A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. From the Nov 1 WT

by life is to short 44 Replies latest jw friends

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  jonathan dough

  One huge thing why can we not know Greek of Hebrew? Are they afraid of the rank and file learning that they are misrepresenting the truth. And what about all the WT and Awakes on leaning a new language to help the foreign fields.

  You hit the nail on the head. Get a copy of Strong and Vines and it obliterates their theology. What they fail to mention is that other Hebrew and Greek Bible scholars ARE experts and HAVE studied it for 2,000 years so they are right you don't need to learn H and G. Just use the existing knowledge of the experts, true experts in the field. They are insane. Don't read the dictionary? That is what they are saying. You should definately read the dictionary and anything else you can get your hands on. There are experts going back 2,000 years who lend their weight and authority to the Christian cause. Books that reach from here to Toledo.

  http://144000.110mb.com/144000/index.html#intro
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  kurtbethel

  "A third factor is that learning a new language can be a very difficult task. Although it may at first be relatively easy to learn a few phrases in another language, it may take years of constant effort before you will be able to understand the subtle nuances of that language.

  Here we get to the core of the matter. There is an inherent corporate culture at work from the top down to the least of the toilet scrubbers. It is a culture of laziness. I have noticed this during studies. There is a strong current of going along, conforming, not making waves, and a lack of personal initiative. Any "research" I have seen done, aside from my own, is a hack up cut and paste job from the WT CD. The sad result is that the research material is usually poorly sourced and pretty useless to prove anything. This aversion to making effort to learn Bible languages is unexcusable for a corporation that represents itself as translating the Bible from original languages and teaching what it means. To an outsider, the corporation looks very pathetic.
• 

  life is to short

  Any "research" I have seen done, aside from my own, is a hack up cut and paste job from the WT CD. The sad result is that the research material is usually poorly sourced and pretty useless to prove anything. This aversion to making effort to learn Bible languages is unexcusable for a corporation that represents itself as translating the Bible from original languages and teaching what it means. To an outsider, the corporation looks very pathetic.

  This is exactly what I mean. I was raised around the "truth" oh how I hate that word, but I never learned anything else or was able to study anything else to prove to myself that it was indeed the "truth". Instead I was told how blessed I was to not have to do that. I would have the "friends" in the "truth" tell me about their pasts in other religions as testimony that this was the "truth" because they hated their old religion and were so glad to have found the "truth" about the Bible.

  I used to just wish I could have learned it first hand myself. Have went to other church's and talked to the ministers, myself to here for myself how horrible these pagan people were. How they treated each other so unkindly and all they wanted was to pass the plate.

  Instead I was "lucky" for lack of a better word to have been blessed and speared all of that by being raised in the "truth" it has all been done for me all I have to do is study the WT and Awakes and that is it.

  I just felt like the Nov 1st WT was again telling me that all I can believe is what they say to me. I am just frustrated. I feel trapped and frustrated. My husband is such a die hard. We had the elders visit us again last night and that was what they pounded into me that this is a perfect religion with imperfect people running it frustrating.
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  wantstoleave

  So they are saying not to learn another language? Then why do they encourage ones to join for instance, chinese or spanish speaking congregations? Or to go abroad to help 'where the need is great'....should they not learn the local language? Or are they discouraging the regular publisher from learning a language so they don't go into further study? Hypocritical.
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  coffee_black

  Other than the power and the money, I have come to believe that the purpose of the wt is to keep people from knowing Christ. They have pushed Him aside, and stand in His place. The memorial is just a ritual where jws line up to say no to Christ. They will use tool they can to keep jws from knowing Christ. Discouraging research that would expose them is just another tool.

  Coffee
• 

  Pistoff

  The WT is out of ideas; they are unable to lead as they used to because even the rank and file JW's, uneducated in the whole, have become more aware that the way the WT has translated and interpreted scripture is unsupportable, including the use of the tetragrammaton.

  This article reinforces the idea that they are unable to defend their position on greek and hebrew translation; if they were confident in the translation and felt able to defend it, why would they discourage us from learning greek, hmm?

  What makes the point moot for me is that we have no way of knowing what Jesus, or Paul actually said, even including the books actually attributed to Paul. The words of Jesus we have come from the followers of Jesus many decades after Jesus lived, and much of the letters of Paul are from those of the 'school of Paul'.

  What they said is of interest to me, but none of the words carry serious weight for me, not like they used to; one of the reasons being that Paul probably did not write them.

  So we are left with the words of only the winners of the battle of sects and schisms that existed soon after Jesus died.

  My 2 cents.
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  diana netherton

  This is what I found in the dictionary

  STOOPID: Anything that the GB says.
• 

  Mary

  Similarly, the fact that a word has a certain meaning in 90 percent of cases does not help you if you are reading an important text where a secondary meaning of the word is used. You need to know more about the context before you can understand the word.

  Unless of course, your name is Freddie Franz and you completely ignore "the context" before giving your interpretation of it.

  What a stupid, ridiculous article. The whole point in studying another language is to be able to understand the words and their meanings. The fact that a Greek or Hebrew word might have a "certain meaning" in various contexts is no reason to not study them. The English language is no different. I can say "I saw an ant today" or "I saw an aunt today". Same pronounciation, different meaning. You would have to know the English language in order to ascertain the meaning.

  I would assert that perhaps there are more Witnesses (and ex-Witnesses) who are studying Greek and Hebrew now, probably with the idea that it will help them in their understanding of the scriptures. However, if memory serves, this was part of the problem with what happened at Brooklyn Bethel in the early 1980s that caused the GB so much grief: people were finding out that the NWT has been less than honest in their translation of many passages for the sole purpose of keeping their pre-conceived doctrines in-tack. Apparently, this is still a problem and with unlimited access to the internet now, the Society is running scared, as they should be.
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  Tristram

  Blondie said:

  The WTS is always encouraging jws to move to a foreign-language congregation to help out. Why is learning a new language in this case not discouraged? Does this mean no one should apply to Gilead?

  Exactly what I thought when I read this. There are classes for Russian, Chinese, whatever foreign language is prominent in any given area. Using the WT logic, wouldn't learning these be considered time consuming and difficult (especially Chinese!) Why is doing this encouraged yet not learning Biblical languages?
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  VM44

  If The Watchtower is discouraging people from learning Biblical languages, then why did it publish in 1969 and 1985 The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures? It is written in Biblical (Koine) Greek!

  Of course, note that it has been over 24 years since the last edition of the Interlinear was published in 1985! That in itself probably answers the question.