WT Study for 6-17-12

by Bobcat 12 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Bobcat

  I did not see a thread on the 6-17-12 Wt Study article, so I thought I'd put this here.

  This is just a thought on unquoted references that sheds a little "light" on why they are not sourced.

  In paragraph 4 of the lesson it says: 'As one reference work states, it is "the sum total of the interior man."' It is referring to what the Bible means when it speaks of the figurative heart. One of the things that was interesting about this is that this is the definition that was given at the DC. So it was interesting to see this in the WT so soon. This new or expanded WT understanding of the figurative heart makes a lot of sense. So that was nice to see.

  If you do not know about the older understanding the WT had, it is something like this: At one time - and not all that long ago - the WT taught that the "heart" always referred to the actual organ. And since the Bible mentions thoughts and other mind-like activities with the heart, it was thought that the heart had brain cells in it. I think this idea lasted till sometime into the 70s or early 80s.

  After this, the Society taught that mention of the figurative heart referred to the motives. Now, the definition is greatly expanded to mean "the entire inner man," as the quote above indicates. And when comparing the many verses that refer to the heart, this makes a lot of sense.

  But now for that pesky quote ...

  I did a search on google books looking for it. It led to this page. As best as I can tell, the quote comes from a book called "The Metaphorical Use of the Names of Parts of the Body in Hebrew and in Akkadian" by E Dhorme, Paris 1963 pp.113, 114, 128 (That title is a mouthful.)

  Anyways, on that same page was another quote for the figurative heart. Here it is copied from the page:

  It is said to stand for "the central part in general, the inside, and so for the interior man as manifesting himself in all his various activities, in his desires, affections, emotions, passions, purposes, his thoughts, perceptions, imaginations, his wisdom, knowledge, skill, his beliefs and his reasonings, his memory and his consciousness."-Journal of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, 1882, p. 67.

  Basically these two quotes are the same thing that the WT is saying as "new light" about the figurative heart. But look at the dates of these references: 1963 and 1882! The Society could have known this stuff way back.

  So much for "food at the proper time."
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  sseveninches

  Nice find! I was wondering about that unquoted reference also, because ever since I've been reading Blondie's comments on the WT, unquoted references stand out to me like never before. This just shows that relying on the WTS as a educational source is a very bad idea.
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  leaving_quietly

  Hate to rain on the parade, but this isn't new. It appears in the Insight book under Heart. The source is even cited there.
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  WTWizard

  They don't even know what they are talking about. First, the seat of emotions is in the throat chakra, not the heart. (This is where you usually feel it.) Second, when they claim the literal heart is the seat of emotions, do they actually know the science? What controls the physical heart? It doesn't have a little brain of its own, any more than does anything else. It all depends on the brain itself to run it--and that's where the emotions actually originate from. True, they are felt in the throat, but they actually originate in the brain and the feelings migrate into the throat.
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  TheOldHippie

  Insight I, p 1057:

  The Figurative Heart . In the great majority of its occurrences in the Scriptures, the word “ heart ” is used figuratively. It is said to stand for “the central part in general, the inside, and so for the interior man as manifesting himself in all his various activities, in his desires, affections, emotions, passions, purposes, his thoughts, perceptions, imaginations, his wisdom, knowledge, skill, his beliefs and his reasonings, his memory and his consciousness.”—Journal of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, 1882, p. 67.
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  BluesBrother

  Just to confirm what the WTS used to say.....(about the human heart)

  WT 1973 3/1 pp135/136

  "9 Let us consider some significant points about the fleshly organ in your chest, the heart, called in Hebrew lev and le·vav′ and in Greek kar·di′a (from which we get the word “cardiac”). Some medical scientists and psychiatrists believe that the heart does considerably more than pump blood. For instance, Dr. D. E. Schneider, a neurologist and psychiatrist of New York, points out that, when the human embryo is forming, the heart and the brain develop from the same area, that the heart is in part nerve tissue and, additionally, has the capacity for manufacturing and storing certain highly potent chemicals that exercise a regulatory effect on the body, including, according to this research, the brain. His conclusion is that there is “evidence for a two-way relationship between mind and heart,” and that, even as the mind has its effect on the heart, “the heart [yes, the fleshly one in your chest] in turn may influence the mind intensely.” Certain other researchers have arrived at rather similar conclusions.

  10 It is significant that heart-transplant patients, where the nerves connecting the heart and brain are severed, have serious emotional problems after the operation. The new heart is still able to operate as a pump, it having its own power supply and timing mechanism independent of the general nervous system for giving impulse to the heart muscle, but just as it now responds only sluggishly to outside influences, the new heart in turn registers few, if any, clear factors of motivation on the brain. To what extent the nerve endings of the body and the new heart are able to make some connections in time is not clear, but this cannot be ruled out as one of the several factors causing the serious mental aberrations and disorientation that doctors report are observed in heart-transplant patients. These patients have donor-supplied pumps for their blood, but do they now have all the factors needed to say they have a “heart”? One thing is sure, in losing their own hearts, they have had taken away from them the capacities of “heart” built up in them over the years and which contributed to making them who they were as to personality.

