Most of us learn the Bible stories we know today from our Sunday school teachers or from our parents or grandparents. When they told us about Adam and Eve, Noah’s ark and the great flood, Jonah and the great fish, and the nativity story, they also painted a picture of them in our young hearts.
We carried it with us as we grew up and even shared it with our children and grandchildren in the same way. But are we sharing them exactly as it is written in the Bible? We are going to look at 4 myths about famous Bible stories we still believe and discover what the Bible actually says.
Eve Ate an Apple
We always see this one in every single painting and children’s book since we were little kids. So we assumed that a shiny red apple was the downfall of humanity in the Garden of Eden. But when you look at Genesis it never names the fruit that Adam and Eve ate. The Scripture only calls it “the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden” (Genesis 3:3 NKJV).
The old tradition probably started because of a Latin wordplay since the words for evil and apple sound almost identical in Latin. The type of fruit was never the point of the message. God was looking at their hearts and the real issue was about their disobedience to the Creator.
There Were Three Wise Men
We sing the songs every Christmas about the three kings, we put three little figures right next to the baby Jesus in the manger scene. And in every nativity skit, we can see three men visiting the manger with gifts. But the Gospel of Matthew never actually gives a specific number for the travelers who came from the east.
Matthew 2:1 simply says “wise men from the East came to Jerusalem” (NKJV). We just assumed there were three of them because they brought three distinct types of gifts which were gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Here is the other part most of us miss. The wise men likely never saw the manger at all. Matthew 2:11 says, “And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother” (NKJV). Notice it says a house and not a stable.
Many Bible scholars believe that this visit happened much later when Jesus was already a toddler.
Jonah Was Swallowed by a Whale
This is another major story that everyone tells wrong to their grandkids. We always talk about the whale that swallowed the prophet when he ran away from his mission. But the book of Jonah never mentions a whale anywhere in the text. Scripture says, “Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah” (Jonah 1:17 NKJV).
It could have been a whale since whales are massive creatures but the text simply does not say that. God prepared a specific great fish for that exact moment to save His servant.
I think we lose the real beauty of the miracle when we argue about the type of fish. The real heart of the story is about a stubborn prophet who ran away and an incredibly merciful God who saved a whole city when they repented.
Only Two of Every Animal Went onto Noah’s Ark
We all know the famous image of the animals marching two by two up the ramp into the big boat. It is a beautiful picture but it is only a small part of the instructions that Noah received. God actually told Noah to bring a lot more of certain kinds of animals.
Genesis 7:2 says, “You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean” (NKJV).
The extra clean animals were needed so Noah could make sacrifices to God after the flood ended without wiping out a whole species.
So what do these stories say to us? We live in a time when there are so many resources available to study the Bible. There is nothing wrong with reading those, but our real reference must always be the Bible itself. When we open God’s Word for ourselves we will find that the true story is even richer than the one we grew up hearing.
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV)
