WT April 15, 2015... Odd first paragraph

by StarTrekAngel 14 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  StarTrekAngel

  Flipping thru the pages of the April 15 WT Study Edition, I bumped into something that strikes me as odd. Not that the WT never publishes odd things, but usually such comes in the form of misapplied scripture or hidden second meanings. I've never paid attention before but to me this is the first time I see a whole paragraph with no bible verses to read.

  In the article tiled "Always Trust in Jehovah!" the first paragraph reads...

  IT WAS a dangerous time to be a Christian in Rome. Blamed for setting fire to the city in 64 C.E. and accused of hating mankind, Christ’s followers were objects of intense hostility. If you were a Christian back then, you would daily face the possibility of being arrested and tortured. Some of your spiritual brothers and sisters might have been torn to pieces by animals or nailed to a stake and burned alive to serve as nighttime illumination.

  
  

  Can someone please point me to the bible verse that shows this? Where does it say that dead Christians were used to light the city? I do understand that such may have been the practice of the time, but I think that is no reason to print this as if it was guaranteed that it happened.

  Another interesting thing is the Spanish translation. The English version read "...accused of hating mankind..." while the Spanish version read "...se les acusa de odiar a la gente..." . Literally translated it would read " they were accused of hating people". Not sure how they translate this stuff... mankind and people are comparable but the accuracy of the translation would altered by the use of two different words. Which one, not sure... but they should have stuck to the same word in every case.
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  steve2

  I would at least like to have a choice: To be eaten by animals or burnt to illuminate the night? Somehow I am drawn to choosing to be an illuminator of the night - it just seems so much more martyr-like and spiritual in contrast to food which is consumed and then excreted.
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  millie210

  Yes steve!

  Plus, when they make the movie - your end will look much more dramatic! LOL
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  Jonathan Drake

  I'm confused.

  The bible does make reference to the coliseums where Christians were fed to wild animals. Even if it didn't, both the human torch thing and the wild animals are documented history.

  thing is, the Christians appear to have asked for it. When brought to trial they would frequently and aggressively assert that they didn't recognize the authority of the court - poking the bear quite hard. This little tidbit usually gets ignored by Christians today when talking about this.
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  OUTLAW

  There are varying historical accounts of how the fire was started..

  The WBT$ chose the one that suited their Agenda..

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  Great Fire of Rome

  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  

  The Torches of Nero, by Henryk Siemiradzki. According to Tacitus, Nero targeted Christians as those responsible for the fire.

  The Great Fire of Rome was an urban fire that started on the night between 18 and 19 July in the year 64 AD. It caused widespread devastation, destroying half of the city, before being brought under control after six days. Differing accounts either blame Emperor Nero for initiating the fire or credit him with organizing measures to contain it and provide relief for refugees. Nero blamed the devastation on those who were weakest in the city- the Christians. The persecution of Christians would continue until the reign of emperor Constantine. [1]

  
  

  Varying historical accounts

  The varying historical accounts of the event come from three secondary sources — Cassius Dio, Suetonius and Tacitus. The primary accounts, which possibly included histories written by Fabius Rusticus, Cluvius Rufus and Pliny the Elder, did not survive. These primary accounts are described as contradictory and gross exaggerations.[2] At least five separate stories circulated regarding Nero and the fire:

  • Motivated by a desire to destroy the city, Nero secretly sent out men pretending to be drunk to set fire to the city. Nero watched from his palace on the Palatine Hill singing and playing the lyre.[3]
  • Motivated by an insane whim, Nero quite openly sent out men to set fire to the city. Nero watched from the Tower of Maecenas on the Esquiline Hill singing and playing the lyre.[4]
  • Nero sent out men to set fire to the city. Nero sang and played his lyre from a private stage.[5]
  • The fire was an accident. Nero was in Antium.[6]
  • The fire was caused by Christians.[7]
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    Modern scholarship

