It's Time to Dump the Hebrew Scriptures.

by smmcroberts 47 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  smmcroberts

  EndofMysteries: "No it's time to read the hebrew scriptures as they were written, not by the faulty english translations of them. "

  So now we all need to learn Hebrew? What about "God revealed himself to the unlettered?"

  More importantly, if God wanted his "word" understood, then why would he allow all these faulty English translations to exist? If it was really his "word" then you'd think he would've seen to it that it was translated properly (especially since, according to the Bible, he was the cause of different languages existing.)

  Do you really think that if we read the Bible in Hebrew it would no longer depict its god as a blood-thirsty dope? Would he no longer command "his people" to rip open the bellies of pregnant women and "not feel sorry"? Would it say "suffer witches to live"? Would Jonah make his trip to Nineveh unswallowed and unspewed by a great fish?

  I have my doubts.
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  mP

  smm:

  I didnt quite appreciate your angle of half agreeing and making strange claims about jesus :). sorry.
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  mP

  eoM;

  Go read them you will be shocked and amazed how different they are to what you think they say. It was a very different world back then ... thats for sure.
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  steve2

  No it's time to read the hebrew scriptures as they were written, not by the faulty english translations of them.

  You mean the original Hebrew writings didn't condone genocide? viewed women as equals? didn't support killing in the name of the true God? advocated rights for children?

  All of sudden "god" is let off the hook because "his" book has been faultily translated into other languages. Now there's an excuse if ever there was one.

  Once again, believers do everything but face up to the "type" of "god" portrayed in "Holy Scripture". I'll add that to my growing collection of pathetic justifications for Biblical bloodshed and violence.
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  Leolaia

  The NT is joined at the hip with the Hebrew Scriptures. It is thoroughly embedded with quoted scriptures and OT material otherwise shapes the diction and thought. It is impossible to understand much of the NT without having the OT as background material.
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  EndofMysteries

  I don't understand hebrew, but I do understand the hebrew to english direct word translations. Even a few mistakes there, but from the direct hebrew to english word translation, they are then rearranged AGAIN to how the translator thinks the words should say. So an english bible isn't a word for word translation, it's a word for word tranlation then somebody takes that and puts it into a phrase they think it means. So what you are reading is not the true scriptures, but what the translator interprets them to mean. And one major error is how many DIFFERENT words are translated to God or Lord. Anyway this will be a big focus on what I am putting together. What the bible REALLY says and what everybody who understands the bible as the english translations present are not the same. And yes, something will be revealed about the blood thirsty stuff. You can find a few traces of clues in the english bibles but it becomes much more clear before the english translators translated so many different words into the same word. Or how many things were omitted in the translations under the belief they didn't mean anything or were confusing. On the contrary many of the minor things omitted were MAJOR in understanding the scripture.
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  steve2

  So much for people's confidence in accessing the "original" word of "god" and "god's" ability to ensure people had clear access to "his" written word. I have a picture of believers getting tied up in all sorts of knots in explaining and counter-explaining stuff. Sounds very human-generated to me. meanwhile, are the errors so great that we can assume that modern translations are wrong about the Bible's advocacy of "God-advocated" genocide? Just wondering.
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  never a jw

  I propose going a step further, dump the New Testament too. ... OK, let's compromise, let's keep one of the gospels for the sake of keeping the weak minded, the easily tempted, and the evil doers at bay. For my own protection I am forced to admit that I need a powerful God, even if it's an idea only, to control the evil inclinations of those who are incapable of figuring out the Golden Rule out of the context of religion..
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  steve2

  I propose going a step further, dump the New Testament too. ... OK, let's compromise, let's keep one of the gospels for the sake of keeping the weak minded, the easily tempted, and the evil doers at bay.

  I also bags keeping the book of Revelation. it is a rich and crazed source of religious devilry and bigotry that has enlivened and encouraged many a lost and lonely Schizophrenic's darkest nights. Bring it one. Blood savagery reaches its zenith here .
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  Leolaia

  I have often wondered what Christianity would look like if the lovely Odes of Solomon were canonized as part of the NT instead of Revelation.