The Marathon

I recently read in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED that the original distance for the marathon was not 26 miles 385 yards. In 1896, in Athens, Greece, the host for the first modern Olympic Games, the length was 25 miles.

The current distance comes to us thanks to Queen Alexandra of Great Britain. In the London Games in 1908, she asked that the race begin on the east lawn of Windsor Castle and end in front of the royal box in White City Stadium—a distance of 26 miles 385 yards. This became standard in 1921. Yet, for all of these years, printed works and popular culture have continued to refer to the 26 mile 385 yard measurement as that of the original length for the Olympic Games of ancient Greece.

I wonder how often Christians offer a doctrine or teaching as having come from the Bible, when, in reality, it came from another source—the spiritual equivalent of Queen Alexandra.