by NeonMadman 40 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I'm annoyed when my midwest parents call other JW members "the friends." Why not "your friends" or "our friends?" I purposefully use the word church to refer to their kingdom hall. When they object, my retort:
"You want me to call your church the Kingdom Hall and not consider it a Church. I want you to call my car the blessed chariot. I want you to call my job the blissful calling. These pants? These aren't pants, they are sacred curtains of glory."
"These pants? These aren't pants, they are sacred curtains of glory."
Spook? That was bizarre and hilarious!!!
Another way to say it could be, "I'm a Witness for Jehovah."
But I guess that invites the question, "What's he on trial for?"
Hi Leolaia,
Yes, of course, if you make 'Jehovah's Witness' a noun then 'a jehovahs-witness', or even 'a jehovah-witness' is correct. But 'Jehovah' is not a thing, it's the name of a person who (allegedly) has, or posesses, witnesses or followers. Making the term into the noun 'Jehovahs-witness' results in a catastrophic loss of meaning of both of the individual words (what does jehovah-witness mean?). So 'one of Jehovah's witnesses' or 'one of Jehovah's followers' or 'a witness of Jehovah', is the only correct form in English (and is the way the society uses it, in print anyway) if meaning is to be retained. People get this wrong either due to ignorance of the fact that Jehovah is a name, ignorance of English grammar, or laziness. IMO witnesses themselves are inexcusable when they use the term as a noun or title because it disrespects the very name that they claim to hold sacred.
Thank you for your hideous examples. Apart from 'I don't give a rat's ass' (which seems reasonable to me since rat isn't a name and he certainly posesses an ass, although maybe 'I wouldn't give you a rat's ass' would be better), the rest demonstrate what happens when you let things slide.
In holland people simply call Jehovah Witnesses... Jehovah's
So when they find out you're a JW they say: "oh... your a Jehovah?
Or in the newspaper you could read a line like " Jehova's building a church in two days"
Ofcourse JW's realy hate it being called a " Jehovah"
But 'Jehovah' is not a thing, it's the name of a person who (allegedly) has, or posesses, witnesses or followers. ...People get this wrong either due to ignorance of the fact that Jehovah is a name, ignorance of English grammar, or laziness.
I'll think of that the next time I see a Craigslist ad, oops I mean, one of the ads from Craigslist.
(For the record, Craig is the name of the person who owns that list)
I think the usage directly relates to the history of the movement.
"Jehovah's witnesses" (With a lower case 'w') started out more as a descriptive term than the name of an organized religion. JW's actually would deny that they were a religion if asked. They claimed every faithful Bible character from Abel onwards as their own. (i.e. They were all Jehovah's witnesses) A good example of this occurs in the 1959 publication, Jehovah's Witnesses In The Divine Purpose in the chapter, " A People With A Most Ancient History"
During this period, "One of Jehovah's witnesses" was the only correct usage.
Somewhere in the 1970's this changed somewhat. I can't put my finger on the exact moment, because there was never anything resembling a formal announcement. At any rate, the spelling changed to "Jehovah's Witnesses" (With an uppercase 'W') and the term bacame the formal name of a religion.
As with most subtle changes of this nature, I suspect the real motivation was legal; perhaps attaining recognized status, owning property, etc.
{Edit} == Just realized this duplicates some of Leolaia's comments
But I guess that invites the question, "What's he on trial for?"
Genocide.
But I guess that invites the question, "What's he on trial for?"
Heaven: Genocide.
I hear the jury's still out on that one, but it doesn't look good for the defendent.
I'll think of that the next time I see a Craigslist ad, oops I mean, one of the ads from Craigslist.
I'm very pleased to hear that, although I think I prefer the more succinct, one of Craigslist's ads.
