To Active JW's Who Think Outside the Box: 2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12 Reconsidered...

by MADMARY 14 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Smiles

  @MadMary:

  It is good that you brought up the Greek verb "pempo", I was hoping someone would do so. It was only hinted at above.

  Watch Tower has translated "pempo" to fit into its doctrinal scheme.

  Here are two example from the New World Translation:

  John 15:26

  "When the helper comes that I will send you..."

  2 Thessalonians 2:11

  "That is why God lets a deluding influence mislead them..."

  "Pempo" appears in both of those verses. At John 5:26, Watch Tower translates pempo as "send". However, at 2 Thessalonians 2:11, Watch Tower twists the same exact Greek verb into "lets"...

  Earlier Bobcat wrote that it may not be as "blatant" as thought; but, really, how very convenient for Watch Tower to print an atypical version of scripture, as is often the case with Watch Tower literature, which happens to slant the character of a verse into better alignment with dogma intrinsic to Watch Tower.

  Coincidental fit? Or deliberate manipulation?

  They say that the serpent in Eden was crafty with word play... Watch Tower has had over 140 years to become quite proficient at twisting words, too.

  Millions of unsuspecting users of the New World Translation have and will continue to read 2 Thessalonians 2:11 oblivious to the subtle twist Watch Tower has added to validate its dogma revolving around "the issue of universal sovereignty" being legally settled only as God temporarily LETS a 'deluding operation of error' fester to prove some divine case-in-point, while God simultaneously disavows any and all responsbility for the wretched harm so allowed to transpire.

  The New World Translation is not a completely evil publication. But as mentioned in the opening post, it only requires the adding or taking away of ONE word to incur the wrath of God. Watch Tower bears such error.

  As Steven Byington remarked in his review of the Watch Tower printing of The New World Translation, that the work is: "well supplied with faults and merits."

  Watch Tower quickly glorifies it own "merits", but fairly, we can shine a light on the faults.

  Good catch, MadMary! Keep them coming!
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  Doug Mason

  The text of the Hebrew Scriptures was in a constant state of flux, to the point that no one knows what was originally written ('autographs'). Scribes were more than just copiers, they were not averse to changing (redacting) it to suit their own beliefs. By the time the Masoretes fixed the text, they set a corrupted text in concrete (Emanuel Tov).
  

  No one knows what the writers of the NT originally wrote ('autographs').

  There are differences between the various texts of the OT (LXX, Symmachus, MT, etc., etc.) and also with the texts of the NT (Erasmus' Textus Receptus; Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, etc.).

  There is any number of "the" Bible: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Ethiopian, Syrian, Jewish (Tanakh), Protestant, etc., etc.

  Those texts employed to justify the Bible as "God's Word" were written many centuries before any Bible existed. Besides, that's circular reasoning -- to use a text from within the Bible to "prove" the Bible.

  Read:

  Kloppenborg, John S., Newman, Judith H., editors. Editing the Bible: Assessing the Task Past and Present (June 15, 2012). Society of Biblical Literature

  Müller, Reinhard; Pakkala, Juha; Romeny, Bas ter Haar. Evidence of Editing: Growth and Change of Texts in the Hebrew Bible (2014). Society of Biblical Literature
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  stan livedeath

  i nearly wasted several minutes of my life reading this thread...but i'm so glad i didnt.

  i wonder whats for dinner ?
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  Earnest

  The Analytical Greek Lexicon revised, 1978, by H.K. Moulton, gives 5 meanings of the word pempo (p.315):

  a. to send, to despatch on any message, embassy, business etc.
  b. to transmit
  c. to dismiss, permit to go
  d. to send in or among
  e. to thrust in, or put forth

  An example of (c) permit to go is in Mark 5:12 where the demons begged Jesus to send (pempson) them into the pigs. In verse 13 it then says that Jesus gave them permission, and they went into the pigs.

  Clearly, the translators of the NWT understand it is used in the same way in 2 Thess. 2:11 where God "lets an operation of error go to them".

  It's interesting that in Wesley's Explanatory Notes he comments on this verse :

  Therefore God shall send them — That is, judicially permit to come upon them, strong delusion.

  Similarly, Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible comments that:

  ...all the force of the language will be met, as well as the reasoning of the apostle, by supposing that God withdrew all restraint, and suffered [meaning, allowed] men simply to show that they did not love the truth.

  It seems the translators of the NWT are not alone in their understanding of this verse.
  
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  Vidiot

  MadMary - "To active JWs who think outside the box..."

  Yeah, having a tough time imagining there are any of those left.

  They tend to end up here, actually.