(CNSNews.com) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is fond of quoting a particular passage of Scripture. The quote, however, does not appear in the Bible and is "fictional," according to biblical scholars.
In her April 22 Earth Day news release, Pelosi said, "The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, 'To minister to the needs of God's creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.' On this Earth Day, and every day, let us pledge to our children, and our children's children, that they will have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and the opportunity to experience the wonders of nature."
Cybercast News Service repeatedly queried the speaker's office for two days to determine where the alleged Bible quote is found. Thus far, no one has responded.
Distinguished biblical scholars, however, cast doubt on the existence of the passage.
John J. Collins, the Holmes professor of Old Testament criticism and interpretation at Yale Divinity School, said he is totally unfamiliar with Pelosi's quotation.
"(It's) not one that I recognize," Collins told Cybercast News Service. "I assume that she means this is a paraphrase. But it wouldn't be a close paraphrase to anything I know of."
Claude Mariottini, a professor of Old Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, told Cybercast News Service the passage not only doesn't exist - it's "fictional."
"It is not in the Bible," Mariottini said. "There is nothing that even approximates that."
Other scholars agree that nothing remotely resembling it can be found in any version of the Scriptures - Old Testament or New Testament.
"The quote does not exist in the Old Testament, neither in the New Testament," said the Rev. Andreas Hock, a doctor of Scripture who teaches in the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Denver's St. John Vianney Seminary.
"Even in pieces or bits, (it) cannot be found in the Old Testament," he added.
Interestingly, Pelosi has mentioned the quote before, Mariottini noted.
"In truth, (she) has used this 'passage' in many different ways, and all of those usages have nothing to do with the Bible whatsoever," he said.
Read the rest of the article to see all the different times and occasions she has used this particular quote.
It's sort of reminsiscent of the phrase "God helps those who help themselves". A surprising number of people believe that's a Bible verse, but in fact it's just a saying that somehow became connected with the Bible because it invoked God. I think the origins of Pelosi's "verse" are probably quite similar. Some tree-hugger preacher probably said it in a sermon somewhere and over time it was transformed into gospel.
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