Commentary on the Letter of James

by lepermessiah 52 Replies latest jw friends

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  lepermessiah

  Zoiks inspired this thread when he mentioned this book elsewhere.

  I have read other threads on this forum about it, but I always enjoy the fresh insight on here.

  Commentary on the Letter of James was always my favorite book from WTBS, partly because I love the book of James, but also because it was one of the books that dealt with more practical Christian living than constant WT doctrine.

  I mentioned to a number of people that I loved that book, and got a few comments of "Well, you know that book was written by an apostate."

  It didnt take me long to do a little math - that book came out I believe in 1979/1980, right around the time of the great purge. How could someone write such an excellent book and then be branded an apostate just a few months later???

  That book was another one of the big puzzle pieces that led me to this site along with others on the internet.

  For that, I say thank you again Mr. Franz and of course Mr. Dunlap
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  BurnTheShips

  That was actually their best book. I haven't read it in years. It is hard to find, it's too apostate.

  BTS
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  Room 215

  That book, and "Choosing the Best Way of Life" were both written by Dunlap -- and both regarded as the best every published in their era
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  TheOldHippie

  I remember when they were made public at the convention, it was stated that they represented something new and would be the first in a new series of books.
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  Titus

  "Well, you know that book was written by an apostate."

  One Gilead graduate told me the same thing when I said that I am studying that book. I can't believe that that book is still on the WT-Library CD.
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  Mythbuster

  One Gilead graduate told me the same thing when I said that I am studying that book. I can't believe that that book is still on the WT-Library CD.

  Has it been altered from it's original printing?
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  Titus

  I don't really know. I didn't compare it.
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  winstonchurchill

  'Written by an apostate"... Dunlap was a JW when he wrote them. if he became an 'apostate' later that's different.

  By that standard we could say that Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon were also written by an apostate.

  The three best all time books WT ever published were "Comentary-James", "Choosing the best way of life" (Both by Ed Dunlap) and "All scriptures" by David Ianelli. In my view they are great because they reflect Bible's wisdom without prejudice, and don't deal with doctrines (espcially not with WT doctrine).

  They are deemed as 'apostate' by some out of ignorance; there's not a single line in those two books contrarian to WT teachings (as I said, they don't deal that much with doctrine in the first place). As far as I know there was only one sentence in the James book that could be interpreted as saying "all christians have heavenly hope (and not only 144,000). WTS 'clarified' that in a QFR in 1980, saying that the word 'annointed' should have been inserted to avoid confusion.
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  JWoods

  'Written by an apostate"... Dunlap was a JW when he wrote them. if he became an 'apostate' later that's different.

  I would have to say that I knew Ed Dunlap and his brother Marion when that book was written, and that Ed was definately a JW doubter when he wrote it. Both Dunlaps were fully convinced that there was something wrong with the 144,000, heavenly hope doctrine, and the 1914/607 chronology during this time. That is one of the reasons why it is so different from the usual obedience and chronology ranting of the usual WTS writing.

  Ed was careful enough (and honorable enough) to stick very closely to a simple scriptural theme in this book rather than revert to WT theology in which he was already in considerable doubt. He thought (IMHO) that possibly with the eventual passing of old Freddy Franz, recent failure of the 1975, and the new GB arrangement, that doctinal corrections would be coming.

  In this, of course, he failed to realize the stubborn recalcitrance of the old school JW leadership.
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  minimus

  Ed tried to be a reformer. It didn't work.

  I too loved the Commentary. It was different, quite literal and easy to understand.