Bible Misconceptions

            As though ignoring and violating biblical doctrine were not enough, many basic misconceptions of actual Bible content exist in mainstream Bible-based religion.   This may seem trivial in the light of the importance of other church contradictions but they are no less held as truisms, and often shape the thoughts and behavior of the membership. 

·   Money is the root of all evil.
            Close, but off the mark, is the best way to describe this misquote.  The Bible says the love of money is the culprit not the object itself, with the word love being properly translated as avarice. the actual verse is:
·   1 Timothy 6:10 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.

·   Spare the rod, spoil the child.
            This one seems to imply, don't discipline your children and you are showering them with gifts, hardly a way to raise a well-balanced child.  What the Bible does say is that consistent discipline is the key.
·   Proverbs 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

·   Cleanliness is next to godliness.
            This is not in the Bible and no similar verses or concepts are found in the Bible, God does not seem to rate hygiene as a high priority.  The origin is John Wesley, from a sermon he gave called  “On Dress".

·   God works in mysterious ways.
            Though not found in the Bible it is one of the rare misquotes that can be supported by scriptural concept.  William Cowper actually created this one in the poem “On The Loss of the Royal George".

·   God helps those that help themselves.
            Not only is this not in the Bible it contradicts the biblical principle of dependence on God.

·   All sin is equal in God’s sight.
            This may seem a logical concept but the wide variation in severity of punishments for different crimes certainly contradicts it.

·   Jesus was crucified on Friday afternoon and resurrected on Sunday morning.
              The simple problem here is the fact that the Crucifixion happened the day before the Sabbath and the resurrection happened on Sunday morning.  It is the ignorance of the fact that there are not one but two kinds of Sabbaths, Saturday and all the high holy celebrations of the nation of Israel.  The Sabbath that Jesus was crucified on was a high Sabbath and there is no indication that Jesus actually rose from the grave Sunday morning, only that the body was discovered missing.

·   If he was crucified on Friday and arose Sunday it would have negated the prophecies that he would be dead three days and nights.  A Friday crucifixion and Sunday resurrection would mean only one day and two nights.

Three Days and Three Nights
·   Matthew 12: 39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: 40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
·   Mark 8:31 And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

·   The Sabbath following the Crucifixion was an annual high Sabbath not specifically a Saturday.

Preparation for a High Holy Day
·   Mark 15:42 And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. 44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead.
·   Luke 23:52 This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. 53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.  54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
·   John 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

·   No one visited the grave on Saturday

They Rested on Saturday
·   Luke 23:56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

·   The body of Jesus was already gone by the dawn in Sunday morning.

Body Missing at Dawn Sunday
·   Matthew 28:1 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
·   Mark 16:1 And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 

            To fulfill the prophecy the earliest in the week the crucifixion could have taken place was Wednesday, which would mean the body was in the sepulchre Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night, and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday day.