It is almost impossible to mention religion without some debate issuing forth. Fundamentalist Christians like to use the Bible as their sole source of “revelation” and will argue for hours from its pages. Over history, people have developed strange misconceptions about the Bible and the tales it tells. This list hopes to put down some of the more obvious misconceptions people have about the Bible.

10 Adam and Eve’s Fruit

Contrary to popular belief, Adam and Even did not eat an Apple in the book of Genesis. The fruit is not actually named at all - it is referred to only as the fruit of “the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”. The reason this misconception has come about is most likely due to the fact that in Middle English, the word “apple” was used to refer to all fruit and nuts (except berries). Over the centuries, this word has stuck in reference to the Genesis fruit. [Genesis 2:17]

9 Devilish Serpent

The serpent that convinced Eve to take the fruit from the tree of Knowledge and Evil is not referred to as Satan in Genesis. He is known only as the serpent who was “more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth”. Additionally, the term “Lucifer” used in reference to Satan comes from the Vulgate translation of Isaiah 14:12 - at no point in the Bible is Satan directly referred to by the name Lucifer. [Genesis 3]

8 Noah’s Ark

We all know that the “animals went in two by two”… right? Wrong! In fact, all clean animals went in in groups of seven, and unclean animals in groups of two. According to Jewish dietary law, there are far more clean animals than unclean, so the majority of creatures entering the ark went in as a group of 7. [Genesis 7:2-3]

7 The Ten Commandments

Considering the importance of the ten commandments to so many people, you would think they would have a clear idea of how they are defined, but most people do not. The Bible does not list a consistent set of 10 commandments at all. In Exodus, the list includes 14 or 15 “statements”. Though the Bible does refer to a set of “10″ rules, it does not mention them in the same sections as the list commonly known as the ten commandments. Different Christian sects have divided the list of commandments up differently. The Catholic Church combines the first 3 statements in to one commandment, and the Protestants combine the final two in to one statement. You can see a complete list of the differences here. To add to the confusion, there is also another set of 10 commandments called the Ritual Decalogue which includes laws such as “Do not cook a kid in its mother’s milk”. [Exodus 20]

6 The Immaculate Conception

The immaculate conception is not a reference to Jesus being born without sin, but to his mother Mary. Most Christians believe that all people are conceived with original sin (the sin inherited from Adam and Eve) but that Jesus was not. Additionally, the Catholic Church teaches that Mary was also conceived without sin and this is where the term “Immaculate Conception” has come from. [Luke 1:28]

5 The Three Kings

No doubt most of us have heard the Christmas Carol “We three kings of Orient are;” but in fact, the three “kings” are never referred to as Kings in the Bible. Additionally, they are not referred to as a group of three. The only reference to the number ‘3′ is the number of gifts they carried. [Matthew 2:7-11]

4 Mary Magdalene’s Career

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. In fact, she is barely mentioned at all. Aside from her presence at the ressurection, the only other thing that the Bible does say is that she was possessed by seven demons. [Luke 8:2]

3 The Prodigal Son

Contrary to popular belief, “Prodigal” means “characterized by a profuse or wasteful expenditure” - it is not a reference to leaving or returning. [Luke 15:11-32]

2 Emperor Constantine and the Bible

The Emperor Constantine did not define the canon of the New Testament at the first Council of Nicaea in 325AD - in fact, the Council did not even make mention of the Biblical canon. It was already defined by common use by the early 2nd century in the form in which it is still found in Catholic Bibles. Another little known fact is the Emperor Constantine had no voting power at the council - he was there merely as an observer. [Canons of the Council of Nicaea]

1 Changing Text

Some people believe that over the centuries, the Bible text has been altered to suit the ideologies of the editors. In fact, there are only a very small number of textual alterations that modern philologists and critics consider intentional changes; most are simply errors in spelling or copying. Bart D. Ehrman (a New Testament textual critic) says:

“It would be a mistake. . .to assume that the only changes being made were by copyists with a personal stake in the wording of the text. In fact, most of the changes found in our early Christian manuscripts have nothing to do with theology or ideology. Far and and away the [sic] most changes are the result of mistakes, pure and simple—slips of the pen, accidental omissions, inadvertent additions, misspelled words, blunders of one sort or another.”

Aside from the removal of a number of books in the 16th Century, the Bible is essentially the same now as it was in the 2nd century.

提及宗教，爭(zhēng)議就在所難免。信服正統(tǒng)派基督教的教徒們喜歡將圣經(jīng)作為他們“啟示”的唯一來(lái)源，并會(huì)就圣經(jīng)書上的內(nèi)容展開數(shù)小時(shí)的辯論。在歷史發(fā)展的過(guò)程中，人們對(duì)圣經(jīng)及及圣經(jīng)故事產(chǎn)生了不少奇怪的誤解。希望這份榜單能消除人們一些很明顯的對(duì)于圣經(jīng)的誤解。

10 亞當(dāng)與夏娃的禁果

與現(xiàn)在普遍流行的說(shuō)法相反，創(chuàng)世紀(jì)一章中亞當(dāng)和夏娃吃的并不是蘋果。事實(shí)上那個(gè)果子并沒有被命名--它指的是“智慧樹”上的果實(shí)。這個(gè)誤解形成的原因可能是中世紀(jì)英語(yǔ)中，“apple”一詞指的是所有水果和堅(jiān)果（除了漿果）。幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以后，這個(gè)單詞被慣用于指創(chuàng)世紀(jì)中的果實(shí)。[創(chuàng)世紀(jì) 2:17]

