Not in the Bible — and what the text actually says

The negative form ('do not do unto others what you would not have done to you') is found in Confucian thought (Analects 15:24), in Tobit 4:15 in the Apocrypha, in Rabbi Hillel's famous formulation from the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 31a), and in many other ancient traditions. It does not appear in this negative form in either Gospel statement of the Golden Rule. Both Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31 use the positive form.

A 20th-century bumper-sticker / evangelical-slogan formulation. The phrase has no biblical source. Its earliest documented appearance in this form is mid-twentieth century in popular Christian discourse; it is not in any standard concordance of biblical phrases.

The opening line of William Cowper's 1774 hymn 'God Moves in a Mysterious Way His Wonders to Perform.' Cowper (1731–1800) was an English poet and Anglican hymn-writer. The hymn was published in his and John Newton's Olney Hymns (1779). The line was never a Bible verse and was never claimed to be one — it is genuine 18th-century Christian poetry that the Bible-reading public has gradually absorbed into the canon of 'biblical' phrases.

The phrase 'God-shaped vacuum' is a 20th-century paraphrase of Pascal. Pascal wrote of 'an infinite abyss' (un gouffre infini) and 'an empty print and trace' (une marque vide et une trace) — not a 'vacuum' and not 'God-shaped.' The full passage is Pensées 148 in the Brunschvicg numbering / 428 in the Lafuma numbering. Pascal was himself drawing on Ecclesiastes 3:11 — 'He has set eternity in the human heart.'

1 Timothy 6:10. The popular version 'money is the root of all evil' compresses three Greek distinctions: (1) philarguria (love of money), not money itself; (2) riza (a root, no definite article), not the root; (3) pantōn kakōn (all kinds of evil / every kind of evil), not 'all evil that exists.' All three compressions change what the verse claims.

Associated with Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack, though the exact modern form does not appear there verbatim. Franklin's 1737 almanac contained 'a penny saved is two pence clear' and 'a penny saved is a penny got' in similar maxims. The modern wording 'a penny saved is a penny earned' is a later paraphrase or a different proverb stream from the 18th–19th centuries. The phrase is not in the Bible.

Romans 8:28. The verse reads differently across translations depending on which Greek manuscript tradition is followed and how the syntax is parsed. The KJV reads 'all things work together for good'; the BSB reads 'God works all things together for the good.' The Greek allows both.

The phrase is widely attributed to Mahatma Gandhi but does not appear in his published writings, speeches, or letters. Its earliest verifiable appearance is in Louis Fischer's 1950 biography 'The Life of Mahatma Gandhi,' where Fischer attributes the saying to Gandhi without citing a source. The 'eye for an eye' phrase itself does appear in the Bible (Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21, Matthew 5:38) but in a different context and with a different function.

The Book of Common Prayer (Church of England), the burial service. The phrasing 'earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust' appears in the 1662 BCP burial rite, which inherits the formulation from the 1549 and 1552 editions of the BCP. The wording draws on Genesis 3:19 ('to dust you shall return') and Ecclesiastes 3:20 ('all are from the dust, and to dust all return') but the specific liturgical formula 'ashes to ashes, dust to dust' does not appear verbatim in any Bible translation.

Closely related wording appears in Matthew 7:7–8, Luke 11:9–10, and John 16:24. The exact phrase 'Ask and you shall receive' (KJV: 'ask, and ye shall receive') is from John 16:24. The popular saying combines elements from multiple verses.

Psalm 46:10. Verbatim in BSB and KJV. The verse is widely cited as a contemplative call to inner stillness, but in its psalmic context it is addressed to nations engaged in war and to people watching the LORD bring an end to violent conflict — a sharper and more public summons than the contemplative reading typically conveys.

A 20th-century English paraphrase widely attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, but even the Gandhi attribution is disputed. The pithy 'be the change' formulation does not appear in Gandhi's published writings or speeches in this exact form. The phrase appears to be a later condensation of a longer passage in his collected works — popularised in the 1990s and 2000s decades after his death (1948). It has no biblical source whatsoever.

John Wesley, sermon 'On Dress' (1791): 'Slovenliness is no part of religion. Cleanliness is, indeed, next to godliness.' Wesley himself attributes the form of the saying to ancient Hebrew tradition, but the phrase does not appear in the Bible.

Philippians 4:6. Verbatim in BSB. The verse appears toward the close of Paul's letter to the church at Philippi, in a passage (4:4-9) that pairs the imperative with two further moves: prayer with thanksgiving (v. 6) and the practice of dwelling on what is true, noble, right, pure (v. 8). The verse is widely cited as a freestanding instruction; the surrounding verses give the prescription that the imperative is bracketed by.

Matthew 7:12 (and Luke 6:31). The verse is verbatim Jesus's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew) and the Sermon on the Plain (Luke). The 'Golden Rule' label is a later Christian designation — the phrase 'Golden Rule' for this teaching dates to the 16th–17th centuries in English.

