Hello everyone,
just for curiosity take a look at these quotes:
*** w52 2/15 p. 115 A Lost Sheep Finds the Right Shepherd ***
A Lost Sheep Finds the Right Shepherd
IN THE December 15, 1951, issue of The Watchtower a brief reference was made to an old monk who had embraced the truth. More details regarding this incident having come to hand, we are herewith giving our readers the benefit of them, as related by one of Jehovah’s witnesses.
“Here in the wilderness near the Dead sea and 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Jericho, in a high mountain is situated the very old Greek Monastery of Holy Sabbas. Only monks and priests are living there and whoever enters cannot leave it until death. The founder of this monastery, Sabbas, once called all the monks and priests to him and said: ‘Beware of apples and of women; because it was the apple that deceived Eve, and the woman Eve that deceived Adam.’ For this reason no women may come into the monastery. Every year there is a festival of the Holy Sabbas, at which time many from Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Jericho flock to the monastery.
*** w70 11/1 p. 645 It Is Not in the Bible! ***
What, then, was their sin? Precisely what the Bible says it was—the simple act of eating a literal fruit (the Bible does not say it was an “apple”) that God had told them not to eat.
*** g85 6/8 p. 20 Who Said It Was an Apple? ***
Who Said It Was an Apple?
The Hebrew word tap·pu´ach, commonly translated “apple,” appears a number of times in the Bible. But it is not used in describing “the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.” (Genesis 2:9, 17; 3:6) Where, then, did the tradition that the apple was the forbidden fruit come from?
According to Plants of the Bible, by H. N. Moldenke, this idea was “due, no doubt, to the influence of Medieval and Renaissance artists who so depicted it.” For example, about the famous painting The Garden of Paradise by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), now in the Hague Gallery, Moldenke observed: “The fruit on the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, with the serpent coiling among its branches, seems definitely to be apples. This painting is probably one of those to which we owe the presently widely held misconception that the apple is a Bible plant.”
Regarding the painting Adam and Eve (see above) by the German court painter Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), in which the apple is depicted, Moldenke commented that the Renaissance painters “loved retaining their right to rely on their imagination when they chose.” Other artists of the time, such as Tintoretto and Titian, did the same in their paintings on the same theme.
Probably among the first to put the idea down in writing, however, was the famous English poet John Milton. In his Paradise Lost (1667), Milton wrote of the temptation of Eve by the serpent:
“On a day, roving the field, I climbed
A goodly tree far distant to behold,
Loaden with fruit of fairest colours mixed,
Ruddy and gold. . . .
To satisfy the sharp desire I had
Of tasting those fair Apples, I resolved
Not to defer; hunger and thirst at once—
Powerful persuaders—quickened at the scent
Of that alluring fruit, urged me so keen.”
Thus, not from God’s Word, the Bible, but from the fanciful, yet misguided, imagination of artists and poets has come one of the most popular myths of Christendom. What was the fruit? The Bible simply does not say, for the vital point is not the fruit but man’s disobedience.—Romans 5:12.
Now, what most of the R&F, and not only them, don’t know , is what has been published in the book :” Jehovah’s Witnesses – Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom” from the WTBS Inc. in the year 1993:
*** jv chap. 30 ‘Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News’ ***
[Box on page 684]
A Witness to the U.S. Supreme Court
When appearing before the Supreme Court of the United States as legal counsel in the “Gobitis” case, Joseph F. Rutherford, a member of the New York Bar and the president of the Watch Tower Society, clearly focused attention on the importance of submitting to the sovereignty of Jehovah God.
He said: “Jehovah’s witnesses are those who bear testimony to the name of Almighty God, whose name alone is JEHOVAH. . . .
“I call attention to the fact that Jehovah God, more than six thousand years ago, promised to establish through the Messiah a government of righteousness. He will keep that promise in due season. The present-day facts in the light of prophecy indicate that it is near. . . .
“God, Jehovah, is the only source of life. No one else can give life. The State of Pennsylvania cannot give life. The American Government cannot. God made this law [forbidding the worship of images], as Paul puts it, to safeguard His people from idolatry. That is a small thing, you say. So was the act of Adam in eating of the forbidden fruit. It was not the apple that Adam ate, but it was his act of disobeying God. The question is whether man will obey God or obey some human institution. . . .
“I remind this Court (it is hardly necessary that I do so) that in the case of ‘Church v. United States’ this Court held that America is a Christian nation; and that means that America must be obedient to the Divine law. It also means that this Court takes judicial notice of the fact that the law of God is supreme. And if a man conscientiously believes that God’s law is supreme and conscientiously deports himself accordingly, no human authority can control or interfere with his conscience. . . .
“I may be permitted to call attention to this: that at the opening of every session of this Court the crier announces these words: ‘God save the United States and this honorable Court.’ And now I say, God save this honorable Court from committing an error that will lead this people of the United States into a totalitarian class and destroy all the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. This is a matter that is sacred to every American who loves God and His Word.”
The date of the event was
*** jv chap. 30 ‘Defending and Legally Establishing the Good News’ ***
310 U.S. 586 (1940). Walter Gobitas (correct spelling), the father, along with his children William and Lillian, had gone to court to restrain the school board from refusing to permit the two children to attend the Minersville public school because the children would not salute the national flag. The federal district court and the circuit court of appeals both decided in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Then the school board appealed the case to the Supreme Court.
In conclusion, a “brother of Jesus Christ” , an anointed member of “ the Jerusalem above”,
said publicly, in front of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, that :
- the forbidden fruit - “ that Adam ate was …
the apple”!!!