Wisdom in "the Word of God". Really? What Watchtower got wrong at this week's Congregation "Bible" Study.

by Island Man 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Island Man
    Island Man

    The Congregation "Bible" Study (CBS) for the week of December 29, 2014 to January 4, 2015 was taken from Draw Close To Jehovah, pages 179-182, paragraphs 1-8.

    Paragraph 3 seems to be using the ancient Jew's fear of Jehovah's thunderous voice to justify the wisdom of him using Moses to record and transmit his laws to the people. But there is an implied false dichotomy here. Since God is supposedly Almighty he is most certainly capable of giving a personal revelation of his requirements to every human in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner that they can fully understand and remember - without having to use his thunderous voice. Such a "holy download" into the brain of every human would not only ensure that all know and understand God's requirements but would also, by its very nature, provide convincing evidence of it's divine source since each human can see that the message he received perfectly correlates with that received by others and yet is communicated is different words to suit the knowledge, understanding and unique background of each individual.

    There would also be little cause for doubting the accuracy and divine authorship of the message as happens when it is conveyed to a few humans who in turn write it down so that it can be copied from generation to generation, leaving later generations in the position of having to trust the claim of human tradition which says it is the handed down written word of God.

    Paragraph 4 makes the point about how writing the law down solved the issue of the difficulty of having to remember so many laws. But isn't that exactly what rank and file Israelites living in Moses' day had to do? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it true that the Law was only readily available to the priests who were charged with orally instructing the rest of the nation? Regular Israelites didn't have the luxury of consulting their own personal copy of the Law like bible owners today have.

    Mention is made too about the inaccuracy of conveying the message orally from generation to generation. This point is valid but the personal revelation method I mentioned above addresses this issue better than creating a written record in ancient Hebrew which then has to be translated in myriads of future languages, many of which do not have the vocabulary to exactly convey the message as it is in the native ancient Hebrew. In other words, having to translate also introduces errors, or more accurately, it obscures or waters down the message. A personal Revelation tailor made to each individual who is born at all times in history, solves such problems perfectly.

    Paragraphs 7 and 8 talk about the wisdom of God using human writers. It mentions the great knowledge and wisdom of angels then turns around and says the angels would not have been able to convey God's message to humans in the best way for us to appreciate it. What a contradiction! In actuality it would have been better for angels to have been used. Why? Angels have greater insight into God's true nature than any human can. Also, given that angels have the opportunity to observe humans for many centuries, they would be able to sift out the truly timeless and universal human qualities from those that are specific to one particular culture living at one particular time. Thus they would be able to convey God's message in a manner that would be understandable to all humans living at all times. By contrast, having the bible written by humans living in ancient Palestine, results in the creation of a book filled with archaic language and cultural references that are not only difficult to understand and translate to other future cultures of humans, but are also often offensive to them.

    So a better job most certainly could have been done. While recording the bible is better than relying on oral tradition, it is certainly not the most wise option that one would expect from an all wise God, given that this particular method also has serious issues. God giving a clear personal revelation to each individual living at all times is most certainly a much better option that removes a lot of the issue that comes with a once for all time written record made thousands of years ago in archaic language with archaic cultural references that future generations find hard to translate, understand and stomach. 


  • AndDontCallMeShirley
    AndDontCallMeShirley

    Since God is supposedly Almighty he is most certainly capable of giving a personal revelation of his requirements to every human in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner that they can fully understand and remember 

    True. But if god did this he couldn't then turn around and condemn 99.9% of people to death for not understanding his will. Clarity is counter to god's methodology. 

     

     Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it true that the Law was only readily available to the priests who were charged with orally instructing the rest of the nation?  

    Yes. Because most people of ancient times were illiterate. Ditto for the early Christians. The idea WT has that everyone in Israel and into first century Christianity could read and write, and had their own personal copy of the scriptures to consult, is absurd at best. 

  • kaik
    kaik

    The book from Catherine Hezser, Jewish Literacy in Roman world does good job in analyzing the level of education and literacy among Jews, Roman settlers in the Judea and Palestine, and who the education changed through the antiquity. It is often estimated that only 1 in 7 could write and write during Roman Empire and this included soldiers who would have to at least sign their names on the official documents. What is another interesting fact her book at the page 503 that "at least ninety percent of the Jewish population of Roman Palestine could merely write own name or not write and read at all must lead to a new assessment of our understanding of ancient Judaism as a 'book-religion'".