  11 Medical World News (May 23, 1969), in an article entitled “What Does a New Heart Do to the Mind?” reported the following: “At Stanford University Medical Center last year, a 45-year-old man received a new heart from a 20-year-old donor and soon announced to all his friends that he was celebrating his twentieth birthday. Another recipient resolved to live up to the sterling reputation of the prominent local citizen who was the donor. And a third man expressed great fear of feminization upon receiving a woman’s heart, though he was somewhat mollified when he learned that women live longer than men. According to psychiatrist Donald T. Lunde, a consultant to surgeon Norman Shumway’s transplant team at Stanford, these patients represent some of the less severe mental aberrations [italics ours] observed in the Shumway series of 13 transplants over the last 16 months.” The article continues: “Though five patients in the series had survived as of early this month, and four of them were home leading fairly normal lives, three of the nonsurvivors became psychotic before they died last year. And two others have become psychotic this year.”

  At that time, if I am not mistaken, the WTS did not permit heart transplants. I think that this gave further cause to say that they should be avoided. The flock only have to read it in the WT to believe that this is the best medical opinion...
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  Quendi

  The WTS won't give a reference source unless the citation suits its purpose. It doesn't want Witnesses to engage in independent research and confirmation of the information in its publications. So while the Insight volumes often do cite references, many Witnesses don't bother to read them anyway. If they do and look up the cited references, they can get more information, and sometimes that can reinforce WTS thinking. But I think the prime reason references are not given in The Watchtower is because that would encourage the rank-and-file reader to begin thinking for himself.

  Quendi
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  Bobcat

  Thank you all for your comments. It appears I was relying on faulty memory. In the interest of fairness to the Society here is a list of WT references about the figurative heart that go back some distance: (And while you read, I'll be microwaving my crow.)

  *** w84 9/1 p. 7 The "Heart" in God's Word, the Bible ***
  From all the foregoing it is plain that the Hebrew and Greek words for "heart" are used by Bible writers to refer to a number of emotional and moral qualities that go to make up the inner person.

  *** w65 6/1 p. 325 Check Your Heart ***
  This figurative heart is the seat of affection, and hence is the source of motivation. It is that faculty of the person that accounts for the basic reasons why we speak and think and act as we do. So whether our actions are good or bad, pleasing to God or displeasing to him, depends upon the condition of this figurative heart.-Prov. 4:23

  *** w57 2/1 p. 81 par. 4 May God Write on Your Heart? ***
  What is symbolized by the heart? The Hebrew word translated "heart" is often used figuratively to denote the seat of affection and motives, of conscience and moral conduct.

  *** w56 3/1 p. 142 par. 12 Avoid Sicknesses of Mind and Heart ***
  A related item to consider here is that which the Bible calls the heart. Heart in this most common Biblical sense is the seat of love and affection, hence of motive, and the center of direction and drive.

  *** w55 1/15 p. 44 Is Your Best Good Enough? ***
  The heart refers figuratively to feelings or affections, and is called the seat of motive, the source that motivates us to act one way or another.

  *** w47 p.124 ***
  In distinction from the mind, the "heart" symbolically
  stands for the seat of affections as well as of motive.

  *** w32 p.43 ***
  Heart, as here used, does not mean the organ
  which propels the blood through the arteries; but
  the word is used symbolically, and denotes that faculty
  of the man which induces action. It is the seat
  of motive. It is the seat of affection and love.

  *** w31 p.5 ***
  The "heart" is that part of the creature
  wherein resides the motive or inducing cause for
  action; hence it is said to be the seat of love and affection.

  Also, thanks BluesBrother for the reference you gave. I knew I had seen that somewhere in the past. Now I know I'm getting old. My memories are beginning to merge. I should have checked the Insight before posting. But to tell you the truth, I've grown so distrustful of WT pubs that I often don't even bother with them all that much like I used to.

  Also, it appears the Dhorme reference is 1923, not 1963.

  Take Care
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  ldrnomo

  I don't know about you but I know I would defininetly have some emotional problems after having my heart removed and a new strangers heart put in.

  I don't think it's caused by anything other than our mind telling us, " this is a serious thing"
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  ldrnomo

  I don't know about you but I know I would defininetly have some emotional problems after having my heart removed and a new strangers heart put in.

  I don't think it's caused by anything other than our mind telling us, " this is a serious thing"