The phrase has no single biblical source. Its modern English form is part of the wider New Age and self-help vocabulary of the 20th century. Romans 8:28 is sometimes cited as its biblical equivalent but says something materially different — that 'God works all things together for the good of those who love Him,' a qualified statement, not a universal causal claim.

A 20th-century prose poem of disputed authorship. Authorship has been claimed by Mary Stevenson (who said she wrote it in 1936), by Margaret Fishback Powers (claiming 1964), by Carolyn Joyce Carty (claiming 1963), and by others. Multiple legal disputes over authorship have followed. No version of the poem appears in the Bible in any translation.

John 3:16. The phrase appears verbatim at the start of the verse in both BSB and KJV.

A modern educational proverb of disputed origin. The earliest documented form in English is from Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie's 1885 novel Mrs. Dymond. Variously attributed to Maimonides and to Chinese proverbial traditions, but no early source places it in any of these. The phrase is not in the Bible — in any translation, in any form.

1 Corinthians 10:13 is the verse most often cited as the basis for the popular phrase. The verse says something specific — that God will not let believers be tempted (Greek: peirasmos) beyond what they can bear. The popular phrase generalises this from temptation to suffering of all kinds, which is not what the verse says.

Algernon Sidney, Discourses Concerning Government (1698). Popularised in America by Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanack (1736).

1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16 — verbatim. 'God is love' appears twice in the same chapter, both times as the theological foundation of a practical argument about loving one another. The verse is real but is almost always cited as a standalone philosophical statement, divorced from the surrounding argument it grounds.

Augustine of Hippo, Letter 211 (c. 424 AD): 'cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum' ('with love for mankind and hatred of vices'). Mahatma Gandhi popularised the modern English wording in his 1929 autobiography. The phrase does not appear in the Bible.

Philippians 4:13. The wording 'through Christ' appears in the KJV and NKJV; the Greek text has the pronoun 'him' rather than the noun 'Christ', so most modern translations render it 'through him who strengthens me.'

Jeremiah 29:11. Verbatim in BSB and KJV. The verse appears in a letter from the prophet Jeremiah to the Israelite exiles in Babylon, written around 597 BC, addressing a community whose deportation God says will last seventy years.

A modern proverb in this exact form. Variants of the saying appear in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (late 14th century, 'idleness is the gate to all sin'), in Jerome (4th century, in his letter to Rusticus, 'fac et aliquid operis, ut semper te diabolus inveniat occupatum' — 'always be doing something, that the devil may find you occupied'), and in Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack. The specific English wording 'idle hands are the devil's workshop' (or 'workplace,' 'tools,' 'playground') stabilised in the 18th–19th centuries.

The official motto of the United States, adopted by Act of Congress on July 30, 1956 (Public Law 84-140). First appeared on US coinage in 1864 — a two-cent piece minted during the American Civil War, proposed by Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase. The motto draws on the last stanza of Francis Scott Key's 'The Star-Spangled Banner' (1814) — 'And this be our motto: In God is our trust' — itself drawing loosely on Psalm-style trust language. The exact phrase 'In God we trust' is not a verse of the Bible.

December 25 is not stated in any Gospel. The Bible gives no birth date for Jesus. The earliest documentary evidence for December 25 as a Christian celebration of Jesus's birth is the Roman Chronograph of 354 CE (the Filocalian Calendar), which records December 25 as the natalis (birthday) of Christ for that year. The choice of December 25 was established by Western church tradition during the 4th century CE — over three centuries after the events described.

Matthew 7:1 in the KJV ('Judge not, that ye be not judged') and BSB ('Do not judge, or you will be judged'). The verse is real. The popular citation almost always quotes verse 1 alone and drops verses 2-5, which clarify that Jesus is prohibiting hypocritical judgment specifically — not all moral discernment. Matthew 7:6 immediately afterwards instructs the disciples to make a specific kind of judgment ('do not cast pearls before swine').

A 20th-century English aphorism derived loosely from Augustine of Hippo, Letter 211 (c. 424 CE): 'cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum' — 'with love for the people and hatred of the sins.' Augustine's letter addresses a convent's internal disputes. Mahatma Gandhi used a similar phrase in his autobiography (1929) — 'Hate the sin and not the sinner.' Neither is biblical. The phrase has no direct source in any Bible translation.

A 6th-century conflation by Pope Gregory I in Homily 33 (591 CE), which combined Mary Magdalene with the unnamed sinful woman of Luke 7:36-50 and with Mary of Bethany. In 1969 the Roman Catholic Church's revised calendar and lectionary distinguished Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and the unnamed sinful woman of Luke 7 as separate figures — a clarification that the traditional conflation had merged three distinct women. The Eastern Orthodox tradition had never accepted Gregory's conflation.

