History NonIndicativeName / MythsAndReligion

* Papal bulls, encyclicals, and other papal documents are customarily titled using incipits, too, which means they usually have little to do with the content of the work. For example, the papal bull that began the Gregorian calendar is called ''Inter Gravissimas'' ("Among the most important..."); the one that recognized the relics of Santiago de Compostela was simply called ''Omnipotens Deus'' ("almighty God"). There are occasional aversions; for example, a 1937 papal encyclical condemning Nazism was written in German rather than Latin and entitled ''Mit brennender Sorge'' ("With burning alarm").

** This Jewish tradition of choosing the first major word in a work to name it, whether it actually applies to the entire work or not, is a lot older than the Mishnah. The Book of Exodus is called "Sh'mot" or "names". There's a lot that happens in Exodus (what with the liberation from slavery, the splitting of the Red Sea, and the giving of the Ten Commandments), but not much about names. But the first sentence is about the names of the people who went ''into'' Egypt. So Exodus is stuck with a non-indicative name to this day.

* Some critics have observed that that the Christian Science sect founded by Mary Baker Eddy denies both the deity of Christ (a central tenet to most of Christianity) and the reality of matter (a central tenet to most modern science).

* The Three Holy Kings in Christianity were neither holy nor kings, and we're not sure if there were three of them.

** The belief that there were three of them comes from the verse in the Bible that says that "wise men" (who were likely astrologers) brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Three gifts, so it was assumed that there were three "kings".

* Early Christianity had "Virgins of the Church", women who dedicated their time and money to helping the religious community. While celibate, they were usually [[DeterminedWidow widows]] [[EmptyNest whose children were grown]], since these women were more likely to be well-off and had few other social responsibilities.

* The name of the {{Youkai}} {{Tengu}} translates to "Heavenly Dog". Nothing about the Tengu is canine in design. This is because the word, which is a loanword from Chinese, was reapplied to refer to a wholly different creature in Japan. The Chinese Tiangou is a black dog who is believed to eat the sun during an eclipse.

* The name of the {{Youkai}} {{Tengu}} translates to "Heavenly Dog". Nothing about the Tengu is canine in design. This is because the word, which is a loanword from Chinese, was reapplied to refer to a wholly different creature in Japan. The original Chinese ''tiangou'' is a black dog who is believed to eat the sun during an eclipse.

* The name of the {{Youkai}} {{Tengu}} translates to "Heavenly Dog". Nothing about the Tengu is canine in design.

** The insinuation is that three gifts fit for a king somehow indicates that the givers were also kings. The story was later elaborated, giving them names (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar), made them a youth, a man, and an old man and an African, an Asian and a European so that one could say that representatives of all humanity worshipped Jesus at his birth. [[FridgeLogic Except half of the planet is female, and quite a few people also live in the Americas and Oceania.]]

** Speaking of the Bible, there are four books of John. The first one is called the book of John. The second is called First John, and so on. The explanation? John is technically the Gospel of John, while 1 through 3 John are The [X] Epistles of John.

* The Sword in the Stone is technically a ''Sword in an Anvil on a Stone''. Early swordsmiths would shape a weapon using a smoothed flat piece of stone, marble for preference. The term for one was a "sword-stone". When iron anvils began to take over, the term stuck around for a while. So the Sword in the Stone was thrust through ''two'' Sword-stones, the first a "modern" one of iron, tho other an old pagan one of stone. The Sword in the Anvil isn't as poetic as the Sword in the Stone, so the name stuck even though the language has moved on.
* The Three Holy Kings in Christianity are neither holy nor kings, and we're not sure if there were three of them.

*** Somehow insinuating that three gifts fit for a king indicated that the givers were also kings. The story was later elaborated, giving them names (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar), made them a youth, a man, and an old man and an African, an Asian and a European so that once could say that representatives of all humanity worshipped Jesus at his birth. [[FridgeLogic Except half of the planet is female, and quite a few people also live in the Americas and Oceania.]]
*** At least some interpretations states that they pointed out that He was a king (gold), God (frankincense) and sacrificial Lamb (myrrh - which was used in burning rituals).

* Early Christianity had "Virgins of the Church," women who dedicated their time and money to helping the religious community. While celibate, they were usually [[DeterminedWidow widows]] [[EmptyNest whose children were grown]], since these women were more likely to be well-off and had few other social responsibilities.
* [[Myth/GreekMythology Heracles]] means "Glory of Hera". He's Zeus' son but not Hera's (he would be [[BrotherSisterIncest her nephew/stepson]]) and was given the name in an attempt to please her. It didn't work.

* In the second-century Jewish compendium of legal rulings and oral traditions known as the Mishnah, there is a tractate called "Beitzah," meaning "egg." The tractate is about festivals and their traditions, and not, in general, about eggs. It's only called "egg" because the first word is "egg", because at the time eggs were a common festival meal.
** This Jewish tradition of choosing the first major word in a work to name it, whether it actually applies to the entire work or not, is a lot older than the Mishnah. The Book of Exodus is called "Sh'mot" or "names." There's a lot that happens in Exodus (what with the liberation from slavery, the splitting of the Red Sea, and the giving of the Ten Commandments), but not much about names. But the first sentence is about the names of the people who went INTO Egypt. So Exodus is stuck with a non-indicative name to this day.
** Parshas (sections of the Torah read each week) are like this too. Special mention goes to "Chayei Sarah," which means "the life of Sarah." It begins by announcing her death. ("The life of Sarah was 127 years...") Possibly FridgeBrilliance since it mainly deals with finding the next Matriarch, Rebecca, and thus concerns the ''legacy'' of Sarah's life.

* Although ''usually'' the Vestal Virgins were [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an aversion of this trope]], there were occasionally exceptions. This happened when one of the Vestal Virgins died before her term of service (normally 30 years) was up, and someone was needed to replace her. In that case, a young widow or divorcee might be selected for the position if there weren't any ''actual'' virgins available. [[note]] (Which might have happened more than you'd think; originally, the position was only open to patrician girls, but many parents were reluctant to commit their daughters to 30 years of celibacy instead of marrying them off and hopefully getting a grandson out of the deal, so it was eventually opened to plebeian girls, and even eventually to the daughters of former slaves.) So it is conceivable that there might have been a dearth of actual virgins available to fill a Vestal Virgin position at times, especially when one was needed on short notice. [[/note]]