Line #50 BeamMeUpScotty/ReligiousScripture


1	Famous misquotes from ''Literature/TheBible''.
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3	'''Note:''' considering The Bible is the most translated text in the world and was not originally written in English, learn Hebrew and Greek (and a little Aramaic) to read the original texts, or at least consult multiple translations of the Bible. For the purpose of this list, all quotations would be from the King James translation unless otherwise noted.
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5	* One frequently quoted saying is as follows: "money is the root of all evil". Though the quote is correct, it is actually incomplete. The quote is taken from 1 Timothy 6:10, and the full verse is as follows: "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." Some translations render the first part of the verse as a variation of "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils" (NRSV), rather than "the root".
6	* "{{Pride}} cometh not before a fall", derived from Proverbs 16:18. The verse is rendered as follows: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
7	* Some people attribute the phrase "When there is no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth" as being from the Bible. It's not, it was the tagline for ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978''.
8	* Some misquotes regarding drunkenness and the Bible:
9	** There is a misconception that the Old Testament, without any qualification, commands "do not drink", nor does it say "do not get drunk". Though Leviticus 10:9-10 do make these prohibitions, the specification is that the Israelites do not drink before going to the tabernacle, lest they die: "Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean". The name "Old Testament" is the Christian name given to the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (the order of the chapters is different and there are some significant differences in translation), and Jews are ''commanded'' to get blitzed on [[UsefulNotes/JewishHolidays Purim]].
10	** According to American Pentecostal preacher Jentezen Franklin, there were a variety of words in both Hebrew and Greek that translate into English as "wine". The one most often used in the New Testament refers to a thick, almost syrupy drink that had no alcohol content. However, most biblical scholars do not consider this view to be true and treat these interpretations as later inventions by Temperance advocates in the 19th and 20th century looking for justification in the bible. After all, drinking alcohol was a necessity of life in the age before the invention of chemical water purification.
11	*** In fact, wine in antiquity was probably MORE concentrated than it is now. Hence, in the Latin Catholic rite, the priest still adds water to the cup of wine before consecrating it. This is an ancient tradition which was even more necessary in the ancient world, because you didn't want to get people drunk at the liturgy.
12	* Although the Bible mentions cleanliness several times, you won't find a single verse that actually says, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness". This dictum is based on a saying by Francis Bacon's The Advancement of Learning, in which he wrote "for cleanness of body was ever esteemed to proceed from a due reverence to God, to society, and to ourselves"; and also "On Dress", a sermon by John Wesley: "Let it be observed, that slovenliness is no part of religion; that neither this, nor any text of Scripture, condemns neatness of apparel. Certainly this is a duty, not a sin. 'Cleanliness is, indeed, next to godliness'."
13	** Nor would you find "God helps those who help themselves." This sentiment can be found in ancient Greek tragedies. For example, Orestes, in Euripides' play Iphigenia Among the Taurians, says: "If someone acts resolute, the divine force is more effective too". Interestingly, this is something of a maxim in Jewish culture, even though it clashes with the Old Testament's messages.
14	* Another: "Spare the rod and spoil the child" is by Samuel Butler, taken from his poem Hudibras. The closest the Bible gets is "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." (Proverbs 13:24)
15	** Given the number of shepherds and sheep metaphors all the way through the Good Book, use of "the rod" should be clarified. Shepherds never hit sheep with a rod; rather, they use it to steer the flock in the direction they want the sheep to go. (Watch ''{{Film/The Ten Commandments\|1956}}'' with this in mind. Creator/YvonneDeCarlo is shown guiding sheep to the well with soft "drrr, [[Manga/TheEnigmaOfAmigaraFault drr]]" sounds and pushing them with the side of her staff.) Western civilization tends to equate "discipline" with "punishment".
16	* "No rest for the weary/wicked" is probably a corruption of Isaiah 57:21: "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."
17	* Nowhere does anyone say, "The lion shall lie down with the lamb". The closest (and that would be stretching it) is Isaiah 11:6, and it is as follows: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them." Additionally, the "lamb" described ''isn't'' Jesus, as most people assume due to "The Lamb" being one His titles. The verse just means "natural enemies will make peace with each other."