    Modern scholars[who?] tend to agree with Tacitus and believe that Nero probably did not cause the fire. It is postulated that the fire had been intentionally started to create room for Nero's Domus Aurea, but the fire started 1 km (0.6 miles) away from the site where this palace would later be built, on the other side of the Palatine Hill. Moreover, the fire destroyed parts of Nero's own palace, the Domus Transitoria. It seems unlikely that Nero wanted to destroy this palace since he actually salvaged some of the marble decoration and integrated it into the new Domus Aurea. Even the paintings and wall decorations of the new palace were similar to the ones that had been burned. Last, the fire started just two days after a full moon, a time that, it is presumed, would not have been chosen by arsonists who would not have wished to be observed.[8]
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  Village Idiot

  Nero's burning of Christians and their being accused of being "haters of mankind" is a matter of historical record. It is questioned though that they may be exaggerations.

  Also the English to Spanish translation from "...accused of hating mankind..." to "...se les acusa de odiar a la gente..." is accurate although it would have been better to replace "gente" (people) with "humanidad" (humanity).
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  OUTLAW

  Nero Persecutes
  The Christians, 64 A.D.
  

  Beginnings of Christian Martyrdom

  The following account was written by the Roman historian Tacitus in his book Annals published a few years after the event. Tacitus was a young boy living in Rome during the time of the persecutions.

  "Therefore, to stop the rumor [that he had set Rome on fire], he [Emperor Nero] falsely charged with guilt, and punished with the most fearful tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were [generally] hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius, but the pernicious superstition - repressed for a time, broke out yet again, not only through Judea, - where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also, whither all things horrible and disgraceful flow from all quarters, as to a common receptacle, and where they are encouraged. Accordingly first those were arrested who confessed they were Christians; next on their information, a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city, as of "hating the human race."

  In their very deaths they were made the subjects of sport: for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights. Nero offered his own garden players for the spectacle, and exhibited a Circensian game, indiscriminately mingling with the common people in the dress of a charioteer, or else standing in his chariot. For this cause a feeling of compassion arose towards the sufferers, though guilty and deserving of exemplary capital punishment, because they seemed not to be cut off for the public good, but were victims of the ferocity of one man."

  References:
  Carrington, Phillip, The Early Christian Church (1957); Davis, William Stearns, Readings In Ancient History (1913); Duruy, Victor, History of Rome and the Roman People, vol V (1883).
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  fulltimestudent

  StarTrekAngel: Can someone please point me to the bible verse that shows this? Where does it say that dead Christians were used to light the city? I do understand that such may have been the practice of the time, but I think that is no reason to print this as if it was guaranteed that it happened.

  The usual source of these claims are some references to the supposed incident by Roman writers. See the Wikipedia reference below.

  Persecution under Nero, 64–68 AD
  Main article: Great Fire of Rome
  The first documented case of imperially supervised persecution of the Christians in the Roman Empire begins with Nero(37–68). In 64 AD, a great fire broke out in Rome, destroying portions of the city and economically devastating the Roman population. Some people suspected Nero himself as the arsonist, as Suetonius reported,[12] claiming he played the lyre and sang the 'Sack of Ilium' during the fires. In his Annals, Tacitus (who wrote that Nero was in Antium at the time of the fire's outbreak), stated that "to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians (or Chrestians)[13] by the populace" (Tacit. Annals XV, see Tacitus on Jesus). Suetonius, later to the period, does not mention any persecution after the fire, but in a previous paragraph unrelated to the fire, mentions punishments inflicted on Christians, defined as men following a new and malefic superstition. Suetonius however does not specify the reasons for the punishment, he just lists the fact together with other abuses put down by Nero.[14]

  Most churches accept this account of a persecution by Nero. But, understanding something of the Roman political process, perhaps we should always treat these accounts with a little caution. And, of course, cruel (to us) and unusual punishments were the rule, and may not have been used only on Christians.
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  StarTrekAngel

  Thanks all for the pointers. Would be nice for the WT to point those out as well. Many will believe the bible says this things.
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  Muddy Waters

  It almost sounds like the WT writers are going to Wikipedia for their research on WT articles.....