It Is Not in the Bible!

MANY ideas commonly thought to come from the Bible are not found there at all. Check over the points discussed below​—see if you thought the Bible teaches them. Then, examine what it really says. Doing this may sharpen your interest in that book, and in what it means for us today.

“GOD MADE THE EARTH IN SEVEN TWENTY-FOUR-HOUR DAYS”

A common objection raised against accepting the Bible’s account of creation is the belief that it says God made the earth in seven twenty-four-hour days. You might want to read this account, which starts on the very first page of your Bible, at Genesis 1:1​—2:4 chapter 1, verse 1, and goes through chapter 2, verse 4.

After reading it, did you find anything at all that said the “days” referred to there were limited to twenty-four hours? The word “day” could not always mean a twenty-four-hour period in this passage, for at the end of the account the entire period, including all the “days” referred to there, is called “the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven.” (Gen. 2:4) Obviously the word “day” does not here mean twenty-four hours, for it includes the entire creative period.

The word “day” can also mean “age.” We use it in referring to “Noah’s day,” “Caesar’s day,” or other epochs that were far longer than twenty-four hours, but were marked with a specific beginning and a definite end.

It should be noted that these seven great creative “days” do not include the creation of the universe, but only the preparation of earth for man. The Bible does not say when the sun, stars, planets, even the earth, were created. Genesis 1:1 states: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” But it does not say when that “beginning” was, or how much time passed between the creation of the universe and the beginning of the first of the seven “days,” mentioned in the next Ge 1 verse 2.

Another important point is that the first six days came to an end​—but not the seventh! The report of the first six days closes with a statement similar to the one for day six: “And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a sixth day.” (Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31) But this concluding expression does not appear for the seventh day, on which God rested.

More than 4,000 years later, the apostle Paul understood that this seventh day, the rest day, was still continuing. He referred specially to this rest day mentioned in Genesis, and said: “Let us therefore do our utmost to enter into that rest.” (Heb. 4:4, 11) It is only logical that the peaceful thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ (who is identified in Matthew 12:8 as “Lord of the sabbath”) also be part of God’s great Sabbath, or rest day. Thus, the great “seventh day” of God’s resting from material creation on earth would include the nearly 6,000 years of Biblical history since Adam, plus the 1,000 years of Christ’s reign that Revelation 20:1-6 shows is yet to come. So, if the other six of this group of seven great creative “days” are as long as the last one, then each one must have been 7,000 years long!

The great creative epochs described in Genesis thus were periods lasting thousands of years, during which, the Bible says, specific steps were taken in the divine preparation of the earth for man.

“SEX IS THE ‘ORIGINAL SIN’”

Was Eve’s “original sin” the seduction of Adam, as many persons seem to think? Not according to the Bible!

The Bible says God made Eve as a “helper” or “complement” to Adam. The Biblical record calls them “the man and his wife.” (Gen. 2:20, 25) Their relationship was neither fornication (relations between persons not married) nor adultery (relations between persons married to someone else). Instead, their marriage relationship was holy, for God had instructed them to have children. He said: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it.”​—Gen. 1:28.

What, then, was their sin? Precisely what the Bible says it was​—the simple act of eating a literal fruit (the Bible does not say it was an “apple”) that God had told them not to eat. This was a simple thing, but it was extremely serious. It was a flouting of divine authority. Eve chose to decide for herself what was “good and bad”​—what she should or should not do—​rather than accepting God’s decision on the matter. Adam’s sin was in following her in this course of disobedience.

“JESUS DIED ON A ‘CROSS’”

“I know Jesus died on a cross,” one may say. “I’ve read it many times.”

But, much to the surprise of many persons, there is nothing in the Bible that indicates that the stake on which Jesus was executed had a crossbar. In fact, the evidence is to the contrary. Louis Réau, the famed French authority on religious art, wrote: “The Gospels tell us nothing specific about the shape of the cross. The Greek word stauros can mean a simple post, and does not imply, as the Latin crux does, the crossing of two beams. It seems that originally Christ was represented attached to a post.”​—See Acts 5:30; 10:39.

The “cross” was a religious symbol long before the time of Christ. A French Catholic dictionary admits: “It cannot be denied that the cross had been employed as a religious symbol by the pagans. It is found in different forms on a large number of Asiatic, European, and even American monuments.”

Since the Bible gives no description of its shape, and the Greek words the Bible used meant “stake,” “post” or “tree,” rather than “cross,” then the burden really rests upon those who say that the post that Christ died upon had a crossbeam to prove that it did. And since no “cross worship” was described in the writings of Jesus’ apostles, but this was a “sacred” symbol to the pagans, its worship cannot be recommended for true Christians today.