18	* On a related note, while the phrase "wolf in sheep's clothing" is based on the Bible, it never appears in that exact form. The verse in question, Matthew 7:15, says: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
19	* None of St Paul's letters says, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"; the quote is attributed to St Ambrose: ''si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more; si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi'' ("if you are in Rome, live in the Roman way; if you are elsewhere, live as they do there.")
20	** On the other hand, St Paul does, in a similar spirit, claim to have made himself "all things to all men" (1 Corinthians 9:19-23): a Jew to the Jews, and a non-Jew to the non-Jews, and so on.
21	* The demons possessing the Gerasene demoniac never say "IAmLegion", at least in this particular formulation, in the English translations. In Mark 5:9, they say: "My name is Legion: for we are many". In Luke 8:30, the demons simply say "Legion" because "many devils were entered into [the Gerasene demoniac]".
22	* The King James translation renders Luke 2:14 as follows: "Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men". The Greek verse says "δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις θεῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας", which literally says "Glory in highest ones to God, and on earth peace in humans well-seeming". Some translations are more faithful to the Greek; the RSVCE translates the same verse as: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!"
23	** A Latin translation of this verse, used for Mass in the Catholic Church, says: "Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis". The current English translation of the Roman Missal, which is a more literal translation of the Latin, renders it as "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will". The previous translation was a lot looser, rendering it as "Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth".
24	* One that's not only a misquote, but also somewhat changes the meaning. The last part of 1 Corinthians 15:32 is often misquoted as "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die", when it's actually "let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die". The former implies the line is about the uncertainty of the future, that you should make the best of it because you don't know what's going to happen. The latter, however, implies that the line is about the certainty of death, subtly changing the meaning to, "Make the best of it, because you won't be here forever." Another misquote is "Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die." This blends the last part of 1 Corinthians 15:32 with the middle part of Ecclesiastes 8:15, the whole verse saying "Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun".
25	** In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul actually cites the quote "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" from Isaiah 22:13, which goes like this: "And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die".
26	* Ever read the ''Book of Revelations''? Everyone's at least heard of it, right? Wrong. There is no Book of Revelations anywhere in the Bible. There is only the ''Literature/BookOfRevelation'', singular (full title: "The Revelation of St. John the Divine", also called "Apocalypse" from Greek ''Apokalypsis'', "lifting the veil").
27	** Other book titles are also a bit confused -- e.g., Deuteronomy comes from the Greek for "second law", a mistranslation of ''mishneh ha-torah ha-zoth'', "a copy of this law", while Psalms is from the Greek Ψαλμοί ''Psalmoi'', "music of the lyre" or "songs sung to a harp", which is pretty different from the Hebrew ''Tehillim'' ("praises").[[note]]In fairness, the Psalms are supposed to be the songs of David, who was supposed to be a great singer and harpist.[[/note]]
28	** In a similar vein, many modern Christians often incorrectly refer to "Psalms chapter 21" when it should be "the 21st Psalm" or "Psalm 21", as that particular book is not a series of chapters but a collection of songs.
29	** Speaking of Revelation, aside from the end of the world and the second coming, what's the next thing everyone knows about it? That it's the story of the Antichrist taking power? Sorry, nope. The word "antichrist" doesn't appear once in Revelation. There's talk of a false prophet and some beasts, but they're never explicitly identified as the Antichrist. The word "antichrist", however does appear in the Letters of St. John, in 1 John 2:18, 22, 1 John 4:3, and 2 John 1:7. However, "antichrist" is used to refer to someone who is opposed to Christ.
30	* Although the Bible does say, "Do not judge," it is taken out of a larger context telling people how to judge. The most popular reference is in Mathew 7:1: "Judge not, that ye be not judged," which goes on to say, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." This doesn't mean "don't judge anyone ever," just "don't be a hypocrite". Elsewhere Jesus commands his followers to judge, like in John 7:24: "Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly."
