So a religion based on a book by another religion?

TTWSYF

So does anyone else find it odd that JWs base their whole faith on the bible?

The bible was never in the plan for Christianity. The apostles spread the good news as they were instructed to by Christ Jesus

18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus never wrote or instructed anyone to write these things down. No instruction or reference to writing new scriptures. The NT scriptures came after Christianity was spread orally.The bible is/was a Catholic book which they wrote. It's odd to me that a faith would base itself on a fruit of the Catholic Church while it calls that same Church corrupted by Satan.

JW_Rogue

It isn't odd if you think about it. Russel and Rutherford needed some authority to which they could appeal. The bible was and is a great authority to fall back on. Remember that the JWs were a offshoot of the protestant movement which rejected Catholicism but still held the Bible as the unerring word of God. They even called themselves Bible students at first, likely to show that they were going back to the original source and "restoring" the original intent of the scriptures. It may not make sense to us today, but for people in those times having a clear understanding "what the bible really teaches," was very appealing. The pseudo-intellectualism of analyzing Bible prophecy likely also stroked peoples egos as they felt they had gained a secret knowledge that others didn't possess.

Phizzy

"Christianity" as it evolved in the 1st and 2nd Centuries was that of Paul, little proof of the Apostles actually having much effect exists.

The Bible was pulled together in the late 4th Century, by the catholic church, which JW's maintain was by then long Apostate, and full of error.

So why the slavish adherence to that Canon by the JW's, which was not even actually agreed upon at the time, disputes as to what should be included going on for Centuries ?

I have never seen an answer to that question from the JW's

Wasanelder Once

Phizzy, wheat in the weeds man, wheat in the weeds!

Crazyguy

The religion of Christians was part mystery school of Serapis part gnostic and possible part Jewish Greek made up Torah. I think it was Pliny that wrote to his Caesar about what todo with this wierd group he had encountered while governor of a part of Turkey. He had held higher positions throughout the empire even in Rome yet never heard of a Christian before. The Bible only became a thing in response to writings by Marcion. Then when Constantine embraced the religion the writings of the Bible really started to be put together and formulated.

What most people don’t know is that the cannon was changed and changed and changed again many times for many more centuries. Then the Protestant reformation happened and it was dramatically changed again.

Also what most people don’t realize is the oldest bible writings in many places its unreadable. Of the four major codexes scriptures like 1or 2 Timothy 3:16 where we see it say that the Bible is inspired , it’s unintelligible. All over the New Testament the name for Jesus in Greek many times is just one letter like a I or a O.

Bart Erhman wrote that many of the scribes would make notes about what they thought the text may of ment or said and then later these notes became part of the actual bible.

scratchme1010

So does anyone else find it odd that JWs base their whole faith on the bible?

The Wt does not base their religion in the Bible. If that was the case, they would never need the gazillions of publications that they release to "explain" it.

smiddy3

So does anyone else find it odd that JWs base their whole faith on the bible?

That`s a fallacy ,JW`s CLAIM to base their beliefs on the Bible ,however that is not the case as has been brought out many times on this forum one way or another.

Just a couple of facts to remind us of that.

1. The Searcher has pointed out that their are over 30 Scriptures in the New Testament that Christians were to be witnesses of Jesus { not Jehovah }

Their is not one NT Scripture that says Christians followers of Jesus were to be witnesses of Jehovah not one.

2. Neither Jesus or any of his Apostles / disciples or anybody else as recorded in the NT ever uttered the name Jehovah in the Christian Greek Scriptures .

And as proof of that statement look no further than the publication by the WTB&TS book

"The kingdom Interlinear Of The Christian Greek Scriptures "

A word for word translation of the Greek into English.

So TRUE Christians according to the Bible are to be witnesses of Jesus and not Jehovah .

Phil. 2:9-11

Diogenesister

When was Pliny around? I do know he's the first really authentic reference to " Christians"( note: not Jesus Christ).

Paul was very much the founder of what we know as Christianity, yet it's almost certain several of his epistles now contained in the cannon are forgeries - pseudepigrapha. I thought this was acceptable in ancient times, but this is what Bart Erhman has to say on the matter:

Scholars may also tell you that it was an acceptable practice in the ancient world for someone to write a book in the name of someone else. But that is where they are wrong. If you look at what ancient people actually said about the practice, you’ll see that they invariably called it lying and condemned it as a deceitful practice, even in Christian circles. 2 Peter was finally accepted into the New Testament because the church fathers, centuries later, were convinced that Peter wrote it. But he didn’t. Someone else did. And that someone else lied about his identity.

The same is true of many of the letters allegedly written by Paul. Most scholars will tell you that whereas seven of the 13 letters that go under Paul’s name are his, the other six are not. Their authors merely claimed to be Paul. In the ancient world, books like that were labeled as pseudoi — lies. ( bold mine)

By the way I also used to ponder, even as a jw, why it is that Watchtower embraces the Bible which was put together by the very organization they denigrate( Catholics).They claim by the time much of it was written let alone put together, worship was false and had been corrupted!!!

Everyone knows deep down they really long to be Jews, perhaps that is the reason!!

So a religion based on a book by another religion?

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