THE WATCHTOWER ? JULY 15, 2011 (p17)
10 Paul’s warning about false stories is part of his first letter to Timothy, a Christian overseer who was charged with preserving the purity of the congregation and helping fellow believers to remain faithful. (1 Tim. 1:18, 19) Paul uses a Greek word that can refer to fiction, myth, or falsehood. According to The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, this word refers to “a (religious) story that has no connection with reality.” Perhaps Paul had in mind religious lies promoted by sensational tales or fanciful legends.*
*For example, the apocryphal book of Tobit (Tobias), written about the third century B.C.E. and thus extant in Paul’s day, is full of superstition and absurd tales of magic and sorcery presented as truth.
Let's see....
- a talking snake
- a talking donkey
- half-demon/half-human hybrids who wreak havoc until a flood drowns them, along with any women, children who didn't board the giant wooden crate
- a warrior who stops the earth's rotation
- another whose strength is derived from his goldilocks, allowing him to rip young male lions in two
- a man who splits an ocean, turns walking sticks into snakes, and is given two stone tablets while chatting with God on top of a mountain
- a man who spends three days in a big fish spa, alive
- a man who is born of a virgin, walks on water, makes insta-wine, and wakes the dead
- etc, etc, etc....
One can't help but wonder what "absurd tales of magic and sorcery presented as truth" the book of Tobias contains.
