some of this will not be new to those of you who read other people's notes, but i bet there are a few new bits for you here, so i've provided a user-friendly table of contents, as an homage to the contents that appear before each book of the bible in the new nwt.
i might remember more highlights later, as i'm rather tired right now, but this is what i can recall off the top of my head.. contents (use of quote marks in this section is facetious; these are not actual quotes).
"say, did you notice that 2014 is the 100th anniversary, people?".
Thanks Apog and all for the comments and insights.
I'm a little confused by this one:
Have they changed John 8:58. Apart from the disputed theology, "I was" has been criticised as simply poor English. Has it been altered to "I have been" or rephrased altogether?
Good guess, slimboyfat. This verse now indeed ends "I have been"!
because in the NWT I have it has always read 'I have been'. The one I have is the 1984 study version.
it occurred to me the other day that i am beginning to forget the tunes to all the old kingdom songs i once knew by heart.
so i have started recording myself singing a few of my favourites from the old song book and uploading them to youtube.
and it struck me as i was singing them how many of the old songs have a military theme running through them, with references to warfare, soldiers, weapons and so on.
Good observations everyone. I have noticed the same thing, but to see all the changes commented on in one place is very convincing. I personally think it has a lot to do with making the songbook acceptable to different cultures and languages. After all, some of the hymns in the US from the 1800's had a military theme, so didn't sound too much out of place in the WT heartland in the early part of the last century. But you take the same words, translate to Swahili and try to get an African audience to sing it... I'm sure there were some awkward moments.
On another related note, the song 'Shulamite Maiden' has had the words completely changed, though the tune remains in the new songbook. I'm sure it is because the words were a little too explicit, even though they came right from the Song of Solomon.
the image of page 13 of booklet "unseen spirits" from 1978 show a animal similar to a monkey, but it have the pointy ears.
it is a demon materialization?.
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It is human nature to see patterns and attribute motives where none exist. My opinion is that all the supposed subliminal artwork is simply artwork that is bad, followed by equally bad (or worse) duplication in cheap publication. I knew a guy once who went to work for the Society in the art department. He said that even the best artwork really gets butchered by the time it appears in print.
growing up, i knew of two, maybe three dual prophecies in the bible espoused by wt, matt 24 being the main one (last days), daniel 4 being the other (2520 years), and possibly one other, but i can't recall from back then.
nowadays, it seems as if nearly every prophecy in the bible has two fulfillments, according to wt.
prophecies in jeremiah, malachi 3:1 (yep, right from the 7/15/13... how they get the "jesus inspected the spiritual temple" thing and now that russell was a forerunner to fds 2.0), even psalm 37 has a dual prophecy... most often applied to "paradise earth", it also applied during solomon's reign, when it was a time of peace.
When I was growing up, it seemed like every single prophecy in the Old Testament was supposed to have a second fulfilment. Back then it was called 'type' and 'antitype'. I found out later that the concept was common in Bible literature of the 1800's
- 23 day to go .. annual meeting unofficial rumors.
- new bible.
- new nwt (revision).
The circuit overseer in our mid West US congregation a couple of weeks ago hinted that the revised NWT would be announced or released at the annual meeting this year. To me this all but confirms the rumor, as I don't think he would have said that if it were not true.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/castro-brothers-spend-night-jail-article-1.1338131#ixzz2sjzrxozd.
After Ariel Castro's death this week, his brother-in-law Juan Alicea was interviewed on CNN. Here is the link to the news item which includes part of the interview at two different places in the broadcast.
The way he talks and acts is very suggestive that the brother-in-law might be a JW. Does anyone from Cleveland know him by any chance?
playing devil's advocate here...
researching online, i found that approximately 1% of the world's population is 90 years of age or older.
this means that, come 2015, there will still be around 70 million people who fit the bill of "now living" in 1925 and still living.
Funny, at this summer's convention, one of the speakers said something like 'many of those living today will never die'. The wording wasn't exactly the same, but it struck me that JW's still believe that 'Millions now living will never die' and are still teaching the same thing.
in the united states i gather that copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years.
if copyright only lasts for 70 years from publication of anonymous works, then copyright for the nwt of the christian greek scriptures would be due to run out in a few years.
watchtower leaders probably don't like the idea of others being able to publish hard copies or circulate the nwt in ebook format.
An interesting question SBF, I found my copy of the old dark green NWT of the Christian Greek Scriptures and it has the copyright of 1950. But then I am looking at the largeprint reference and it says 'Copyright, 1961, 1981, and 1984'. I don't know what that means in relation to your question. Maybe someone with some legal expertise can weigh in.
-what exactly was their standard of living?
could they afford some nice things sometimes?.
-how much did they socialize with other witnesses, either those serving in other areas or those in their assignment, outside of meetings and service?
I knew a couple who had 'pioneered' in the 30's. I'm not sure when the term pioneer came in, as they were called colporters at one time. These two traveled thru Kentucky mostly. They were allowed to keep some of the money from the literature sale, so in some sense they were book salesmen besides preaching. They eventually had a son and settled down, but when I knew them in the 70's and 80's they always spoke fondly of that time in their lives. One of them was anointed and the other was not, which always struck me as awkward.
....when they did not include a translation of the hebrew scriptures in your special kingdom interlinear bible?
perhaps it is easier to manipulate the new testament to fit with their twisted jw teachings?.
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My two cents worth
Benjamin Wilson's Diaglott had been part of the Bible Students references since the Russell days, and the Kingdom Interlinear is presented in a very similar way, almost an identical format as the Diaglott. My guess is that Fred Franz produced the Kingdom Interlinear pretty much on his own as he worked on the NT of the NWT. The OT, though was a different matter. The Bible Students did not ever have a Hebrew interlinear. In fact there are not a lot of them out there. I have one, (Jay Green ed.) and honestly it is not really helpful to a non-Hebrew reading student. It reads from right to left for one thing, and is really difficult to follow.
I concur that the possibility of the WT of producing a Hebrew interlinear is virtually zero.