    Before the Roman takeover of Jerusalem, only handful of priests and high level of aristocracy could read. Majority of peasants in the countryside were illiterate and had to rely on oral tradition on various interpretation of the OT.

  • sparrowdown
    sparrowdown

    The mega-ego that finds collective expression in the form of the GB, has a serious Moses complex.


  • AndDontCallMeShirley
    AndDontCallMeShirley

    Bart Ehrman, in his book, "Misquoting Jesus", stated that even among the most "literate" of the early Christians, very few of those were, what we would consider in modern times, literate. Many of those entrusted with copying letters among congregations or copying scripture into "books" were capable of making little more than a series of marks or only basic sentences. And, these were the best people available. Think about that.

    It's no wonder the original message, for whatever it was worth, was probably useless within a very short period of time. 

  • kaik
    kaik
    Generally oral traditions bend historical truth and context within one generation as the contemporary witnesses dies out or could not recollect details. This is much the case for entire span of the humanity. Look into the oral stories of the urban legends. We do know very little on Roman Empire in time on some of the emperors, either due no sufficient records were kept, or they were lost in history. For example during turbulent crisis of the 3rd century, there are often debate if some of the barracks usurpers to the the throne even existed. There is very little know what Atilla and Leo debated, and why he did to complete the conquest of Italy. And these were monumental events in the core of the most powerful empire of the Antiquity where imperial court had own notaries. Now transpose to the impoverished province of Judea around 70 AD where there was only small segment of literate population... and myth of Jesus was born.
  • Slidin Fast
    Slidin Fast
    Kalk, you make a good point.  If you want to judge the accuracy of what has been handed down and preserved from the soup of illiteracy of those ancient times then consider this.  The printed words of the previous WT gurus are already consigned to the fog of history.  Within a decade or two, the most considered words of those viewed at the time with an almost sacred reverence have been kicked to the kerb. The WT is doing it's best to obliterate and edit this material to dust.  How in heaven's name can we put any confidence in any thing written?
  • _Morpheus
    _Morpheus

    I enjoyed reading everyones thoughts and comments on this.  On ocassion i sit through the CBS just to make it look like i care and i had some very similar observations as island man.  The whole study was head scratchingly obtuse, trying to convice us that 1) somehow the written word is infallible and 2) god almighty has no better means of commuincation than pen and paper.  

    If his written word is so infallible able then how did his very name get erased without his permision (according to dubbie tradition)?  Hardly a case for accuracy when the author cant keep his  oh so important name on his work.

    as for point 2, island mans concept of personal revelation is far superior to any book  and especially one that hasnt been updated verified or even commented on by its author for 2,000 years.  Two. Thousand. Years.  


    As a side note to the lesson, they cited this scripture in exodus as part of the virtue of the written word as opossed to god talking directly (and unerringly)  

    Ex 20:18-20  "Now all the people were witnessing the thunder and lightning, the sound of the horn, and the mountain smoking; and seeing this made them tremble and stand at a distance. 19 So they said to Moses: “You speak with us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak with us, for fear that we will die.” 20 So Moses said to the people: “Do not be afraid, for the true God has come to put you to the test, in order that the fear of him may continue with you so that you may not sin.”

    woe woe woe.... Wth???  I thought god didnt test anyone?  And are you seriously telling me god cant use his inside voice to speak to us, he HAS to yell and thunder?  He couldnt calmly chat with isreal and let them know what was up? The whole 'lesson' was a house of cards that falls apart with a modicum of thought. 

  • Island Man
    Island Man
    Thanks for the comments all. I especially appreciate the point about the low levels of literacy in bible times. This is something that Watchtower appears to be in denial about.
  • OneEyedJoe
    OneEyedJoe
    woe woe woe.... Wth???  I thought god didnt test anyone?  And are you seriously telling me god cant use his inside voice to speak to us, he HAS to yell and thunder?  He couldnt calmly chat with isreal and let them know what was up? The whole 'lesson' was a house of cards that falls apart with a modicum of thought. 

    LOL!  The "inside voice" comment has me rolling.

    It's really funny how obvious things become when you put aside silly superstitions.  Clearly there was a thunderstorm and moses (or whoever used that nom de plume) was just an opportunist that took advantage of it to become god's mouthpiece.

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