by GregT 19 Replies latest watchtower bible
I wouldn't say this is an anti JW forum. It just isn't very pro-Watchtower.
If you go back to a Kingdom Hall, you're probably going to be shocked at how much has changed in 15 to 20 years. Don't let anyone know that you have been on this forum, if you want to start off on the right foot, should you choose to go back down that path.
Yes so much has changed last few decades but even last few years.
There is no more counting time. There is hardly any ministry done either, these days it’s just talking to people about what they want to talk about.
it’s as if we all should be proud that we managed to talk for a long time without bringing up the Bible. This is the new approach or the new light that some suggest came from the PR company we also notice a significant amount of mental issues these days.
many believed it when were told there is not long left now, they pioneered with low incomes and no plans for retirement
many sacrificed buying a house or getting a full time job, having children because it was frowned upon
now they are bitter about those brothers who said those things as they are all proven to be charlatans
the good news is the next generation of JWs are not pioneers and are getting educated and thinking about good jobs.
many young ones are not even getting baptised after the new light
If you wish to Study the Bible simply to affirm baseless evidence free beliefs , then do it with J.W's or any Christian Bible Study Group.
If you wish to study the Bible with the aim of ascertaining what the various writers, really said, what they wanted their readers to glean from their words, and what their readers would have actually understood, then Welcome to the Academic approach, the learned approach to Bible Study !
If your motive is the latter, then best Study alone, and use Correct Eisegesis and Hermeneutics. Do NOT read the Texts with a 21st Century "Eye", do not approach them with any beliefs you already have, but with a mind that can accept the Truth about what was really being said. You will need to consult Books etc. by Scholars expert in the Field, but filter what you read, some Scholars are believers, which colours their conclusions somewhat, a consensus opinion from the latest Scholarship is fairly reliable.
To do justice to any Ancient Texts, Biblical or not, they can only be approached in the correct way I have outlined above, if this is what you wish to do, good ! and Enjoy !
Is there a review or guide to the enjoy life forever book to assist with asking good questions and being prepared for a study of the book. Would like to be able to ask some questions to get the study leader to critically think.
I don't think the WatchTower publications are designed to get you to think critically. Nor do they seem to like people who try to get others to do so. They still want you to read and remember the info in the book so that it shapes your views for you. Analyzing or questioning what they write is not encouraged.
I would like to be ask questions where the study conductor starts to potentially think ‘outside the watchtower box’.
In search;
The conductor asks the questions to keep the thinking inside the box
Bible Study
hahahaha
Slander, Insult, eschatology based nonsense then unique dogmas and legalisms . Then throw is a health dose of narcissist boasting about being a member of a really special club. Then some idol worship of 9 magical wizards.
Lets sing a song. Two hours of your life you never get back.
There is no actual bible study. I have never met a JW who could give me a brief summary of the book of Romans or what the Gospel message is.
If you want to "study" the Bible...just sit down and read one.
If you are just lonely, why not join a club based on a favorite activity?
Simply Google "Jehovah's Witnesses" and "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society"...then check Google "news" for recent events. Wikipedia is very accurate. A former Bethel Elder created "JWFacts.com", read it.
If you restart and then quit, you may be shunned or marked. You may also be quizzed by two elders and shunned as an "apostate" if you answer their questions too honestly ie:"incorrectly".
Phizzy wrote,
If your motive is [to understand biblical texts as the authors intended], then best Study alone, and use Correct Eisegesis and Hermeneutics. Do NOT read the Texts with a 21st Century "Eye", do not approach them with any beliefs you already have, but with a mind that can accept the Truth about what was really being said. You will need to consult Books etc. by Scholars expert in the Field, but filter what you read, some Scholars are believers, which colours their conclusions somewhat, a consensus opinion from the latest Scholarship is fairly reliable.
I would agree with much of this, but would say that the conclusions of others should always be checked whether believing or unbelieving, consensus or not. Even in a field of weeds one may find vegetables, and weeds sprout even in the best kept gardens.
But I have another point to add. In a previous post I wrote,
Much of the reading of biblical history comes with an inherent Judahite bias, as if the people, history and religion of Judah are to be placed at the center and [are] the touchstone of every discussion. Yet considering its embrace by the Samaritans, the remnants of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh together with members of priestly families (Aaronites and Levites), I find the Torah to represent a broader Israelite collection of scriptural texts. Viewed from this perspective, it would be wrong to assume that all the biblical writers were necessarily Judahites. The collection, as originally promulgated, was to the house of Judah and to the house of Israel. Accordingly, I think it better to consider the contributing authors to also be representative of both communities.
— Mebaqqer
This was rebuffed by someone who maintains that the most recent scholarship shows that “The Torah is actually composed of the books of Genesis through 2 Chronicles, created around the book of Deuteronomy by the "Judean" Redactor(s).”
Yet my position is supported by scholars such as Hensel who writes,
Noting the variety of postexilic Yahwisms and the beginning realizations of the importance and significance of the Samaritans during the time of much of the formation period of the Hebrew Bible literatures, these observations lead to the corollary that the late texts of the Hebrew Bible reflect different groups. This observation cannot be stressed enough, as recent research – where it perceives the diversity within postexilic Yahwism – mainly focuses on the historical, cultural, religious-historical, and political aspects of the process of the formation of Judaism. In fact, little attention has been given to the role of these other non-Judean groups during the scribal processes of the Hebrew Bible. Exceptions are the works of Heckl (2018) and Hensel (2018), which systematically identified the question of when and how Samarians contributed to the literary history as a major task for future research. There are also good grounds for concluding that Judeans as well as Samarians participated in the formation of the Pentateuch – at least in the time of its supposed finalization, in the late Persian period – thereby creating what is currently termed a “Common Pentateuch” or “Common Torah.” This would reflect the interest of both groups.
—Benedikt Hensel, “Yahwistic Diversity and the Hebrew Bible: State of the Field, Desiderata, and Research Perspectives in a Necessary Debate on the Formative Period of Judaism(s),” in Yahwistic Diversity and the Hebrew Bible: Tracing Perspectives of Group Identity from Judah, Samaria, and the Diaspora in Biblical Traditions, eds. Benedikt Hensel, Dany Nocquet and Bartosz Adamczewski (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020), 21–2 (Bold text added).
So to what Phizzy said, I would add that one should not assume a
Judahite bias when reading the biblical text. That is, one should not
assume that a biblical writer, at least within the first five books,
necessarily assumed the centrality of Judah, Jerusalem, the Davidic
monarchy, etc. in what they wrote unless it is clearly stated in the
text. This also includes not assuming that the Judahite recension of
the biblical text, the Masoretic Text, is always the one that
faithfully preserves what the biblical writers originally wrote. This
is why textual criticism is so important. Before one can expound a
text, one must establish the text to be expounded. One could say
more, but this should suffice for now.
