by sowhatnow 55 Replies latest watchtower bible
The reason religious leaders don't want to critically investigate expressed stories told in the bible such as the WTS. because venturing to do so could break down the believability of their own self attained power and control, so therefore its pays well to not reveal contravening information of the writings in the bible.
To sustain a level of believability you have to press on to withhold and control information and most religious institutions try to do this.
Actually, that guy looks like he could be 900......Vidiot
Ya he looks pretty bad..LOL!!..
He could do a Commercial for California Raisins..
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Jeezus...
...Arnold Vosloo in The Mummy looked better than those guys...
...and his character had been (un)dead for 4000 years...
somewhatnow: how on earth does man go from living 8 and 9 hundred years down to 80 to 100 ?
The genealogical stories contained within the Old Testament existed long before they were transcribed into a written form. Prior to these texts coming into existence, the genealogical record was passed down through centuries of “oral tradition”. I think that the exaggerated ages of the ‘ancient ones’ were either a reflection of how these ancestors were perceived to have magnitude of ‘glory’, or, possibly, it could reflect ages of a family’s reign, throughout each family’s generational existence.
The way that oral tradition operates can be seen in today’s Aboriginal culture. Within the North American Native traditional way of passing on knowledge, the oral tradition is still alive and practiced.
A few years ago (2006/7), I had the opportunity to speak to a Native Elder about their oral tradition. This elder also holds a doctorate degree – I can’t remember what in, but he is well-educated. He explained many things about the Native oral tradition and their “Creation Story” to me.
Firstly, he said that there exists only a handful left of “Storykeepers” who have been trained in the passing along of the Creation Story. The Storykeepers that he knew of were elderly – one woman who lived in remote Northern Canada was 84 years old at the time of our conversation.
The Storykeepers embark on their training early in life. They are chosen, and engage in the mnemonic job of memorizing those ancient stories, that have been told over and over again, for as long as they can remember, training under the ones who hold the story. They engage in this exercise as a lifetime pursuit, until the trained ones are able to recite, from memory, the entire Creation Story. There are parts of this Creation Story that traces the Native people back to ‘the original man’ – in much the same way as the Old Testament record does.
The Native Elder said that the process of getting the privilege, of hearing the story of the ancestors and the Native Creation Story, was a lengthy one, and if chosen to hear the story, a person had to be prepared to commit at least a month and a half of their time to the listening of it. To hear the full story would require sitting and listening for 14 hours a day, for a period of six weeks straight.
Not only that, but the story is told in the ‘old tongue’ – a language that few can still understand or use.
So, based upon what we know of “oral tradition”, it is reasonable to assume that what is read now in the Old Testament about lineage and longevity, contains meanings that have been obscured through time.
A ‘literal’ reading of the Biblical lineage is not reasonable – it originates in oral tradition that is centuries older than the text itself.
@ OrphanCrow...
Damn.
I can't decide if that would safeguard the story, or guarantee that it'd be lost forever.
There were no NUMBERS in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin. . . only LETTERS of the alphabet.
Those letters did 'double-duty' being used as symbols for quantity also.
That should clue all of us today about how lame civilization was--not even creating separate figures for purposes of arithmetic.
But, the ancients grew accustomed to using the letters both ways.
However, as you may well imagine, there were many digressions into confusion.
If you ever have a spare moment, read all about the nonsense which resulted from mixing letters as numbers.
Superstitious people relied on mystics (bullshit artists pretending to have special knowledge) to divine things using GEMATRIA.
Terry
There were no NUMBERS in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin. . . only LETTERS of the alphabet.
Those letters did 'double-duty' being used as symbols for quantity also.
That should clue all of us today about how lame civilization was--not even creating separate figures for purposes of arithmetic.
However, as you may well imagine, there were many digressions into confusion.
LOL, that explains a lot.
Imagine Noah counting all the different species of animals.
Ah, yes...... that non-existent water canopy that was supposed to have been held in place in the "Thermosphere" layer of the earth's atmosphere. This was supposed to have blanketed out much of the harmful radiation from reaching the Biosphere layers. Great stuff, a water jacket - filter out anything! (apparently)
Bill.
