Misquoted Bible
Every now and then I have seen other bloggers mention occasions where people have misquoted the Bible, often by attributing something to the Bible that was actually said somewhere else. One of the more famous examples is “God helps those who help themselves.” The beauty of that quote is that it is pretty much the opposite of what the Bible says. Paul, in particular, is pretty clear that God helped all of us because we couldn’t help ourselves.
The other day I came across a new example on a discussion group. The debate was over the government and whether or not it should have programs that assist the poor. One person chimed in to quote Jesus, who said “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Of course, Jesus never said this. It is a Chinese proverb.
I seem to remember Jesus giving 5,000 people fish, but I don’t remember him teaching them to fish. Perhaps that part of the sermon was not preserved.
On April 23rd, 2007 at 11:13 pm
Third resurrection appearance in John’s gospel - “Throw the net over the right side” Jn 21:6
Jesus calls Simon-Peter - “Put out into deep water and let down your nets” Lk 5:4
Apparently it’s all about how far out you go, which side of the boat you throw the net over, and having caught nothing during the night!
On April 24th, 2007 at 9:25 am
I do remember those verses of course. I just meant that Jesus did not teach the 5,000 (or the 4,000) to fish. He just gave them fish
For the record, I am not saying that this is a bad proverb, nor was I taking sides in the particular debate mentioned above. I was just pointing out that this was not a quote by Jesus.
I think whenever this proverb is quoted in modern debates in the US, it is taken as an either/or proposition. It seems to me, though, that it needs to be both. If you teach someone to fish but don’t give him a fish first, he may starve before learning to fish.
Of course, if large companies own all the lakes and rivers and won’t allow others to fish, then we have a different problem.
On April 24th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Kevin,
As my last comment indicated, I was teasing… Of course, Jesus didn’t say the proverb at hand nor did he teach his disciples how to fish. Could you imagine if we set up Christian charities that stood on the shore side and kept yelling out to the fishermen, “No! Throw the net over the other side!”
On April 25th, 2007 at 11:40 am
I did catch the tongue-in-cheek comments. I just wanted to clarify what I had said. I had had a few more thoughts since I made the post, so I wanted to add those.
Thanks for your comments!