by VM44 37 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I don't know. The article doesn't mention his religious affiliation. He seems to be quite an interesting personality.
ETA: Here is his academic webpage. Notice that he is a yoga instructor too.
http://www.andover.edu/ACADEMICS/WORLDLANGUAGES/CLASSICALLANGUAGES/FACULTY/Pages/NicholasVHKip.aspx
Notice that he is a yoga instructor too.
Well, if he has a webpage, an ACADEMIC webpage, and is a yoga instructor - then he is either an exJW or they have not figured him out yet.
I wrote Kip back shortly after the Awake! article came out. I got a reply and wrote him back but never heard from him again. I did hear that he left the JWs a couple of years later. I don't know the reasons or his current religious viewpoints.
Going back to the original question of why they printed an Interlinear( or concordance for that matter),.... hubris. Certain high ranking persons genuinely believed what they were preaching and thought that it would add cred to it if they could publish something in Greek. It worked. Most all JWs bought one for the shelf and only pulled it out to impress a BS on a particular key text like John 1:1. Most all JWs felt it was proof positive of the unassailable truth of their message, they never bothered to use it carefully or with the help of other research materials. Many that did wound up leaving.
They published it for bragging rites.
They published it to impress the Rank and File.
Knowing that 99% would never actually use it, but would sleep better at night knowing that the beloved Fred Franz, the most emminent bible scholar of all time was on the job...and the bible was on the bed stand.
oz
Terry hit it on the head pretty well with some of his comments--they are very insightful in fact to what's going on.
It's an illusion.
It's like that trick David Copperfield performed where he made it look like the Statue of Liberty disappeared, but in reality it was really just moving the point of view of the television audience in such a manner that made it look like the statue was gone (you can Google or Bing this event for more info).
Learning about illusions like this and connecting them with Terry's comments can help someone understand what the Governing Body was tapping into to produce a similar "trick" on the point of view of the audience. It explains very well why the Kingdom Interlinear was published and what happens to Witnesses (and sometimes people in general) that come into contact with similar situations.
So often today when there is so much information thrown at us from all directions, we confuse being "informed" about something with being "well-educated" on the same subject and thus being in a position to offer practical wisdom on it.
How often are we "informed" about something--take Global Warming, for instance--and suddenly we find ourselves in heated discussions with others over the it, when in reality, regardless of what we believe, we are really just arguing out our personal feelings on the matter, not facts. Just because we saw the movie An Inconvenient Truth and have read a few magazine articles or heard news reports, suddenly we feel our being "informed" has given us real insight into this very complex issue.
We leap forward with our new "knowledge" on the current the world scene where even those on the news invite us to "give us your opinion, we want to hear from you." And then our minds (and the need to defend ourselves for our views before others that almost always follows) make us believe, at least for the moment, that we're some authoritative voice on the matter.
Umm, we just saw a movie, read a news article or two, heard a few snippets---what's that--about 2.5 hours of our time maybe--and suddenly we're experts and thinking that buying twisty light bulbs from the corner discount mart has really made any real impact on our "carbon footprint"?
The subject of Global Warming aside (and whatever you may or may not believe about the subject), the Kingdom Interlinear and the entire New World Translation--especially the complex-looking footnote/reference edition--was designed to do a very similar thing.
First off, having an interlinear translation does not a scholar or an expert make. Owning a word-for-word display in a book is not the same as possessing authentic translation skills. Translation is far more complex than owning a book. Translation deals with syntax, idiom, logic building, and cultural conception to name but a few linguistic tools one must have at the ready to comprehend the process behind rendition of one set of thought patterns into the language of another set of thought patterns--not necessarily another set of words. You also have to study the history of both the people who wrote it, those who preserved it (they may not always be the same people), as well as that of the nations surrounding them when you are dealing with languages no longer in use--like Bible languages.
Whew! That's a lot of work.
In the words of the vernacular, it's a useless book if you don't have training required. It becomes more of a "stumble around" resource that might make you feel impressed with yourself when you find one or more things in the book that you think you comprehend--and that would be far more than the general pubic ever does (or ever cares to)--but it is still nothing when compared to being given the texts in the mother tongue and making heads and tails of it.
