Basic Bible and Religious Vocabulary the Watchtower Never Teaches

by CalebInFloroda 62 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  CalebInFloroda

  When I began formal study of religion and Biblical analysis it was like peeling off layer after layer of dark matter, sticky and putrid that had stuck over my eyes and ears and mouth. I learned that under the Watchtower one only builds a widening gap between yourself and the world of Biblical academia and scholars.

  I used to think I knew a lot because I learned to quote a few scholars or lexicons as a Witness. Boy, was I wrong!

  Here are a list of basic words that college and even some high school level students of Scripture and religion already know well. Without them you can't really understand what you read from some of the blurbs the Watchtower quotes.

  Match your knowledge after leaving the JWs with this vocabulary list (plus a few extras) and see if you can define them without looking them up. They are placed in general level of importance (based on lesson plans I gathered over the years from various classes). Don't look them up, just use your memory or best guess. I will return with their definitions, why they are important, and we can compare this to what type of "education" in the Bible the Watchtower claims to offer.

  1. Liturgy

  2. Exegesis

  3. Psalter

  4. Doublet

  5. Shem Ha-M'forash

  6. Hasmonean

  7. Proto-Masoretic

  8. Divine Office

  9. Lectionary

  10. Nova Vulgata

  11. Sacramentality

  12. Relic

  13. Sola Scriptura

  13. The difference between "everlasting life" and "eternal life"

  14. Temporal

  15. The Divine Comedy

  16. Illumination

  17. Explain the difference between "uncial" and "cursive"

  18. Terse

  19. Explain the importance the book of Ecclesiasticus played in Christian history

  20. Explain difference between a Bible "translation" vs. "version"

  No fair looking them up. Use your Watchtower training (if you know these definitions because you got smart and educated yourself, try sharing how you felt when you discovered how little you had really been taught as a JW while giving others a chance to give answers).

  This is an experiment designed to demonstrate how lacking the "worldwide Bible education work" really is, so cheating will be counter-productive.
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  berrygerry

  http://www.bible.ca/Jw-NWT.htm
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  Max Divergent

  I was a third-generation JW and was an MS giving public talks. I am now an atheist.

  I do now know or understand any of those phrases in a biblical / religious context.

  
  
  
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  smiddy

  CalebinFloroda ,

  You make a very good point , or 20 points in fact.

  Jehovah`s Witnesses claim every baptized person is a minister of GOD ,regardless of age , or gender .

  The average , no the majority of Jehovah`s Witnesses would have no idea what any of those words meant .

  Can you imagine a 12-15 year old baptized Jehovah`s Witness being confronted with any of these questions ?

  The fact is Jehovah`s Witnesses are ignorant of Scriptures , and scriptural monologue .

  .

  And they claim they are Bible Students , Surely they are a joke.

  smiddy
• 

  never a jw

  got 7 out of 20, but...but...but, in my defense... I know more than most JW's and I have been an atheist since age 13.

  The test is so unfair. You never asked the things I know.
  
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  John Aquila

  Hey Caleb, I know six terms, but I learned them "After" I left the WT. Some 40 years in the WT and all I knew was paradise earth, Governing Body, and fornication.
  
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  stillin

  Of course the smug witness answer is, " Jehovah chose not the high-minded ones, but the lowly ones." So they look down on new vocabulary words.
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  Phizzy

  You are right Stillin, but of course, the JW doesn't realise that one doesn't have to be proud to learn and to educate oneself. In fact, to be "lowly" as a Learner is the best way.

  JW's are proud that like the Apostles they are "unlettered and ordinary", this false pride is encouraged by the JW leadership because only the ignorant will stick with the nonsensical stuff they teach.

  It gives me great pleasure now to be able to read quite heavy scholarly works on the O.T and N.T, and other ancient writings, because I have learned the vocabulary to a certain extent. Caleb's O.P shows me I have a way to go !
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  John Aquila

  stillin an hour ago

  Of course the smug witness answer is, " Jehovah chose not the high-minded ones, but the lowly ones

  And yet, who did God use to write most of the N.T?
  

  (Acts 22:3) . . .“I (Paul) am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Ci·li′cia, but educated in this city at the feet of Ga·ma′li·el, instructed according to the strictness of the ancestral Law, being zealous for God . . .
  
  
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  John Aquila

  Explain the importance the book of Ecclesiasticus played in Christian history

  Caleb, I've never heard of this book playing a role in Christian history. Is it the same book as Ecclesiastes?