But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. 1 Timothy 4:7
A man who I was working with told me about going to see the movie The Passion of the Christ. He was impressed with much of the content of the movie and spoke in glowing detail about it. But there were some things that bothered him. He was not very familiar with the Bible, but had read it, and he was wondering about several scenes that he doubted were actually according to the Scriptures. For example, he told about the thief on the cross who had rejected the Lord Jesus. In the movie (I am taking his word for it, I never saw it myself), a crow came and picked out one of the eyes of the unrepentant thief. There is no record of such an event actually happening. The movie producer Mel Gibson added this little feature which came from the writings of the Catholic mystic Anne-Catherine Emmerich, a nun who lived in the 1700s in Germany and who claimed to have received visions from the virgin Mary. But many of her revelations are directly contrary to the Word of God; they are simply old wives’ fables. And we should reject all such that can and that could distort the truth of the Scriptures.
What was Paul referring to when he wrote our text? Technically speaking, a fable is a tale that involves animals or plants acting in human ways. Aesop used fables to teach valuable lessons to his listeners, fables that are still told today. That is not what is being referred to here. These are profane and old wives’ fables. The term ‘profane’ is rendered ‘foolish’ in some other Bible versions. But it means more than foolish, it means base and non-scriptural. The Jewish Talmud is littered with such fables, as is Roman Catholic tradition. These were stories made up to support one person’s or one group’s point of view, and they were given a value that they never had. The term ‘old wives’ refers to traditional and folk tales that are also inventions of people who used their imaginations to convince others about certain things. All of these things should never be given any credence, especially in spiritual matters. Only the Bible and that which agrees with the Bible is truth.
Many of the cults and false religions of the world are built on fables and old wives’ tales. This shows us the great danger there is in believing and following those things. It also shows how we can keep ourselves from drifting away from the truth by making sure the Bible is the benchmark for everything that we believe and do. -Jim MacIntosh