There is a lot in both the Kingdom Interlinear and the New World Translation that looks like it was copied from other translations, a few dictionaries, lexicons, and so forth. You can even find what appear to be misunderstandings on behalf of the "scholars" that read the information they were copying (the use of the woodcuts in the back of the NWT reference edition of the mid 1980s is a great example of someone who thought they were highlighting information from a book backing up their views on the use of "torture stake," when in fact that woodcut is from a book that was making an example of what "starous" was NOT).
Big book, huh? Lots of footnotes and appendixes. Looks impressive.
So did you ever read all that and look up all the publications cited? What? You didn't have to because you had the impressive looking book?
These books, like the otherwise useless Awake! magazine, feeds enough tidbits to the individual to fulfill the proverb: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." That's all that you get when you're a Witness. These things sound impressive, look impressive, make you feel impressive, and it can make you really think you have gained important knowledge and now "know the 'Truth'" for yourself, when in reality you still don't know anything.
You just bought a book. I bought one twice as a large with all the Peanuts comic strips ever published in it, but that doesn't mean I can now make myself as successful at the strip business as Charles M. Schulz was, does it?
Lots of tidbits of information merely informs us, but it does not give us a proper education. It's human nature to form opinions on matters. But too often some of us feel that what we are is based on what we think we know (to some degree that's true), and when we have being "informed" confused with what we truly know by learning via the education process, we find ourselves "insulted" when someone contradicts what opinions we've formulated based on what we have merely been informed about.
How many have taken all the data used by scientists to formulate the Global Warming models and, following the scientific method, have run tests independently to see what the end results are before forming their views and opinions?
What? You didn't?
Ah, but now imagine if you have books filled with data, charts, opinions, authority figures discussing it, and the other "impressive stuff" that you carry with you everywhere you go when you talk of these things. Now the illusion is complete. Now you really believe you know what you're talking about. At least it looks like that to others and yourself.
But if you still have never read through the charts, checked the math for yourself, and kept up with the latest data coming from scientists, it's just a book. We're not experts because we have a book.
Leaving the Watchtower for me included going back to school for actual Biblical studies. I thought I would at least be ahead of the class with what I was exposed to by the JWs like the Kingdom Interlinear and the details found in the NWT reference edition--HA! That was a laugh! Even the tidbits that Watchtower publications offer in these things are like drinking watered down Kool-Aid in comparison to Bible study at its most basic form in colleges and universities--even in some denominations' Sunday schools--which are more like eating the flesh of the fruit itself to complete the "Kool-Aid" comparison/illustration!
So why publish The Kingdom Interlinear? Why not? You're not better off with it. Unless you're studied in koine Greek, you can't prove or disprove anything valuable either way. You're only kidding yourself if you think you can.
Making the Statue of Liberty look as if you have the power to make it disappear is impressive, but it's nothing when you learn that it's all a trick.
Fred Franz I think is the one credited with the translation. I was prepared to assign a fair degree of innocence to him and to his endeavours thinking that he was as much a victim as any Jehovahs witness. But I am not so sure any more. I understand that he did gain somewhat of an education - an arts degree. This isn't much but it is enough for me to think that he and the JW leaders of his day did understand that they were manipulating the flock for personal gain.
As Terry pointed out, you can't really study the bible, per se, you can only really study the history of the bible.
A lot of water under the bridge since 1987; the WTBTS has really regressed spiritually even at is has grown institutionally via property acquisitions and appreciation of its real estate values, the recent downturn notwithstanding. That's why the KIT and Diaglott are out of print; I doubt today's average JW even knows they exist, or what a concordance is.
Two things:
First: I use the KIT at times when I'm studying some bible subject and want to know the difference in NWT, KJ, NIV and other translations that I have. I'm still in the process of trying to find out things for myself, and am still full of the things I learned as a JW for nearly my entire life. I know many of you can relate.
Second: When did the Society discourage the study of biblical languages? Can you give a quote and reference?