31	* The Bible never says "Hate the sin and not the sinner", at least explicitly. This is actually a quote from an autobiography by UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi. In turn, this idea behind this dictum is taken from Letter 211 by St. Augustine of Hippo: "Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum". Though it can be rendered as "Hate the sin and not the sinner", it is more accurately translated as "with love for the persons and hatred for their vices (sins)".
32	** A word in Greek or Latin that means "avoid" or "refrain from" can sometimes be translated into English, albeit loosely, as "hate". Even if the sentiment of "hate the sin, love the sinner" is not ''expressly'' stated in the New Testament, it can nevertheless be inferred from the rest of Jesus' teachings, which is probably where St. Augustine got it from. Proverbs 23:7 can easily be interpreted as explaining the psychological effect that rationalizing sin has upon oneself, rather than having anything to do with justifying casting judgement upon others.
33	* The Bible never says "[[AllCrimesAreEqual all sins are equal]]". Although it says all sins lead to death, it states that there are different levels of sin, as stated in John 19:11: "Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." Matthew 12:31 identifies this greater sin as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: "Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men." [[note]]YMMV on what the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is, but Catholics identify this sin as a stubborn refusal of God's forgiveness since God does not bring anyone to His kingdom against his will. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "'Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.' There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss" (CCC 1864).[[/note]]
34	* The line, "God moves in mysterious ways" never appears once in any form in the Bible. It is, rather, taken from a popular hymn, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way," by William Cowper, 1774.
35	* The line, "To err is human; to forgive, divine" is one where the ''phraseology'' is correct, but not the ''use'' -- ''err'' in context means ''sin'', not just an innocent mistake. It also doesn't come from the Bible, it's from Alexander Pope's "Essay on Criticism", and, in context, is about literary critics.
36	* The phrase "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime" and its variants are often mistakenly attributed to the Bible, it actually came from Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie's (1837–1919) novel, ''Mrs. Dymond'' (1885).
37	* Triumph's song, "Fight the Good Fight," attributes "better to give than to receive" to the Bible ("the Good Book"). Almost right. The verse in question, Acts 20:35, is rendered as follows: "I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive."
38	* The Bible never makes an explicit condemnation of masturbation, though Genesis 38:8-10 are commonly cited as such. The verses are as follows: "And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also." The problem was that Onan's brother had died without heirs to pass his land to; the law required Onan to provide his brother with an heir ("the seed should not be ''his''"). His crime was ''greed''; he wanted to inherit his brother's land.
39	** On that same subject, nowhere does the Bible say, "It is better to cast your seed in the belly of a whore than spill it on the ground." This is most likely ascertained from both the account of Onan and the subsequent intimate encounter of Judah with his daughter-in-law Tamar, who only ''disguised herself as a harlot'' so that she could conceive seed from him when Judah held back his remaining son Shelah from marrying her. Again, Tamar was being denied what was hers by law (the protection of an heir from the house of Judah), so she had to trick him by disguising herself as a temple prostitute.
40	* The media have always repeated Jesus' lesson derived from John 8:7 as this: "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone". Jesus actually said "He that is without sin ''among you'', let him first cast a stone ''at her''."
41	* Quick, what are the [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse four horsemen of the apocalypse]]?
42	** They are, in order of appearance, Conquest (not Pestilence), War, Famine, and Death. Except that of the four horsemen, Death is the only one that is explicitly named. Conquest, War, and Famine are names given to the other three horsemen based on what they did.[[note]]The verses describing them are Revelation 6:1-8 "And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."[[/note]]
43	* Matthew 7:14 is as follows: "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it". This is often cited as the basis of the "straight and narrow path", except that "strait" is an archaic word that means "narrow"(as in straitjacket, Strait of Gibraltar, etc.). The verse can also be rendered as such: "For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (RSVCE).
44	* Some social media websites have an image with this quote: "The Lord said 'If you deny me in front of your friends, I will deny you in front of my Father'". This is a second-person rendering based on Matthew 10:33, which says "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."
