by stillajwexelder 10 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
About 10 years ago there was a brilliant piece by a legend on this board - may have been Farkel. It was where he showed how ludicrous it was to flit between solar days lunar months a solar day for a 360 Day year but those years are 365 to come up with 1914. I have tried searching but struggled. Does anyone remember it and if so can you point to it with a link please?
BTW not been on the ministry for 4 years
Bump can anyone help?
Nice to see you here!
It was actually Blondie who posted the thread to which you refer:
I hope someone finds the link for you.
I am Jewish, and I know the 1914 "day-for-a-year" doesn't work simply because we Jews use a lunar calendar.
We are in the High Holy Day Season. We just celebrated the new year, Rosh Hashanah, a few days ago: 5778. We are celebrating Sukkot, the Festival of Booths, about to end that, and it is Hoshana Rabba, the 21st of the month of Tishri tonight.
These are all LUNAR dates. The Watchtower devised 1914 by the Christian Gregorian SOLAR calendar.
If you count a day for a year, Biblically speaking, you would have to subtract around roughly 19 years from 1914. I say "roughly" because the Jewish leap years have been determined differently over the 2,520 years the Witnesses count to arrive at 1914.
Sometimes these years were decided by council, sometimes they were not added at all, sometimes they were added much later in time to catch up with the seasons, and then they were standardized. Not only are we talking 2,501 solar years instead of 2,520 years, we are talking a few months and days which might make us closer to 2,500 to be more accurate.
That means we are talking 1894 or 1895, not 1914 in Biblical lunar years if you want to use the Watchtower formula. Some have calculated in the other direction, meaning 1934.
Even if you account for a better system you are always off by at least three months in either direction, putting you in either November 1913 or February 1915 but never, ever October 1914. But that would be pushing it.
Marked
I've read the link.
The problem with that information is that the leap years were not added at set intervals as much as we Jews would have liked, and the Babylonian exile and Roman Diaspora upset our time keeping over the years. During the Middle Ages we had to reset things.
Since then we've employed a standardized 19-year cycle that adds a month every two or three years up to seven times in this cycle to keep the seasons in balance. This actually makes the Hebrew year a few minutes longer than the solar year, causing a leap forward/fall-back effect over the centuries. The years are therefore not always average.
However the "mean Biblical prophetic year" is a Christian invention, unknown to Judaism and the Jewish prophets. So the 38 years mentioned may be as much of an invention as the "mean" year. There is no such thing as a Biblical prophetic year, only literal lunar years.
I also look at this in my blog: 1914 Debunked: Once and For All (part 2)
arriving at the year 1878 by taking 2,520 of the WT's "prophetic years" of 360 days each instead of inconsistently applying the number to solar years as done by the Watchtower.
I remember figuring up the dates both lunar and solar to see if there was anyway their 607 1914 bullshit worked. Another thing to consider is how they come up with Jesus memorial. Really the son of god is killed crucified by the Jewish leadership and the Romans and no one records a date?!
I'm looking for the Farkel thread on it. Try this link https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/76183/best-farkel