9 撒旦

在創(chuàng)世紀(jì)中，那條說(shuō)服夏娃摘取智慧樹果實(shí)的蛇并沒有被提及指的是撒旦。對(duì)于這條蛇，我們所知的僅僅是“它是所有野獸中最狡猾的”。另外，關(guān)于“路西弗”一詞被用來(lái)指撒旦是來(lái)源于以賽亞書14：12的拉丁文翻譯版--在圣經(jīng)中沒有直接指出路西華弗的就是撒旦。[創(chuàng)世紀(jì) 3]

8 諾亞方舟

我們都知道“動(dòng)物都以一公一母的形式被帶入方舟”。。。是嗎？錯(cuò)！事實(shí)上，凡潔凈的畜類是以七公七母的形式帶入方舟，而不潔凈的畜類，被帶入方舟的是一公一母。根據(jù)猶太人的飲食規(guī)律，潔凈的動(dòng)物遠(yuǎn)比不潔凈的多，所以進(jìn)入諾亞方舟的大多數(shù)動(dòng)物都是以七公七母的形式。[創(chuàng)世紀(jì) 7:2-3]

7 十誡

想到世界對(duì)如此之多的人的重要性，你也許會(huì)認(rèn)為他們很清楚地知道十誡是如何被定義的，但事實(shí)上很多人并不知道。圣經(jīng)中根本沒有給出一致的十誡。在出埃及中，那份列表包括了14或15條“戒律”。雖然圣經(jīng)確實(shí)提到過(guò)“10”條紀(jì)律，但它并沒有在通常被認(rèn)為是十誡的那部分中再次提到這些。不同的基督宗教派別有各自不同的十誡。天主教把前三條紀(jì)律歸并成一誡，而新教則將后兩條紀(jì)律合并成一誡。從這里你可以看出區(qū)別所在。更讓人困惑的是，還有另外一系列十誡稱作摩西的十誡，其中包括“不可用山羊羔母親的奶煮山羊羔”。[出埃及 20]

6 純潔之胎

純潔之胎指的并不是耶穌出生的純潔無(wú)罪，而是關(guān)于他的母親瑪利亞。大多數(shù)基督徒都相信原罪說(shuō)（人類繼承了亞當(dāng)和夏娃的罪過(guò)），但耶穌并非如此。此外，天主教傳授的教義是瑪利亞也是純潔無(wú)罪的，這才是“純潔之胎”一說(shuō)的由來(lái)。[路加福音 1:28]

5 三列王

毫無(wú)疑問，我們大多數(shù)人都聽過(guò)耶誕頌歌“東方三賢士”；但事實(shí)上這三位“王”在圣經(jīng)中從未被提過(guò)是“國(guó)王”。另外，他們也沒有被提及是三人成組的，唯一提及的關(guān)于他們的數(shù)字“3”是他們攜帶的禮物。[馬太福音 2:7-11]

4 抹大拉的瑪利亞的職業(yè)

圣經(jīng)中沒有指出抹大拉的瑪利亞是一名妓女，事實(shí)上她很少被提及，除了在耶穌復(fù)活時(shí)有提到過(guò)她。圣經(jīng)中唯一提及她的另一處則是她被七個(gè)污鬼附身。[路加福音 8:2]

3 浪子回頭

與如今大家普遍理解的相反，“浪”在圣經(jīng)中的意思是指“揮霍浪費(fèi)掉許多財(cái)產(chǎn)”--它指的不是離鄉(xiāng)后的回歸。[路加福音 15:11-32]

2 康斯坦丁大帝與圣經(jīng)

公元325年第一次普世大會(huì)在尼西亞召開時(shí)，康斯坦丁大帝并沒有規(guī)定出新教的教規(guī)--事實(shí)上，大會(huì)甚至沒有提及圣經(jīng)的教規(guī)。實(shí)際上教規(guī)采用了二世紀(jì)早期常用的格式，而這一格式在現(xiàn)今天主教圣經(jīng)中仍普遍存在。另一個(gè)鮮為人知的事實(shí)是，康斯坦丁大帝在大會(huì)上其實(shí)沒有投票權(quán)--因?yàn)樗�只是旁觀者。

1 文本的變遷

有人認(rèn)為在經(jīng)過(guò)幾個(gè)世紀(jì)的變遷，圣經(jīng)的文本內(nèi)容已經(jīng)遭到修改，為了符合編者的意識(shí)形態(tài)。事實(shí)上，現(xiàn)代語(yǔ)言學(xué)家和評(píng)論家認(rèn)為只有極少一部分文本內(nèi)容被有意修改；其他大部分的錯(cuò)誤是由于拼寫或復(fù)寫時(shí)出現(xiàn)了錯(cuò)誤。巴特·D·葉爾曼說(shuō)：

“圣經(jīng)中所有被改動(dòng)的地方都是因?yàn)槌瓕懻邆�(gè)人對(duì)文本的理解產(chǎn)生出入而修改的，這種想法是不對(duì)的。事實(shí)上，從我們?cè)缙诘幕�督教手稿中發(fā)現(xiàn)大多數(shù)錯(cuò)誤與理論或意識(shí)形態(tài)沒有什么關(guān)系�？梢钥隙ǖ氖恰驹�文如此】大多數(shù)都是單純的錯(cuò)誤--一時(shí)的筆誤，無(wú)意的增減，單詞拼錯(cuò)以及各種類似的錯(cuò)誤。”

除了在16世紀(jì)時(shí)被刻意移除過(guò)幾章之外，圣經(jīng)從本質(zhì)上來(lái)看與二世紀(jì)時(shí)是一樣的。