House-to-house confusion

by robhic 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

robhic

I know I've seen both sides of the house-to-house argument. Of course, JWs say it is approved in the bible while non-JWs say it is the opposite. But on reading in another topic I happened upon a quote implying Paul wrote in favor of house-to-house preaching so I looked it up in the American Standard version bible.
The ones I usually see that speak against going house-to-house are the following:
Luk 10:7 And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. (Pretty specific.)
1Ti 5:13 And withal they learn also to be idle, going about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. (Kinda less specific but "dogging" house-to-house, anyway.)
But I just looked at this one at Acts 20:20 where Paul does say:
how I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly, and from house to house,
So now I am confused (not that I really care one way or the other...) but this kinda throws a bit of confusion in. It seems that the great misogynist himself, Paul, is saying going house-to-house is not only a good thing, but profitable in the teaching area.
How do you make the case to JWs that the door-to-door work is not scriptural when Paul seems to put the stamp of approval on it? I am confused... Any ideas?
Robert
thom

---"Luk 10:7 And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. (Pretty specific.)"---
I understand this to mean not going from house to house to stay at different houses. When you get to a town, stay in the same house. I don't think it means DON'T PREACH house to house.
---"1Ti 5:13 And withal they learn also to be idle, going about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. (Kinda less specific but "dogging" house-to-house, anyway.)---
I think this is talking about going from one house to another or one person to another spreading gossip.
From my understanding, the bible DOES support preaching from house to house for the first century Christians. A time when there were far fewer people in the world. A time when people would answer the door and talk and you had a chance to get through to them. I DON'T think it applies to our time as it seems innefective now and I think JW's use Acts 20:20 to support it in OUR time.
RunningMan

As I understood it, the disciples would teach in the public places, and if anyone seemed interested, they would accompany them to their home and keep teaching. I have a hard time picturing them as door to door book salesmen.
sir82

Leolaia or Peaceful Pete or some other scholarly sort can answer this better, with references, but here is a simplified version:
Of course Paul taught "from house to house". When not preaching in a synagogue or in the marketplace, he would use a particular house as his "base of operations". He would remain in that house, trying to convince people that Jesus is Lord, about the resurrection, etc. When he had been there a while, he would go to another house for a while & use it as his base of operations.
In a somewhat related topic--has anyone noticed the often hilarious lengths the WT artists go to, to try to put across the idea of 1st century Christians going "from house to house"? I remember illustrations of 2 disciples standing in a doorway conversing with a woman, apparently after knocking on her door. In a recent WT, there was a picture of Paul talking to someone in the street ("street witnessing", natch) and showing her a portion of a scroll he had been carrying under his arm.
Even the faintest, most rudimentary understanding of 1st century Palestinian life would reveal how utterly absurd these illustrations are. The WT illustrators (or their supervisors who tell them what to draw) are either appallingly ignorant or shockingly deceptive....can't quite figure out which is worse.
robhic

From my understanding, the bible DOES support preaching from house to house for the first century Christians. A time when there were far fewer people in the world. A time when people would answer the door and talk and you had a chance to get through to them. I DON'T think it applies to our time as it seems innefective now and I think JW's use Acts 20:20 to support it in OUR time.

