Much has been said and written about the Bible—but not everything has been accurate. Bestselling author Stephen Lang (more than 1.7 million books sold and author of The Complete Book of Bible Trivia) has gathered misquotes, misconceptions, misuses, and more that have touched people’s funny bones or made them groan in disbelief. In this fun collection, readers will be intrigued by “errors” that include:
- In 1852 a “cleaned–up” version of the Bible was published by a vegetarian. All references to violence, sex, and meat were taken out.
- The image of angels with harps doesn’t appear in the Bible. It probably originated from John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost.
- Fidel Castro announced that “Christ chose the fishermen because he was a communist.”
As readers are entertained by these fascinating facts, they’ll discover many biblical truths and learn some of Christianity’s history.
Author: J. Stephen Lang
Located in: Seminole, FL
Submitted: September 26, 2007
Tell us a little about yourself. I'm the author of more than 30 books, most of them dealing with the Bible or Christian history. I have a BA in religion, MA in print communications, formerly a book editor for Tyndale House, now a full-time author.
What was your motivation behind this project? I've always been intrigued--and irritated--and amused--by the manifold ways people misconstrue the Bible. I wanted to clear up some of those, and entertain the reader along the way.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? I hope some of their own misconceptions will be set right. I also hope that the reader will, like me, find some amusement in some of the misconceptions.
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? I gained an appreciation for the Bible itself--a fairly simple and easy-to-understand book (for the most part) that, sadly, has mostly been misconstrued.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: One of the goals of the book is good clean fun. The book does have a serious purpose, yes, but I also include some parts that are making readers laugh at loud. These include wrong answers to Bible tests administered in college classes. I couldn't resist opening the book with a whole chapter of these, and readers tell me these wrong (and very funny) answers are a perfect hook to draw people into the book.