, I’d like to think the tree of Knowledge would have some pretty awesome-looking fruits, not just some mundane little apple. Bright blue, for one thing.

I’ll note that it isn’t the only tree in the garden - the Tree of Life is also mentioned, but Adam and Eve are rousted out of the garden before they can nibble on that one and gain immortality.

Robin Bobcat - 07 June 2011 05:05 AM

Yeah, there’s actually a LOT of Commandments. ‘Be Fruitful and Multiply’? A Commandment. The jews especially recognize more than just the Decalogue for their godly advice.

And according to Hawkins and his crowd there are something like 613 of them that you have to follow (or else you will be nuked several years ago).

Promises, promises…

Accipiter - 07 June 2011 11:49 AM

Robin Bobcat - 07 June 2011 05:05 AM

Yeah, there’s actually a LOT of Commandments. ‘Be Fruitful and Multiply’? A Commandment. The jews especially recognize more than just the Decalogue for their godly advice.

And according to Hawkins and his crowd there are something like 613 of them that you have to follow (or else you will be nuked several years ago).

Well, the Jewish faith is all about following them as much as possible. It’s viewed as a legal contract: Follow these rules and laws, and you’re good. Mind, this opens a LOT of interpretation and more than a few loopholes. There’s a certain level of prioritization, too: Go ahead and eat a pig if you need to stay alive, etc.