With all due respect - I'm going to puke if I hear antitypical and typical again. Big chunks!
I gottoo admit - it certainly sounds like one of the really cringe words of jwism
Typical and antitypical bible stories....
by Star Moore 14 Replies latest watchtower bible
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A Paduan
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BlackSwan of Memphis
Hey Star,
Hm, if you mean that you see these things as being specifically prophetic, dunno about that. But I do think that there were lessons to be learned.
And I think what you are taking from them is on target.
You know with the conversation we've had that I have found many writings to be very valuable.
I suppose that's why I wonder if you are meaning specifically prophetic or lessons to be learned.
Scripturally sure I think there are some good lessons to be learned from these for Christians. I think you found a couple of good ones.
BSoM
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Star Moore
Hello guys and Black Swan:
Oh, I think I see what you are saying. The story about the 2 kings who couldn't stop the persecutions for legal reasons..I think explains how Jeh. can help us with our trials, even though, at this time, he can't actually, miracleously dismiss them. I think it applies to all faithful people, not just me.. or a certain situation...
1. God will send angels...
2. He will help us be armed to fight ...
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A Paduan
"Legal reasons" is an unusual term, but descriptive to some extent
a crime doesn't actually happen until it is in play to some degree - people may prevent those who have the spirit and language, but the blood is the proof - there are three witnesses, the spirit, the water and the blood - condemnation may come from two, or three witnesses - depending on circumstance
(and for all you jw lurkers - your 'witness' rule is a joke)
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Narkissos
What about "creative reading"?
Actually when you read a general lesson about faith and providence in Daniel 6 or Esther, and apply it to your own life, you are probably not very far from the original intent of the story -- like later midrash it was meant to be read or heard this way, even though originally in another historical context.
That's another thing with WT-like typology which creates "prophetic" correspondence between definite events at different points along the course of time. In a way it is also an old practice, both in Judaism (e.g. the Qumran pesharim) and Christianity (many "messianic prophecies"). But the difference I feel between the ancient and modern typologies is the very conception of time (and/or eternity).
I mean, why or how would an event x "typify" or "foreshadow" an event x'? The only answer available to a modern believer is some obscure will of God. A supernatural being somehow wanted it that way and made it that way. Whether you think of him as designing the movie before it is played or acting secretly within the play itself, there's no logical link between x and x' except in the will and action of God within time.
To the ancients, and especially in post-Platonic hellenism, it was a bit different I guess. Because eternity (whether that of God or "ideas," including moral virtues or mathematical patterns) could be thought of as separate from, yet related to time (as the center of a circle to each of its points, to use a common illustration). This is obvious in Hellenistic allegory, where "events" in time are said to be "shadows," not of other events in time, but of real, eternal, heavenly or timeless things (both, though differently, in Philo and Hebrews). But I think it also influences ancient typology: event x is not related directly to event x', but through the mediation of an eternal, timeless X -- because both are reflections of a timeless "reality". This difference of conception must be taken into account. While it may still sound strange to us, it is not as shallow as the WT version we have been fed.