45	* A misquote of John 14:6 has Jesus saying "I am the way, the truth, and the ''light''". He actually said "I am the way, the truth, and the ''life''".
46	* In ''[[Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof Fiddler On The Roof]]'', Tevye is constantly misquoting The Good Book, and in one scene he gets called on it by the Rabbi's son.
47	-->'''Tevye:''' Okay, it doesn't say that ''exactly'' but somewhere it says something about a chicken! Good Sabbath!
48	* The Bible actually does this to ''itself'' in a few places, generally when a New Testament writer is quoting scripture from the Old Testament. For instance, Matthew 27:9 says "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value". However, the verses in question are Zechariah 11:12-13: "And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord". There are also some instances of two verses being conflated, like in Mark 1:2: "As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way" (RSVCE). The second half of the prophecy is indeed taken from Isaiah 40:3: "A voice cries: 'In the wilderness ''prepare the way of the Lord'', make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (RSVCE). However, the first half is taken from Malachi 3:1: "Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me" (RSVCE).
49	** These mistakes can be explained by the biblical writers living in a period when sacred texts took the form of large scrolls in temples and were not readily accessible to most ordinary people.
50	** More likely, however, is that New Testament authors are simply paraphrasing the Old Testament. People in that time period cared less about precise quotations and more about the general idea so such a thing wouldn't be out of the ordinary.
51	* In UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}, a common saying is "איש איש באמונתו יחיה", which in English is "Every man in his faith shall live". The saying a misquote from Habakkuk 2:4, which has "The just shall live by faith". In Hebrew, it would be this: "צדיק באמונתו יחיה".
52	* Though multiple examples of the SevenDeadlySins can be seen throughout the Bible, the seven sins are not explicitly referred to as such. The doctrine of the seven deadly sins is developed by a group of early Christians known as the Desert Fathers, who lived in about [[NewerThanTheyThink the third century A.D. It wasn't considered part of Catholic doctrine until 590 AD]].
53	* A popular saying is "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away", based on Job 1:21. However, what the verse actually says is: "the Lord ''gave'', and the Lord ''hath taken'' away".
54	* The line "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" is often mistakenly thought to come from the Bible. It's actually from ''Literature/ParadiseLost'' (indeed, other than in the Book of Job Satan is very rarely quoted directly in the Bible.)
55	* The phrase "go the way of all flesh", meaning to die, is attributed to the Bible. However, this specific wording never appears in the scripture. In two instances (1 Kings 2:2 and Joshua 23:14) a very similar phrase "go the way of all the ''earth''" is used in the same meaning.
56	* The Bible never explicitly says suicide is a sin. While the Sixth Commandment does say "Thou Shalt Not Kill", it's clear from the Bible itself this isn't meant as a prohibition on absolutely all killing, as most of the heroes from the Bible kill quite a few people. The closest it comes is in Revelation 9:6, which says "And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." suggesting people will try to commit suicide (or, at least, wish they were dead) to no avail, but even this doesn't say suicide is a sin, just that it won't be effective in escaping the horrors of the end times.
57	* While the Roman Catholic Church does number the 10 commandments (specifically, commandments 2-10) differently than Protestant denominations do, they did not (as some Protestant pastors suggest) "remove" the commandment against making idols from the 10 commandments in order to justify the practice of venerating holy icons and statues. Rather, the commandment against idols (which is the 2nd commandment in the Protestant enumeration) is subsumed under the first commandment by Catholics: ("You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve..." etc.). In fact, in sections 2129-2132 of the [[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM Catechism of the Catholic Church]], the part of the commandment that forbids the making and worship of idols is quoted and explained.
58	** The Catholic numbering of the commandments still equals out to ten because they split a commandment that is regarded by Protestants as a single commandment. Catholics regard the 9th commandment ("You shall not covet your neighbor's wife") as distinct from the 10th commandment, which forbids coveting your neighbor's property. The Catholic justification for this splitting is that it's a completely different sin to covet someone's spouse than to covet someone's property.

Context BeamMeUpScotty / ReligiousScripture