This makes as much sense as anything. I thought along similar lines, too. Go from one house (in one town or city) and use it as your "base of operations." Then, when you are ready to move on, find another hospitable home in another city/town and use it as your new base. Don't be moving around town. Since there really were no established churches, this makes sense. Like one of those travelling revivals!
Being in a single location would also make it easier to find the house where the preaching was taking place for others who would want to go themselves. I don't think it has anything to do regarding door-to-door as we think of it today. I agree that it is an admonition to stay in a central-type location and preach to whomever shows up there. Don't be cruising around town...
The time when this was written seems to provide all the context for the statements and nothing as we interpret it today. I don't think there was a lot of door-to-door panhandling or whatever back then. You could get killed!
Robert
TheListener
OK I'm not one of the scholarly posters but I've done some research on this subject. Although I have no formal write up I do have my thoughts.
First, the bible doesn't specifically condemn preaching house to house. The bible also doesn't specifically advocate it either. In fact you'll find an article in a '90s or '80s WT that says whether or not the 1st century christians preached door to door is irrelevant, the GB has the authority to decide what is the best way to preach today. They are after all the over all the master's belongings.
Two primary scriptures are used by the society to "prove" house to house activity in the 1st century.
WTS Emphatic Diaglot: Acts 5:42 "And every day, in the temple and at home, they ceased not teaching and preaching the glad tidings of the anointed Jesus."
WTS Kingdom Interlinear: Acts 5:42 "And everyday in the temple, and from house to house they continued without letup teaching and declaring the good news about the Christ, Jesus."
---Same greek words "kata oikos" are used. Kata - Strong's word number 2596 means:
down from, through out
according to, toward, along
Oikos - Strong's word number 3624 means:
a house
an inhabited house, home
any building whatever
of a palace
the house of God, the tabernacle
any dwelling place
of the human body as the abode of demons that possess it
of tents, and huts, and later, of the nests, stalls, lairs, of animals
the place where one has fixed his residence, one's settled abode, domicile
the inmates of a house, all the persons forming one family, a household
the family of God, of the Christian Church, of the church of the Old and New Testaments
stock, family, descendants of one

The second text the WTS primarily uses is Acts 20:20

Again the same Greek words are used for the house to house part.

The same Greek words are also used at Romans 16:5 "at their house"(NWT) and Acts 2:46 "in private homes"(NWT)

The WTS translates the same words in different ways (synonyms) depending on the context. That's ok, no problem there. However, to give the different synonyms distinct meanings that the text does not support is incorrect. There are no examples in the bible of anyone being preached to or reached in the house to house method as employed by WTS today. The thought was that they would preach to people in their homes after first contacting them in some public venue such as the synagogue or marketplace.

When you compare the Emphatic Diaglot which the society used for years, to the KIT which it uses now for the 1984 revised NWT you can see even they changed the english translation to better suit their teachings.

TheListener

I just re-read my post and I'm not sure I was very clear.

The Greek "Kata Oikos" or "Kai Oiokon" can be translated different ways according to the context surrounding it. There are other translations that translate Kai Oikon as "house to house" but not with the intention of it being a sequential house to house preaching. In fact there is a footnote in an older WT magazine discussing the historical correctness of the house to house method where a scholar is quoted as saying something like kai oikon means house to house in a distributive sense. - The WT is using it to mean yes, the 1st century christians preached from house to house, see they distributed the good news. However, the scholar said in a distributive sense because that fits with going to selected houses of those who were christians already or showed interest in the synagogue or marketplace. Going house to house in a distributative sense is not the same as consecutive.

Yes, now everything is as clear as mud.

jgnat

In context of the culture of the time, door to door doesn't make sense. Households were large fortressed buildings that rarely welcomed uninvited guests.

There were no printing presses or other methods of mass communication. People had to gather to hear what the speaker had to say. Thus the stories of Paul preaching in to the night in a crowded upper room.

Even the concept of individual conversion was rare. It was much more an entire household who converted at once (where the head of the household went, his entire family and accompanying servants went as well).

Crumpet

It sounds from the above like Paul was describing the sort of thing that circuit overseers might do. ie yu stay at someone's house and then go to the local meeting place to give a sermon and then move to the next town where someone favourable to the cause might let you use their place as a base.

TopHat

sir82 said: In a somewhat related topic--has anyone noticed the often hilarious lengths the WT artists go to, to try to put across the idea of 1st century Christians going "from house to house"? I remember illustrations of 2 disciples standing in a doorway conversing with a woman, apparently after knocking on her door. In a recent WT, there was a picture of Paul talking to someone in the street ("street witnessing", natch) and showing her a portion of a scroll he had been carrying under his arm.

I remember that picture of Paul and the scroll.......I said to myself.....This is to unreal!! rediculous!

House-to-house confusion

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