Egibi Banking Tablest - of which The Watchtower has never mentioned - why?

by VM44 37 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  VM44

  The Egibi tablets are contemporary (that is, they were written at the time) documents containing the records of the Babylonian Egibi bank over the time period of the neo-Babylonian kings, 606 - 482 B.C.

  These detailed records, the first of which was discovered in 1874, five years BEFORE the first issue of The Watch Tower magazine appeared, should have been of great interest to anyone who wanted to establish the reigns of the Babylonian kings.

  However, The Watchtower has NEVER mentioned the name Egibi in ANY of its publications over the last 130 years!

  The Watchtower has completely ignored this source of information!

  I wonder why?

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  Book: 'Das Egibi-Archiv, I: Die Felder und Gärten,' vol. 2, by Cornelia Wunsch.

  Description:

  The archive of the house of Egibi is the most extensive Neo-Babylonian private archive, comprising at least 1,700 documents (not including duplicates and small fragments). Five generations of this house and their activities over 120 years (606-482 B.C.) are attested in these texts. They were found in the 1870s during illegal excavations by local people and reached the British Museum and various other collections mingled with tablets from diverse archives. The volumes under review represent an enormous step in the systematic and comprehensive study of this archive.
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  AnnOMaly

  However, The Watchtower has NEVER mentioned Egibi in ANY of its publications over the last 130 years!

  Not by name, no. But there is one inferred reference:

  kc (1981) p. 187 Appendix to Chapter 14

  Business tablets: Thousands of contemporary Neo-Babylonian cuneiform tablets have been found that record simple business transactions, stating the year of the Babylonian king when the transaction occurred. Tablets of this sort have been found for all the years of reign for the known Neo-Babylonian kings in the accepted chronology of the period.

  From a secular viewpoint, such lines of evidence might seem to establish the Neo-Babylonian chronology with Nebuchadnezzar's 18th year (and the destruction of Jerusalem) in 587/6 B.C.E. However, no historian can deny the possibility that the present picture of Babylonian history might be misleading or in error. It is known, for example, that ancient priests and kings sometimes altered records for their own purposes. Or, even if the discovered evidence is accurate, it might be misinterpreted by modern scholars or be incomplete so that yet undiscovered material could drastically alter the chronology of the period.
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  sir82

  Gotta love the WT!

  "Oh, you have thousands of documents that compltely and utterly destroy our hypothesis of 607 BCE?

  Meaningless balderdash!

  One time we read somewhere that this one ancient priest altered one document somewhere.

  Therefore, we can infer that every one of the thousands of those documents were altered."
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  VM44

  It is known, for example, that ancient priests and kings sometimes altered records for their own purposes.

  These are banking records! Records of contracts and loans.

  A bank HAS to maintain accurate records in order to be successful, and the Egibi banking family were very successful indeed!

  it might be misinterpreted by modern scholars or be incomplete so that yet undiscovered material could drastically alter the chronology of the period.

  There are over 1,700 documents covering 120 years describing the day-to-day business activities of the bank!
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  brotherdan

  undiscovered material could drastically alter the chronology of the period

  Interestingly enough, the DISCOVERED material has not caused them to alter their chronology at all! Who needs proof? They certainly don't. And who is going to call them on it? Just the mean and nasty apostates that have their own hidden agenda. But not the 7 million strong r&f. They just have to say, "Nope it's not true" and the rest of the mindless sheep will repeat it.

  It is apparent that they have the burden of proof on them and they don't admit it. If they want to say that history is wrong, then they need to show where it is wrong regarding the 587 date.

  The point is that Biblical evidence disproves their 607 date. Financial records destroy their 607 date completely. Everything we know about history disproves their 607 date. And yet most of the R&F don't even know that this is an issue. My mom used to tell me that the 607 date was a date that was well known to secular historians. She was shocked when I told her that NO historians hold to this date a few months ago. She then sent me a printout on what the society says about it. I tried to refute it with my wife, but my wife just said I had a bad attitude towards someone that was trying to help me in the truth. Bah!!!!! It's enough to drive you crazy!
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  Leolaia

  I wrote a paper in college showing that the Kingdom Come book appendix is literarily dependent on Jonsson's manuscript (later, book), and attempted to hide the fact they were responding to an "apostate" by lumping him together with other historians and scholars.
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  VM44

  The Watchtower cannot say these texts are copies as the tables are ORIGINAL documents!

  The Watchtower cannot say these texts were altered as the contracts and loans of the banks HAD to contain accurate information!

  The Watchtower cannot say these records are incomplete as the large number of documents record the daily activities of the bank for 120 years!

  The Watchtower cannot say these records are not understood as they are business documents describing loans! The terms and amounts involved in contracts are plainly given in the texts.

  No wonder then why The Watchtower does not want to directly address the topic of the Babylonian business tablets. The Watchtower's usual tactic of creating uncertainty and doubt would not hold up!
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  Witness My Fury
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  AnnOMaly

  It's kinda like saying, the Bank of America was instructed to 'lose' 20 years' of banking transactions - loans, mortgages, bonds, etc., etc. - say, between 1930 and 1950. Anything that mentions depression interest rates or war bonds or has anything else period specific is to be destroyed; where all dates are to seemlessly follow from Dec. 1929 to Jan. 1950; where everyone's investments and/or loans are cut 20 years. And this is to be done - not at countless clicks of a mouse - but by meticulously following every single paper trail throughout those years, throughout the country and beyond, and simply making them *poof* 'disappear.' Not only that, but the the clients and officials that interacted with each other would have to get 'lost' too.
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  SweetBabyCheezits

  You're being sarcastic, right? If so, good point! Imagine the work that would be required to complete such a task to erase 20 years of records. Hilarious! This is only a little less ridiculous than fundamentalists who claim dinosaur fossils are fakes, created by Satan to mislead man into accepting evolution.

  I'd like to ask people who believe such nonsense what consistent method of scrutiny I should use to determine if an ancient record is trustworthy in content. They seem to accept it with ease so long as it fits their conclusions.