Those of us who are entrusted with the task of expositing the Scriptures in a local church must take care to verify our sources, illustrations, and stories. No matter how helpful an illustration may be, it is dishonoring to God if it is untrue.
Here are a number of urban legends that get repeated in sermons. Some are more pervasive than others, even appearing in commentaries and scholarly works.
1. The “eye of the needle” refers to a gate outside Jerusalem.
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God,” says Jesus in Mark 10:25. Maybe you’ve heard of the gate in Jerusalem called the “eye of the needle.” The camel could pass through it only after stooping down and having all its baggage taken off.
The illustration is used in many sermons as an example of coming to God on our knees and without our baggage. The only problem is… there is no evidence for such a gate. The story has been around since the 15th century, but there isn’t a shred of evidence to support it.
2. The high priest tied a rope around his ankle so that others could drag him out of the Holy of Holies in case God struck him dead.
Various versions of this claim have been repeated by pastors, but it is a legend. It started in the Middle Ages and keeps getting repeated. There is no evidence for the claim in the Bible, the Apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud, Mishna or any other source. Furthermore, the thickness of the veil (three feet) would have precluded the possibility of a priest being dragged out anyway.
3. Scribes took baths, discarded their pens, washed their hands, etc. every time they wrote the name of God.
As a way of getting across the reverence of the Jewish and Christian scribes toward God, preachers like to describe the honor given to God’s name. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that scribes did these sorts of rituals every time they came across the name of God.
4. There was this saying among the sages: “May you be covered in your rabbi’s dust.”
This is one of the most pervasive and fast-spreading stories to flood the church in recent years. The idea is that as you walked behind your rabbi, he would kick up dust and you would become caked in it and so following your rabbi closely came to symbolize your commitment and zeal. Joel Willitts explains:
This is powerful stuff isn’t it? Well the only problem is that it just sn’t true… The context in which it is given in Mishnah Aboth 1:4 is expressly not what is assumed by those who promulgate this idea.
5. Voltaire’s house is now owned by a Bible-printing publisher.
Voltaire was famous for saying, “One hundred years from my day there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker.” There is a myth out there that within 50 years of Voltaire’s death, his house was owned by a Bible society that used his own printing press to make Bibles. Sounds like a great story, but it’s not true. Regardless, Voltaire’s prediction of the demise of the Bible was vastly overstated.
6. Gehenna was a burning trash dump outside Jerusalem.
I’ve used this illustration many times. But there isn’t evidence to support this idea. Still, because it seems like a reasonable explanation for the origin of the Hinnom Valley as “hell,” commentators and preachers have accepted it. It’s possible that the verdict may still be out on this one, but not if Todd Bolen is right:
“The explanation for the ‘fire of Gehenna’ lies not in a burning trash dump, but in the burning of sacrificed children. Already in Old Testament times, the Valley of Hinnom was associated with the destiny of the wicked. That the valley was just outside the city of Jerusalem made it an appropriate symbol for those excluded from divine blessing.”
7. NASA scientists have discovered a “missing day” which corresponds to the Joshua account of the sun standing still.
Please don’t repeat this myth. There has been no “missing day” discovered, and the legend has been circulating longer than NASA has been in existence, with different scientists playing the part. Likewise, we might mention the persistent story of Darwin recanting on his deathbed…
8. The Eagle, the Sheep, and the Frog
How many sermons or illustrations have we heard revolving around the parenting skills of the eagle? The eagle teaching the maturing eaglet to fly by carrying it on its back, dropping it, catching it, dropping it, etc until the baby gets it. Or the teaching that shepherds break the legs of wandering sheep and carry them on their shoulders and the sheep love them for it? (It is my understanding that Bedouin shepherds look at you like you are crazy when you ask if they break the legs of runaway sheep. They simply don’t do it.) Neither has any basis whatsoever in truth. Neither has the frog in boiling water analogy. From everything that I have been able to find out, that isn’t true.
9. The Secret service and the Truth
We’ve all heard the one about how the Secret Service doesn’t train it’s agents to recognize forged money, it only trains them on what the real thing looks like. The moral of the story is usually something like, “Don’t worry about false teaching; just focus on the truth.” Well, it’s hooey! There is an extensive course that that the Service goes through (those who are at that end of the agency) in how to spot forged money - sorry. Makes a nice illustration though.
10. This “Body of Death” in Romans 7
It is often said that the Romans would punish murderers by tying the dead corpse to the back of the murderer and making them go around with the dead body on their back. This was supposed to be the background for the “body of death” in Romans 7. Sorry - no basis whatsoever either in the Bible or in history. (But once again - nice illustration!
11. One Taken and One Left Behind…
Much as I’d like this one to support what I believe…it don’t. When Jesus said, “just in the days of Noah, one will be taken, one will be ‘left behind’”, if you read the text in Genesis, you actually WANT to be left behind because the ones left behind are the ones saved, the others are taken into judgment. It is very, very easy to wreak havoc on the Bible according to one’s presuppositions if one is not very careful…
12. Oh My “Abba”
We read our 20-21st century informality in family relationships back into the first century and impose them on the word that Jesus applies to our Heavenly father. We think because we can informal and hip with our Daddy we can be thus with our Heavenly Father as well…not the case. There is wonderful relationship there, but is not the corrupted 21st century kind of relationship that often see.
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