The Bible is the most widely published, bought, read book, and yet people continue to err in their understanding of what the Bible says. Here are a few of the mistakes.
Jonah was swallowed by a whale: The bible never states that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, only that a large fish gulped him down. In fact, this reference to a fish makes it impossible that a whale swallowed Jonah. A whale is a mammal, not a fish.
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The laws that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai were the ten commandments: Nowhere in the Bible in its Hebraic text is there any mention of the Ten Commandments. This group of laws and precepts is actually called in the original Hebrew “ten words” in two different passages in the Bible Deuteronomy 4:13 and 10:4.
Noah was told to take animals two by two into the Ark: Actually, in the original Hebrew Noah was told to take clean animals into the Ark. “seven and seven” ( Genesis 7:2-3) Those unfit for sacrifice after the flood were to be taken two by two. A reading of the Biblical passages shows that God’s emphasis was on those animals that would be taken into the Ark “seven and seven.”
The children of Israel passed through the Red Sea: The body of water that parted for the Israelites fleeing Pharaoh is not the Red Sea. In the original Hebrew it is called the Reed Sea. A mistranslation turned it into the Red Sea. This is why scholars believe the actual waters was not the Red Sea, but north of it, toward the Mediterranean where reeds grow in the water.
Adam and Eve ate an apple in the garden of Eden. The truth is the fruit was never specified. Most Bible scholars agree it was not an apple, and offered other possibilities, fig, grape, pear, apricot. The most likely is the fig, since Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves.
Even works of art based on the Bible can’t seem to get the facts straight. The first time the Bible was translated from Hebrew into Greek a mistake was made in the description of Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the tablets of the ten commandments. In Hebrew, Moses is said to have “karan” a ray of light coming from his forehead. In the Greek translation by Aquila Ponticus in the second century, this reads “horns” which were coming out of the head of Moses. therefore when Michelangelo was sculpting Moses for, “Moses the Lawgiver,” the sculptor followed the Greek version and gave Moses horns. The mistranslated scripture and the rendering of the sculpture with horns fed centuries of Christian belief that Jews had horns. And still persists today in some parts of the world.
An addition to my knowledge , Ruby
thnk for share
Its good to share Ruby, and this is a good share cheers
good share
A debatable topics.
I have even heard that Adam and Eve ate of a magic mushroom – after all it grows in the shade of the forest just as described in the bible.
Great topic – 5 good examples of common misconceptions. Another example of error in art is the painting of the Last Supper. Jesus and his disciples would not have sat at a table, especially a table where they all sit on one side, facing the camera. And yet there have been many attempts at finding symbolic messages in the painting, recently popularized by Dan Brown.
Excellent article, Ruby. I have learned something here today, thank you.
That is why people should read the Bible for themselves in its context rather than listening to “interpretations” of others and thanks be to God for tools such as Hebrew and Greek dictionaries, which we can use to check the meaning of original words. Good job on this one
For centuries, man has always sought to disprove the bible, gods word. If it states the whale is a fish then a fish it is. It was man that considered a whale to be a mammal and the same that claimed we were from apes. It’s also worth mentioning that curtain species of life back then were much bigger than now which explains why it was possible to swallow Jonah.
The interesting thing about those who have tried to disprove the word of god is that, what the bible says, comes to pass.
On Youtube, there are videos about implanting small chips into every human being in order to replace money. It is to be placed in the right hand of each person and the forehead of those who do not have the use of hand. Each individual has their own long code number, but when paying for or selling goods, it will be paid into the systems unique number which was created by a man.
The bible in Revelations 13 versus 15 – 18, speaks of this moment. Remember, System = Beast.
The truth is, it’s impossible to disprove something so real. Preachers have been talking about this for a very long time to prepare the many. So far, everything the bible says is going to happen before the end, has happen. And the thing’s that haven’t, will. Life is about faith.
Put not your faith in man, but in god who created all things.
People tend to make a lot of assumptions.
Thanks for point of the facts. It is children books of Bible story which often bear the mistakes. Usually it includes the picture of apple & whale as illustration.
When people read the bible, they should be very careful.
Thank you Ruby for an interesting article
I love stuff like this – really interesting and thought-provoking…things getting lost in translation can be really fascinating
Yes Ruby – a lot of misconceptions regarding what Christians (and Jews) believe is seems to be based on an erroneous but popular belief of what people THINK the Bible says.
Now if Christians and others would just read the Bible as you have, none of these lies would circulate. The mistake are made by those who say they have read.
Thank you for pointing out such a very important topic. It’s why the Bible is meant to be taken as a whole, not word for specific word. It’s 2,000 years old and been copied and translated for so many years. It’s impossible that there would not have been a few mistakes made during such copies and translation because humans did the the copies and translations, and humans DO make mistakes. It’s sort of like that game kids play at sleep overs where someone says a phrase and you keep whispering it down the line. By the time it gets to end, it’s usually far different than the original phrase.
Hey Ruby i dont know if you remember me but im back on Triond now ! nice view on the bible – i am a muslim and there are some mistakes percieved to be “truth” in our holy book as well. thanks for posting friend
Buma
Great article Ruby. The Bible has always fascinated me since I started reading it more than 60 years ago. There are many errors I am sure and should never be taken literally.
I agree, these are among the wildly misinterpret facts in the Bible.