Interestingly, the presiding overseer in my old congregation liked to say that "without question" F.W. Franz knew more about blood than any other person in the World and that many doctors and physicians would invite him to speak at Universities and such. Needless to say, I was skeptical. I'm sure the same goes for thousands of doctors and physicians as well. I just think it's another case of people in the congregation elevating members of the G.B. to Godlike status. I've even heard them described as "pilars" of Christian faith. So it's typical for many people to say that they're unique in the sense that they hold special knowledge...which is odd because they look down on critical thinking, not to mention going to a University, reading books by secular sources, etc, etc, etc....
Franz 3rd best hebrew scholar in world?
by sleepy 15 Replies latest jw friends
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ozziepost
Sleepy,
I'm sure the speaker had misheard. It probably was "the third best Hebrew scholar in the world of the Witnesses."
Cheers,
Ozzie"You can know the law by heart, without knowing the heart of it"
Philip Yancey, What's So Amazing About Grace? -
Kent
I have to say I pity the Hebrew scholars in the world. When someone - that didn't finish his education and never graduated - is the third best of them......
No wonder the ones believeing in this bible-stuff is a bit off their rocker. LOL
Yakki Da
Kent
"The only difference between a fool and the JW legal department is that a fool might be sympathetic ."
Daily News On The Watchtower and the Jehovah's Witnesses:
http://watchtower.observer.org -
Amazing
Hi Sleepy: Recently AlanF posted an extensive discussion of the New World Translation Committee, wherein he gave detailed information on Fred Franz training in Greek and Hebrew. You can ask AlanF to repost that, or look in the "Search" section. I believe it was posted within the last 30 days.
Essentially, Fred Franz had 2 years of college (not to be confused with 2 years of Greek). His Greek course hours were not as extensive as I previously thought. He was an entry level student of modern Greek, and was not an expert or trained in translating ancient or classical Greek. He had no training in Hebrew.
Over the years, as a student in Greek and Hebrew within the confines of working at the Watch Tower Society, he developed skills in these languages, enough so that he was able to do most of the Translating work for the NWT. The other four members of the NWT Committee had no training in Greek or Hebrew.
From all that I have read and discussed with people on this, it appears that Fred Franz was no dummy, but he was also far from expert. I think he may have had a brilliant mind that was wasted as a JW in the closed Watch Tower system. He may have done far better as a fiction writer because of his excellent skills in creative thinking. His JW bias as a translator also made his work highly suspect.
Dr. Julius Mantay (now deceased) is a Greek expert/scholar who reviewed the NWT and found it seriously lacking. The Society use to quote from Dr. Mantay as supporting the NWT, but they lifted his comments out of context. So, Dr. Mantay wrote to them and had to threaten legal action unless these ceased quoting him. In one video of Dr. Mantay, he stated that the NWT has thousands of errors, and he found it to be a very poor work. (He was referring mostly to the Greek aspect). I have not found any Hebrew experts who have commented about the Hebrew portion of the NWT.
A local ex-JW contact of mine is a graduate in Biblical Hebrew and Greek. He is far more trained than Fred Franz. He seems to think the NWT is not all that bad of a translation. But he is the only person I have met who has been remotely positive about the NWT.
Amazing
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sleepy
Your comments concerning the opinion that Franz was one of the three best Hebrew scholars in the world is simply that namely opinion and hearsay. The source for this opinion is anonymous and therfore lacks any credibility. One must remember that Fred Franz only received a classical education at university and was self taught in a number of languages, he was used by the Society as its chief writer and Bible scholar. During his lifetime he is not credited with publishing any thing of a scholarly nature so it is difficult to imagine that he attained the status that has been suggested. His biography is completely silent as to any scholarly pretensions only commenting on his education and his childhood experiences.
Amazing
You are impressed by the information supplied by Alan F concerning the identity of the NWT commitee and the role played by Fred Franz.
You err in this respect because it is impossible to know who the commitee was or is. Their identity is unknown and unknowable like the Cloud of Unknowing.You mention the appearance of Mantey who resented the Society's use of his Grammar as shown in the video. Mantey showed himself to be a idiot and his appearance and comments sadly detracted from the scholarship he displayed in that text. Any competent scholar of Greek would not be a party to such nonsense.
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Francois
I think the word that would most accurately describe Freddy's scholarship is penultimate.
Francois