What are the most common things people think are in the Bible that are not actually in the Bible?

These words have often produced painful and even rebellious thoughts in the minds of the uninstructed, principally because of their being almost invariably misquoted, for both books and speakers in general say, The Lord visits “the sins” of the fathers upon the children. That is not what the Word of God says.

Three times over in these letters the apostle Paul speaks of a faithful saying (1 Tim.1:15, 4:9, and Tit.3:8). We are fond of sayings. I notice it again and again, not a day passes without me meeting somebody and them saying some little crisp statement which has passed into a saying. And oftentimes we are not very critical of these sayings, we just accept them and we do not question them, which would be a wise thing to do. I remember at the time of the Welsh revival going down to Wales in 1905 and doing a lot of visitation work with very useful gospel tracts. It was there a man I knew very well told me about an incident. One day he knocked at a door and a rather talkative woman came out, but apparently not a Christian, although she was living where so much was being done in the way of conversion and she was desirous of dismissing the work. She said, ‘Thank you for offering me your little book, but I do not know that I need it, I intend to be all right someday, there is plenty of time for me yet to think about religious things.’ And then she said, ‘You know, as the Bible says, it is never to late to mend’. My good friend restrained his amusement (it was really rather tragic), and said, ‘Is it indeed? Do you know madam’ he continued, pulling his Bible out of his pocket, ‘I have read the Bible for many years and I have never read that saying in the Bible. In fact I think I am as bold as to tell you that you have made a mistake, the Bible never in any place says, It is never to late to mend’. She was quite taken aback at this statement, but he went on, ‘And I think I can tell you why it is not in the Bible.’ ‘Why is that?’ she replied. ‘Because it is not true.’ he said. The man continued, ‘Madam, you are far too late to mend.’

1901 206 There prevails among Christians a traditional habit of misquoting or misapplying God's word to ill result. For thereby is given divine authority to what He nowhere says or means. Let us examine some that are most common. To rescue scripture from abuse, to expose any misapplication, to recover its just bearing, is a boon for which every believer should be grateful. A few of these errors may be comparatively slight in appearance; but others are of real and manifest importance. Mistranslations are added as a still more insidious source of error.

Accustom yourself to check your own quotations with the Bible itself, and verify also the references of others. It is not uncommon to hear, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29); "It is appointed to all men once to die" (Heb. 9:27); "Come to me, all ye that are weary and are heavy laden" (Matt. 11:28); "Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think (Eph. 3:20). Not one of these misquotations is unimportant; and you can easily multiply similar instances if you watch what others speak or write. But be very sure you watch yourself, and that you make no mistakes.

Sometimes two passages are mingled in one quotation, and the reader is left to unravel its parts. It is said, for example, "He that shall endure unto the end, in the faith which worketh by love, that man shall be saved." There is no such passage in God's word. The author has inserted a portion of Galatians 5:6, into the middle of a passage taken from Matthew 24:13, and has connected it by the words in the and that man, which are not found in either verse. Now the verse in Galatians has no reference to the "enduring to the end" mentioned in Matthew; and this last passage speaks of the afflictions of the disciples in the distress of Jerusalem.

John. If you examine these scriptures you will find they are very much misquoted. By adding even a word the whole meaning is altered. Thus if we add the word “all” to Hebrews 9:27, it alters the sense entirely. If you heard a fearful explosion in a coal pit, where three hundred hands are employed, and fifty had just come out, you might say that explosion is certainly the death of the colliers; but would that mean the fifty who had been drawn out? Or if twenty men were under the sentence of death, and three received Her Majesty’s free pardon, would that mean that the whole twenty were still under the sentence of death? It is quite true that all have been found guilty — all under the sentence of death.

Did you ever, by the way, know one that quoted the phrase correctly? Have you ever seen it employed aright in any liturgy that ever was framed? I do not recollect it so much as even once, although familiar with rather many of such compilations. Evidently, the truth intended is not before hearts, nor even understood, but confounded with something different; and hence men cite the words falsely. This shows the all-importance for the truth of cleaving to the only unerring standard, the written word of God. Christ is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world; but the Holy Ghost in this connection carefully abstains from saying "sins." It is constantly assumed, when persons read the passage, that Christ has taken away the "sins" of the world. Now this would be another thing altogether, and confounds the text with 1 Peter 2:24.

The Lord said to Peter, and this was recorded at the end of John's Gospel, "If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee?" (21:22), and many have taken from this (and I believe rightly so) that the writings of the apostle John are particularly relevant in the time immediately before the Lord comes. The other disciples misinterpreted this statement and there were those who said, 'John is not going to die', but he said, 'That is not what the Lord said. He said, "If I will that John remains until I come, Peter, what business is that of yours?"' So when we quote or use the word of God it is important that we quote it accurately and use it for the purpose that God has given it.

The facility with which divine words may be misrepresented, by failure to retain them in the form in which they were delivered, is brought before us in a very remarkable and striking manner in John 21:21-23, on the occasion on which the Lord said to Peter, "If I will that he (John) tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" These words came to be interpreted "among the brethren" as meaning, "that that disciple should not die." To the natural mind, this appeared to be the only conclusion from the Lord's words, and their absolute equivalent. But, jealous of the exact words in which the communication was made, yet leaving the meaning of those words undetermined, the Holy Ghost's comment, which amounted to grave rebuke, was, "Yet Jesus said not unto him" (Peter, perhaps pointing to where responsibility lay) "He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee"; thus recording again with something more than a correction, the precise words which were uttered by the Lord, and emphasizing once and for ever the importance attaching to the unaltered words in which truth is divinely recorded.

Other details not mentioned in the OT we are learning in the NT only. As an example we come to know the names of the Egyptian magicians which were Jannes and Jambres (2 Tim. 3:8). In Jewish oral tradition not only tales but also various true incidents of former days were kept. The writers of the NT could refer to such incidents under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But was it not possible that they received direct revelations from God also? Nowadays these references in the NT are mostly considered to be quotations from Apocryphal books, for example Moses’ ascension and the Book of Enoch. Such fantastic apocalyptic works came into existence a lot from Jewish-Christian background in the first and second century AC. The “ascension of Moses” is considered to have been written around the year 0 and the “Book of Enoch” between 170 BC and 70 AC. – One cannot imagine though that a biblical writer under the guidance of the Holy Spirit would have taken incidents of the dealings of God or his servants out of such human works. And the origin of these works is clearly religious fantasy and fanaticism.