Not in the Bible
Sayings and details people are sure are in the Bible that are not, or that say something different.
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Card 1 of 8
Is "God helps those who help themselves" in the Bible?
No. It is an ancient proverb popularised in English by Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack in 1736.
Surveys regularly find many people believe it is a Bible verse. Versions of the idea go back to Greek writers. The Bible's emphasis runs closer to the opposite, that God helps those who cannot help themselves, though it also has a great deal to say about diligent work.
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Card 2 of 8
Is "cleanliness is next to godliness" in the Bible?
No. It was popularised by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who used it in a sermon in the late 1700s. The idea is older, but the words are not Scripture.
The Old Testament does have many laws about ritual cleanness, but those concern being fit to approach God in worship, not personal hygiene as a virtue. Jesus, in fact, was criticised for letting his disciples eat without the ceremonial handwashing.
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Card 3 of 8
Is "spare the rod, spoil the child" in the Bible?
Not in those words. The phrase comes from a 1663 poem by Samuel Butler, though it echoes Proverbs, which says that whoever spares the rod hates his son.
Proverbs is a book of general sayings about how life usually works, and the "rod" was a common image for discipline and correction. Butler's poem, Hudibras, was a satire and used the line about romantic love, not child-rearing.
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Card 4 of 8
Does the Bible say that money is the root of all evil?
No. It says that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
The difference matters: Paul is warning about craving wealth, not condemning money itself. He goes on to tell the rich not to be proud or to trust in riches, but to be generous and ready to share, which assumes they still have money to do it with.
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Card 5 of 8
Does the Bible say that Adam and Eve ate an apple?
No. Genesis only calls it "the fruit" of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and never names the kind.
The apple probably came from Latin, where the word for evil, malum, sounds almost the same as the word for apple, malum. Artists took it from there. Jewish tradition has suggested figs, grapes, or wheat, and the "Adam's apple" in the throat comes from the same legend.
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Card 6 of 8
Does the Bible say Jonah was swallowed by a whale?
No. Jonah says "a great fish", and the Hebrew does not specify what kind.
The whale comes from the King James translation of Jesus's reference to Jonah in Matthew, where the Greek word can mean any large sea creature. The text's interest is not in the species but in the fact that God appointed it, just as he later appoints a plant, a worm, and a wind.
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Card 7 of 8
Does the Bible say "this too shall pass" or "God works in mysterious ways"?
No. "This too shall pass" comes from Persian and Jewish folklore, and "God moves in a mysterious way" is the first line of a 1773 hymn by William Cowper.
Both sound biblical because they echo real biblical ideas: the fleeting nature of life in Ecclesiastes, and the unsearchable ways of God, which Paul does write about. Being able to tell a real verse from a borrowed saying is part of knowing the Bible well.
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Card 8 of 8
Does the Bible say that Satan was a fallen angel named Lucifer?
Not directly. "Lucifer" comes from the Latin translation of Isaiah 14:12, a taunt about the fall of the king of Babylon, called the "day star" or "morning star".
Later Christian writers read the passage, along with Ezekiel 28, as a description of Satan's fall, and the Latin word for "light-bearer" became a name. Most modern translations say "Day Star" or "morning star". The Bible does describe Satan as an adversary and a deceiver, and Jesus says he saw Satan fall like lightning, but it never tells the full story of his origin.