The Greek maxim mēden agan (μηδὲν ἄγαν, 'nothing in excess'), inscribed at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi and attributed variously to Solon, Chilon, or other Seven Sages of Greece. The full English form 'moderation in all things' traces to the Roman satirist Petronius (Satyricon, 1st century AD) and to subsequent classical and medieval authors. The phrase is not in the Bible.

1 Timothy 6:10. The biblical text says 'the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil' — two words have been dropped and one changed in the common paraphrase.

1 Thessalonians 5:17. Verbatim — both BSB and KJV use 'pray without ceasing' (or close variants). The Greek word adialeiptōs (without ceasing) is the issue. In Greek usage adialeiptōs described actions performed regularly, persistently, and consistently — not literally without any interruption.

Proverbs 16:18. The biblical verse pairs pride with destruction and a haughty spirit with stumbling — the wording 'before a fall' is a paraphrase of the second clause.

Luke 10:18 contains the saying — 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven' — but it is widely misread as a description of a pre-creation cosmic event. In context (Luke 10:17-20) Jesus is responding to the disciples' report that demons had submitted to them on their mission. The primordial-fall-of-Satan tradition draws on Isaiah 14:12 (addressed to the king of Babylon) and Ezekiel 28 (addressed to the king of Tyre) — neither of which names Satan explicitly.

Samuel Butler, 'Hudibras' (Part II, Canto I, 1664). The phrase appears in a satirical poem, not in the Bible. The biblical Proverbs contain a separate verse on discipline (Proverbs 13:24) that uses the word 'rod' but with different wording.

Comedian Flip Wilson popularised the phrase in the late 1960s and early 1970s through his 'Geraldine Jones' television character. The phrase does not appear in the Bible.

The apple identification is a Latin Christian artistic and literary tradition, not a biblical claim. Genesis 3 simply uses the Hebrew word peri (fruit), without species. The apple association is most often traced to Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation (late 4th century), where the wordplay between malum (apple tree) and malum (evil) made the apple a natural visual symbol in subsequent Latin Christian art and literature. Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) cemented the apple in the English-language imagination.

Isaiah 11:6. The biblical text pairs the wolf — not the lion — with the lamb. The lion appears later in the verse, paired with the calf.

Job 1:21. KJV: 'The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.' BSB: 'The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.' The verse is verbatim. What is almost always missing in popular citation is the immediate context — Job has just learned that all ten of his children have been killed and all his property destroyed, in a single day.

William Cowper's hymn 'Light Shining Out of Darkness' (1773), which opens 'God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform.' The phrase does not appear in the Bible.

Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1150), often given in the Latin form 'L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs' or close variants. The proverb appears in various forms across medieval and early modern European literature; the modern English wording was popularised by the eighteenth century. The phrase is not in the Bible.

Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great), in Moralia in Job (c. 590 CE), enumerated a list of capital vices that later stabilised as the seven deadly sins of Western Christian tradition. The classical list — pride (superbia), envy (invidia), wrath (ira), sloth (acedia), greed (avaritia), gluttony (gula), lust (luxuria) — was further refined by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologiae (13th century). Earlier monastic lists (Evagrius Ponticus in the 4th century, John Cassian shortly after) had eight or nine vices; Gregory's reduction to seven became standard. None of these lists appears in the Bible as a canonical grouping.

The first half ('the truth will set you free') is biblical (John 8:32). The second half ('but first it will make you miserable') is not biblical and is sometimes attributed to U.S. President James A. Garfield (1831–1881), though no verified primary source has been found for Garfield using this exact wording. The full saying as a single quotation conflates a biblical phrase with a later English aphorism of disputed attribution.

Matthew 2:1-12 mentions 'Magi from the East' (magoi apo anatolōn) without specifying a number. The tradition of three derives from the three categories of gifts they brought — gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Eastern Christian traditions have historically named twelve Magi rather than three. The names Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar appear in sources from around the fifth to sixth century CE — centuries after the events described.

A Persian-language adage retold by medieval Sufi poets, popularised in English by Edward FitzGerald (1852) and President Abraham Lincoln (1859). It is not in the Bible.

William Shakespeare, 'Hamlet,' Act 1 Scene 3 (c. 1600). Spoken by Polonius giving parting advice to his son Laertes. The phrase has no biblical source.

Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13 — the temptation narrative. The devil quotes Psalm 91:11-12 to Jesus accurately. Jesus responds by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16 and other texts — using Scripture to interpret Scripture rather than to overturn the quoted passage.

Matthew 18:20. Verbatim in BSB and KJV. The verse is widely cited as a promise of Christ's presence wherever a small group meets for worship or prayer. Its setting in Matthew 18 is different — the verse is the conclusion of an extended teaching unit on church discipline, including instructions for confronting a believer who has sinned and the procedure for involving 'two or three witnesses.' Read in context, the 'two or three gathered' refers in the first instance to the witnesses described in verse 16, not to small worship gatherings generally.