One language in the new system

by OneEyedJoe 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • OneEyedJoe
    OneEyedJoe

    So at the convention, one of the talks was about how all people will speak a single language in the new system. My ears perked up when I heard at the outset "now, we can't be dogmatic about this" because that immediately makes me think that they're backing away from a previously dogmatic stance. He went on to say that everyone will be speaking Hebrew in the new system because "evidently" (another word that gets my ears to perk up these days) that was what was spoken before the languages were confused at bable.

    Now, I'm fairly certain that I read a QFR or something on this topic something like 10 years ago. I thought that had said that they didn't know if we'd speak one language, or if god would pour out holy spirit to let us speak all languages (as in 70 CE) or something like that. The impression I got was that this was a change in understanding, and I'm wondering if they've now gone back to saying there will only be one language.

    If no one knows off hand, I'll post up what I'm able to find, if anything. It just seemed interesting to me that they might be flip-flopping yet again on trivial things. You'd think that they'd learn to stop speculating on things that don't matter...

  • FadeToBlack
    FadeToBlack

    The 'one-language' thing and the fact that it was going to be Hebrew always made me want to stand up on my chair and start screaming - when the comment was made. Just like evidently, it had never rained before the flood. Of course they are not going to be dogmatic about it, but try disagreeing....

  • ambersun
    ambersun

    Everyone will speak like Anthony Morris III and dress in tee shirts bearing the image of Sparlock on the front and a trash can on the back.

    Now excuse me while I nip out through the back of my wardrobe into my favourite land of make believe.

  • redvip2000
    redvip2000

    Just like evidently, it had never rained before the flood

    lol..how is it even possible that at one point we actually believed this stupidy? That it had never rained before the flood. oh my my.

    I guess there were no rain forests back then? How did plants thrive without rain water?

    I get depressed when i start thinking of the things i used to believe?

  • fredPotato
    fredPotato

    The friends at my old KH used to say that we would speak a mix of different languages, or Esperanto...

    I am fond of learning new languages, so that would be a bummer.

  • Brainfloss
    Brainfloss

    NO RAIN=NO SUBSTANTIAL RUN OFF WERE DDI BROOK TROUT LIVE?

  • incognito2014
    incognito2014

    If it never rained, where did the rivers of eden come from?

  • dropoffyourkeylee
    dropoffyourkeylee

    Funny, the one-language thing being Hebrew was taught back in the 60's and early 70's, but then they went to the 'pure language' of truth explanation. If they are going back to Hebrew it is definitely a flip-flop

  • fulltimestudent
    fulltimestudent

    I recall this as being one of Freddie's concepts.

    Whether it existed as a belief before Freddie's time, i.e. in Charlie Russels time, is something I'm not sure about, but clearly it fits in with the mythology of the Bible Students.

    It is, as an idea, totally dependent on the witness/biblical myth**, a myth that is undermined by the archeology of human migrations across the globe, and the modern study of languages.

    I have neither the inclination nor the time to do a more complete study on the topic, but by using google scholar, it is possible to locate some scholarly studies on the origins of the Hebrew language.

    I've found:

    Front CoverA History of the Hebrew Language, By Angel Sáenz-Badillos ( Cambridge University Press (English trans. 1993) Google Books extracts. Web-link: http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EZCgpaTgLm0C&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=how+old+is+hebrew+as+a+language&ots=YfkwNVFGBD&sig=rZoHRc5TJIEU4ZCUGVxDgz76UsY#v=onepage&q=how%20old%20is%20hebrew%20as%20a%20language&f=false -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Oneeyedjoe's post does not state whether the speaker differentiated between modern Hebrew and ancient Hebrew. There is a difference. This book may help us to understand the difference

    Front Cover

    The Schizoid Nature of Modern Hebrew: A Slavic Language in Search of a Semitic Past, By Paul Wexler. Otto Harrassowitz, 1990

    Google Books Extracts: Web-link: http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=q_ebGe7FhVEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=how+old+is+hebrew+as+a+language&ots=JpERJYNsTj&sig=gTzZ3wFc_1SZkRPlV-i9x3oSB_Q#v=onepage&q=how%20old%20is%20hebrew%20as%20a%20language&f=false

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    and:

    Is Biblical Hebrew a language?
    Edward Ullendorff

    ABSTRACT:

    There is no need to explain what I mean by “Biblical Hebrew” (BH): I refer, of course, to the language of the major part of the Old Testament (OT) which is written in a Canaanite tongue clearly distinguished from the few chapters in Daniel and Ezra which are composed, or at any rate extant, in Aramaic. While we have no knowledge of the precise nature of the language spoken by the Hebrew immigrants into Canaan, it is likely that from a linguistic point of view the OT owes more to the vanquished Canaanites than to the conquering Hebrews. The latter are called 'iḇrīm already in the Patriarchal narratives (Gen. xiv, 13, xl, 15, etc.), but their language ('iḇrīṯ) is never as such mentioned in the OT. This may, of course, be owing to one of those purely fortuitous circumstances in the transmission of the ancient Hebrew vocabulary with which this paper is in part concerned. Whether yәhūḏīṯ‘Jewish’ (2 Kings xviii, 26, Isa. xxxvi, 11, etc.), śәṗaṯ kәna'an ‘the language of Canaaan’ (Isa. xix, 18), and 'iḇrīṯ‘Hebrew’ (first attested in the prologue to Ben Sira) are wholly identical is—as I have endeavoured to show elsewhere—not fully established.

    Footnotes

    Text of the Presidential Address delivered to the Society for Old Testament Study, meeting at Oxford on 6 January 1971.

    The above article is from a Cambriudge University Journal.

    Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

    Your area library may be able to access that journal for you without charge.

    The web-reference is: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=4056200&fileId=S0041977X00129520

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ** Grin-I'm referring to the myth that Yahweh created the first humans some 5000 odd years ago, and despite the disobedience of Adam and Eve, some humans 'walked with God,' perhaps literally (another grin) and those humans evolved into the glorious nation of Israel (when obedient to Yahweh) and to a train-wreck when disobedient.

  • objectivetruth
    objectivetruth

    Yes I agree with this viewpoint, that Ancient Hebrew is the Language of God.

    If the Watchtower takes this stance, I'm curious if they would agree with the Fulfillment of Prophecy that Hebrew has begun ito be restored and used by The Jews.

    A PURE LANGUAGE: “I will restore until the peoples a pure language” Zeph 3:9. For nearly 2000 years, Israel has been scattered through out the earth, yet in the last 50 years, they have revived the Hebrew language spoken as it was 2000 years ago.

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