“PRIESTS SHOULD NOT MARRY”

This controversial subject is fraught with emotion today​—particularly for those who have a close relative who has made a sacrifice in this regard.

Roman Catholic scholars point out that the apostle Paul did not command celibacy. Catholic scholars, writing in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, say: “Most, if not all the apostles had been married, as Peter certainly was.” In evidence of Peter’s marriage, this Catholic book cites two texts: Matthew 8:14 and 1 Corinthians 9:5. The first speaks of Peter’s “mother-in-law.” In the second Paul says: “Have we not . . . the right to take a Christian woman round with us, like all the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?”​—The Catholic Jerusalem Bible.

As indicated in this Bible verse, who had wives? “The other apostles.” “The brothers of the Lord.” “Cephas.” Who was Cephas? None other than the apostle Peter, who the Catholic religion teaches was the first pope. And Paul said Peter was married!

The Bible did not command celibacy for the priests in Israel, nor for the overseers in the Christian congregation. Thus, the Roman Catholic Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, referring to the Bible writings of Jesus’ apostles, says: “St. Paul makes it quite clear that no Christian is obliged to practice v. [virginity].” It adds: “Celibacy of the clergy is nowhere demanded or even supposed in the NT [New Testament].”

“JESUS HAD A NAME​—GOD DOES NOT”

God’s Son has a name: Jesus. But does the Father?

“God” is not his name. Rather than being a name, the word “god” is more nearly a title. It applies to ‘anything worshiped by man as a deity,’ including idols and other men. (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1960 ed., p. 355) Does the Almighty Creator have a name that distinguishes him from all such false gods?

Yes. In the original Hebrew language in which some three quarters of the Bible was written, the great Creator of heaven and earth is identified thousands of times by his name. This fact is readily admitted by religious scholars, both Catholic and Protestant, though many members of their churches know little about this name.

The Encyclopedia of the Bible says: “Jehovah, or rather Jahweh, is the actual, strictly personal ‘proper name’ of God of Israel.” The Protestant New Bible Dictionary states: “Strictly speaking, Yahweh is the only ‘name’ of God. In Genesis wherever the word shem (‘name’) is associated with the divine being that name is Yahweh. When Abraham or Isaac built an altar ‘he called on the name of Yahweh.’”

The French Dictionnaire de la Bible (Dictionary of the Bible), edited by the Catholic priest F. Vigouroux, says: “Jehovah, the personal name of God in the Old Testament. No divine name is so frequently used in the Hebrew Bible. It is repeated about 6000 times, either alone or with another divine name.”

Jehovah, Jahweh, Yahweh​—these are various ways in which the divine name is rendered from the Hebrew Tetragrammaton into English. This name was used in normal conversation in ancient times, to distinguish the true God from false gods. Except at Psalm 83:18 and a few other verses, the King James translation of the Bible generally uses the word “LORD” instead of God’s name. However, a number of Bible translations correctly retain God’s true name wherever it appeared in the language in which the Bible originally was written, spelling it either “Jehovah” or “Yahweh.”

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TEACH?

Yes, what the Bible really says is far different from what often has been taught about it. Does not that fact stir your curiosity? Would you not like to know what the Bible really teaches, and the magnificent hope it holds out for the future of mankind?

Ask one of Jehovah’s witnesses, perhaps the one who passed you this magazine, for a free home Bible study. This is a course in basic Bible doctrines, offered for a period of six months, an hour a week, at no cost to you, in the privacy of your own home.

You will learn the answers to such moving Bible questions as: Why do we grow old and die? Where are the dead? Why does God permit wickedness? Do Christendom’s churches really teach what the Bible contains? What do the present troubled world conditions really mean? What does the future hold for you and your family?

More than one million families already are benefiting from this free weekly study. They are learning what the Bible really does teach. And they are becoming so enthusiastic about it that, by the tens of thousands, they are going out to tell it to their neighbors.

If you do not know one of Jehovah’s witnesses, write to the publishers of this magazine. One of Jehovah’s witnesses in your neighborhood will call to show you how you, too, can learn the thrilling facts that are contained in God’s Word the Bible.

Whether you now practice a religion or not, you owe it to yourself to know what truths really are found in that ancient inspired book. You may even find that this thrilling knowledge moves you to the kind of zeal, activity, and personal commitment that was long ago shown by first-century Christians!