Topics Started by Jeffro
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22
The most important day of the year. Sometimes. Sort of.
by Jeffro infor jehovah's witnesses, the "most important day of the year" is supposed to be the 'memorial'.
this 'sacred' event is to be held after sunset on nisan 14. except most of the time, it isn't.. as 'explained' in the watchtower, 1 february 1976, page 73, the "governing body" (not capitalised at the time) takes it upon itself to 'determine' the 'actual' date of nisan 14. they claimed in the article that the 'modern' date for the start of nisan in the hebrew calendar is calculated differently to the ancient calculation.
however, that's not actually the case.. the actual calendation for determining the start of nisan was (since at least the neo-babylonian period) and is based on the metonic cycle - a sequence that repeats every 19 years.. in the metonic cycle, the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years have an extra (thirteenth) month (adar ii, or veadar).
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10
Convention invitation
by Jeffro ini've received a jw convention invitation in my mailbox.
are they doing this to everyone, or am i being targeted as a prospective 'interested person'??.
since when did they print invitations for conventions?
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27
God's Word for Us Through Jeremiah - Review
by Jeffro ina recent thread about this week's study of the watch tower society's god's word for us through jeremiah led me to decide to review how much of the bible book of jeremiah is actually considered in that publication.. unlike other watch tower society verse-by-verse considerations of some bible books, their jeremiah book instead purports to impart lessons 'for us'.
key scriptures in jeremiah contradict jw doctrine, so a verse-by-verse approach was out of the question, probably having learned from their daniel and isaiah efforts that expose problems with jw interpretations.. one good feature of the watchtower library on cd-rom is you can search for a scripture, then find all the search occurences for where that scripture has been cited in jw publications, which made the process much easier.. in god's word for us through jeremiah, much of the bible book of jeremiah is ignored altogether.
in fact, less than half of the bible book is mentioned at all, and only 16% of jeremiah is actually quoted (including portions with the instruction to "read" the cited verses.
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78
More bad chronology from the Watch Tower Society
by Jeffro init seems that more often than not, when the watch tower society says something about biblical chronology, they're probably wrong.
this seems to be the case even for uncontroversial matters!
insight on the scriptures volume 1, page 584 states (bold formatting added):.
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35
Bad chronology - Samuel, Saul and David
by Jeffro inaccording to 1 samuel 13:1, in the oldest hebrew manuscripts, saul ruled for two years (assuming saul actually existed at all, for which there is no hard evidence).
however, various [christian] translators assume this 'must' be an error because acts 13:21 says saul reigned for forty years.
saul's age at 1 samuel 13:1 is conveniently missing from the oldest manuscripts.
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More failed JW chronology
by Jeffro inive just been reviewing my timeline of the divided jewish monarchy and the neo-babylonian period.
i decided to check for correlations of egyptian and assyrian rulers mentioned in the bible that i had not previously considered at all (much less tried to make fit a particular year).
i was happy (though unsurprised) that no adjustments were required.. pharaoh tirhakah (taharqa) (2ki 19:8, 9; isa 37:8, 9) insight (volume 2, page 1109) claims the years assigned to him by historians must be wrong.
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21
Google results
by Jeffro inevery now and then i check statistics for my 607-related articles.
recently, someone has searched for "vat 4956 watchtower", so i went to google to see where my site comes up in the page ranking.. the first entry in the search results is a reference to the watchtower online library, with a reference to their 2011 attempt at defending their doctrine.. and immediately below it is a link to my rebuttal of the same article.
some other actual google searches people have made to get to my site where my pages are in the first page of google's results:.
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2
Another question for '607' apologists
by Jeffro inwhat were nebuchadnezzar's activities from 624 bce until 621 bce?.
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Question for '607' apologists
by Jeffro injehoiakim refused to pay tribute to nebuchadnezzar after 3 years (2 kings 24:1) because nebuchadnezzar attacked egypt in the previous december.
this is attested by both bm21946 (rows 5 to 7, reverse side) and josephus (antiquities of the jews, book x, chapter 6).. in what year was this attack on egypt?.
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29
Seven times
by Jeffro inthe book of daniel was almost certainly written in the 2nd century bce, probably based on some historical accounts mixed with jewish folklore.
with that in mind, and given that there isn't any evidence that nebuchadnezzar went insane for seven 'times', is there any other period from which the reference to "seven times" at daniel 4:13-17 may be derived?.
i continued beholding in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, look!