Topics Started by Jeffro
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Another problem for JW apologists
by Jeffro inthe 2013 edition of the new world translation renders 2 kings 17:1 as:.
in the 12th year of king ahaz of judah, hoshea the son of elah became king over israel in samaria; he ruled for nine years.. this is in fact a better rendering than the previous nwt, which stated:.
in the twelfth year of ahaz the king of judah, hoshea the son of elah became king in samaria over israel for nine years.. despite their improved rendering, the watch tower society still claims that hoshea's reign 'really' began in 758 bce, but that it was 'established' in the 12th year of ahaz.
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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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48
"Jehovah God"
by Jeffro inthe expression "jehovah god" has always seemed strange to me.
even when i was a jw, i found the term awkward, and never used it myself.
both words are nouns intended to be synonyms of each other, unless the name "jehovah" is being used as an adjective, which is also weird.
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41
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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41
"This Generation"
by Jeffro ini know the witnesses changed their 'generation' definition in 1995 to get away from being tied down to the literal generation of people who saw 1914.. but applying their definition of the word to matthew 24:34 makes the verse meaningless, regardless of whether the original text grammatically allows for their interpretation.
there is no point in saying "this generation will by no means pass away" if 'generation' merely refers to an attitude of people which may remain the same for any ongoing period of time.. there is simply no point in saying it unless it was intended to refer specifically to a literal generation of people who were alive at the time.
of course, there is no validity to their 1914 doctrine anyway, but nevertheless, they are inextricably stuck with it..
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40
Was it Designed?
by Jeffro inthe jw website is currently featuring a piece: the shell of the diabolical ironclad beetle—was it designed?
it is part of their regular tedious 'was it designed?
' series that purports that very very specific animal species must have been specifically designed because of some seemingly amazing feature.. but they seem completely unaware that this directly contradicts their notion that only very broad 'kinds' were required on the mythical 'ark'.
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38
Question for JW apologists...
by Jeffro inthe new new world translation translates jeremiah 29:10 as follows:.
10 for this is what jehovah says, when 70 years at babylon are ful?lled, i will turn my attention to you, and i will make good my promise by bringing you back to this place.. the official watch tower society teaching is that by the end of the 70 years, the jews were back in judea, and that their actual arrival in judea marks the end of the "70 years".
*** si p. 85 par.
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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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34
Independent Thinking
by Jeffro ini decided to do a search of the watchtower library cd on the phrase 'independent thinking'.
only three times is it ever spoken of as being a good thing.
and those three instances are quite telling about the insidiousness of all of the other times that jw publications consider independent thinking to be such a bad thing.. .
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32
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.