The Ancient Jewish CROSS and the ancient Hebrew letter Taw

by brit-93108 72 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  brit-93108

  The Ancient Jewish CROSS by Al Garza PhD is a groundbreaking book just published by CreateSpace (ISBN-13: 978-1461133896; April 27, 2011).

  I'm about to order this book because it means a lot to me personally. I was completely unaware of the history or meaning of ancient Hebrew letter Taw. Shaped like a cross and avoided by various Jewish Rabbi today due to its ties to Jesus Christ's death since his execution, Taw is a pictorgraph used prior to Babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of YHWH God" -- and fulfilled when Jesus the Messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.

  Is the cross Jewish or pagan? Learn the true historical meaning behind the ancient Hebrew letter Taw and how it is in the shape of the cross. Learn how the ancient cross is part of the fulfillment of the Jewish covenant through Jesus our Messiah.

  Fellow baptized Jehovah's Witnesses, you know the anointed founding father of our faith in the late 19th century, Charles Taze Russell, is still considered one of the anointed remnant by the governing body today. Brother Russell believed in the cross on the Watchtower publications because he understood its historical origins. An apostate did not found our faith, and the Watchtower still believes Pastor Russell is one of the 144,000 anointed remnant in Heaven today, looking down the the affairs of mankind as you read these words.

  You are not blind; but through a scriptural and historical disconnect in our faith you shielded your eyes from a truth I too resisted for decades. Even Satan the devil himself might tell you, like Darth Vader told a horrified Luke who had been smothered from the truth for so long, "Search your feelings. You know it to be true."
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  james_woods

  UMMM - I thought the cross was Roman -
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  Mad Sweeney

  You wouldn't be related to Al Garza, would you?
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  Robdar

  Brit:

  Shaped like a cross and avoided by various Jewish Rabbi today due to its ties to Jesus Christ's death since his execution, Taw is a pictorgraph used prior to Babylonian captivity meaning "mark," "sign," "covenant," "seal," or more specifically, "sign, covenant, and seal of YHWH God" -- and fulfilled when Jesus the Messiah finalized the covenant on it through his blood so that we could have eternal life.

  I'm Jewish. I promise you, taw is not avoided by modern day rabbis. And the above statement is ridiculous.
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  EntirelyPossible

  The letter taw looked nothing like a cross....
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  botchtowersociety

  The letter taw looked nothing like a cross....

  In the ancient script it seems to bear a resemblance.

  
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  brit-93108

  I completely understand the controversial nature of this post in context with this forum. Rest assured I'm not the author of the book and have never met the man. In fact, as a skeptic and agnostic who wants to believe that Jesus Christ existed and did fulfill a mission from God to save mankind, I too question Dr. Garza.

  Perhaps this article can clear up any concern about the appearance of the Hebrew letter at stake (no pun intended, alright, yes pun intended).

  The article 'Taw, Not Tav' (http://grigaitis.net/weekly/2005/2005-07-08.html) which in blogger's tradition has no author cited but I suspect it is Dr. Garza himself due to writing style. (I have assumed authorship of blogs before and turned out wrong wrong wrong as writing style analysis is a slippery slope, like reading tea leaves!) I cannot find a good fair use snippet that would do the article justice; it must be read in its entirety but thankfully is short and sweet. The argument lends merit to Dr. Garza's but having not yet purchased the book, I shall not surmise further.

  Cheers.
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  james_woods

  What I do not understand about this is what possible connection a Hebrew letter could have with the Roman (not Hebrew) use of the cross as an execution device.
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  brit-93108

  Thank you, botchtowersociety, your reply came in over the transom whilst I was whittling away at an admittedly feeble attempt of one skeptic to satiate other skeptics.

  Your screen name is well conceived considering the seemingly botched nature of this one stubborn anti-cross teaching (which seems so unnecessary because, like the change in baptism questions and other dogmatic nits, seems to screen out anyone who would consider these changes as anything but "minor" in scope).
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  EntirelyPossible

  In the ancient script it seems to bear a resemblance.

  Fair enough. It also, at various points, looked like an x, an h and an n. I will rephrase, only at one very early period in history did it resemble a cross. It hadn't looked like a cross for thousands of years before Jesus, so the connection the author mentioned in the OP seems dubious at best.