by Island Man 60 Replies latest watchtower bible
Come on guys, give Splane a break! He clearly explained why a baby isn't part of the generation:
Because a baby wouldn't be able to understand that leaves mean that a new season is coming. Only when you are old enough to understand what leaves mean are you considered part of a generation.
The question is, who knows when a child fully grasps the 4 seasons and what leaves mean? Is it when they are 4? 5? 6? Let's wait and see...
What's even more interesting (and mindbending) is that he is suggesting that if a baby was born 10 minutes BEFORE Joseph died, then they would be of the same generation. By this logic, a child born 10 minutes before Fred Franz died in 1992 would be of the same generation as Franz. In other words, someone 23 years old right now is of the same generation as someone born in 1893.
The WT's use of the Joseph generation scripture is really quite ridiculous. Joseph and his brothers were of the same generation not because their lives overlapped, but because they were all brothers, born of the same man. Moreover, given that a woman's procreative timespan is relatively short (less than 40 years) and given that their four mothers were all contemporaries of each other (Rachel, Leah, Bildad and Zilpah, if I have that right), the brothers would not have been dramatically far apart in age--less than 40 years from the oldest to the youngest--in all likelihood. Again, fitting with the Biblical generation.
Prologos....
wow this is getting longer and longer... so technically the big 'A' that should be 'just around the corner could be technically 2214 if we're counting from 1914, or is it 1919...
I'm now totally lost
wow this is getting longer and longer... so technically , if the wt overlap would apply also to the Joseph generation, it would be ~300 years long. technically. wt generation is one of a kind.
added, you can see above that David Splane looks worried, if you know him, normally exuding self confidence.
I think a better thread title would have been, "David (ex)Splane's New Overlapping Generational Light".
Splane quotes Scripture to get some bearing on a Biblical definition of "generation":
Exodus 1:6) "Joseph eventually died, and also all his brothers and all that generation."
He later states:
"Suppose there was a man who died 10 minutes before Joseph was born. Would he be part of Joseph's generation? No. Because he had never lived at the same time as Joseph, he was not a contemporary of Joseph's. Now suppose there was a little baby who was born 10 minutes after Joseph died. Would the baby be part of Joseph's generation? Again, no. Because the baby would not have lived at the same time as Joseph." - JW Broadcast 9/2015, 00:04:00+
So, after citing a scripture that establishes that all of Joseph's brothers - living or dead - comprise the same generation, he creates an example of a man dying 10 minutes before Joseph was born as not being part of Joseph's generation, contradicting the scripture he quoted (Exodus 1:6) that all Joseph's brothers - whether born before him and dying before he was born - were of the same generation.
THis underscores the madness of forcing meanings on Biblical terms for the sake of shoring up dubious dates of significance such as 1914.
Mr. Splane, please address the following verses - if you have the time:
Matthew 1:17 - 17 All the generations, then, from Abraham until David were 14 generations; from David until the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations; from the deportation to Babylon until the Christ, 14 generations.
So from Abraham (c 2018 BCE) to Jesus 42 generations. 2018/42 = 48 yrs/generation.
George
