Did Noah preach the "good news"?

by M.J. 21 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • blondie
    blondie


    BTW, "good news" or gospel is a term somewhat exclusive to Jesus Christ's time...so I don't think Noah preached the good news.

    The WTS uses buzzwords that "add" to the Bible.

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    w03 12/15 p. 18 Our Watchfulness Takes On Greater Urgency ***
    He was also "a preacher." (2 Peter 2:5) What message did he preach? Noah’s preaching evidently included a call for repentance and a warning of coming destruction.

    **

    it-1 p. 1089 Herald ***
    Ke·rys´so,
    in general, means "proclaim" (good or bad news), as distinguished from eu·ag·ge·li´zo·mai, "declare good news." Noah was a preacher (or herald, ke´ryx) to the antediluvian world, warning them. (2Pe 2:5)

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    it-2 p. 671 Preacher, Preaching ***
    Noah’s preaching righteousness prior to the Flood evidently included a call for repentance and a warning of coming destruction, as is evidenced by Jesus’ reference to the people’s ‘failing to take note.’ (Mt 24:38, 39) Noah’s divinely authorized public proclamation, therefore, was not primarily a bringing of good news.

    ***

    it-2 p. 674 Preacher, Preaching ***

    At 1 Peter 3:19, 20, after describing Jesus’ resurrection to spirit life, the apostle says: "In this state also he went his way and preached to the spirits in prison, who had once been disobedient when the patience of God was waiting in Noah’s days, while the ark was being constructed." Commenting on this text, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words says: "In I Pet. 3:19 the probable reference is, not to glad tidings (which there is no real evidence that Noah preached, nor is there evidence that the spirits of antediluvian people are actually ‘in prison’), but to the act of Christ after His resurrection in proclaiming His victory to fallen angelic spirits." (1981, Vol. 3, p. 201)
  • truthseeker
    truthseeker

    I would like to know the extent of Noah's preaching work. How far did he go, did he visit Africa, Europe, the America's?

    If not, then millions of people drowned not knowing anything about him.

    And he made not ONE convert, it was just him, his wife, and his three sons and daughter-in-laws.

  • undercover
    undercover
    The oft quoted passage Matthew 24:37-39 says (NASB):

    "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

    Notice how the NWT words this verse:

    For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.

    The NWT version implies to JWs, who are taught that Noah preached, that the world "took no note" or refused to listen or act. All other translations imply that the people didn't understand or see it coming.

    This, to me, is a dishonest translating of the scripture to try to twist a verse to support a teaching that otherwise can't be proven. No decent scholar or independant Bible student would be fooled by it, but millions of JW are fooled by it, because they are discouraged from researching it on their own.

  • M.J.
    M.J.

    Great point, Undercover. I neglected to look up the NWT version of it. Anyone have access to the KIT rendering? I looked up the word ginosko, the term translated as "understand" in the NASB and to "take note" in the NWT...

    Here is Strong's Lexicon outline of biblical usage: http://www.blueletterbible.org/tmp_dir/words/1/1147369189-8140.html

    1) to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, feel

    a) to become known

    2) to know, understand, perceive, have knowledge of

    a) to understand

    b) to know

    3) Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman 4) to become acquainted with, to know

    So either they did not "understand" or they did not "know" regarding what was coming. It does not seem to imply belief or acknowledgement of something.
  • M.J.
    M.J.
    BTW, "good news" or gospel is a term somewhat exclusive to Jesus Christ's time...so I don't think Noah preached the good news.

    Yeah, Blondie, I wrote that sort of tongue-in-cheek. I mean, how can that even be construed as "good news"?

  • TheListener
    TheListener
    Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman

    Hmmm, maybe Noah was busier than I previously believed.

    Noah says, "I preached to almost everyone and they just don't know and won't get on the ark (wink wink)"

  • sinis
  • JAVA
    JAVA

    The Noah story never made much since to me when I was a JW, and today less so. Folks didn’t have much contact with other people outside of their location. They also didn’t understand what caused floods, and other disasters, so they chalked it up as the gods must not be happy. They thought that a sweeping floor in their location must mean that the entire world was flooded, too. It’s little wonder that we see floods and fires mentioned in many religious myths from early times. The idea that Noah could have reached all of humankind to warn about the coming flood is even crazier than the Tower’s suggestion that they, and they alone, are God’s spokesman warning others about the modern-day flood called Armageddon.

    It just seems that the constant assertions by the WTS/JWs that Noah went out preaching, in the manner that JWs do today, rests on some pretty flimsy/nonexistant scriptural support.

    You're right M.J., the Tower is standing on flimsy/nonexistant support albeit from scripture or from the knowledge we have about such things today.

  • OpenFireGlass
    OpenFireGlass

    TheListener asked>:

    Jehovah potentially already killed millions and millions of people with the flood and now I'm waiting for him to do it again. Will he have to do it a third time in the new order?'

    DUH! Like Yeah, after the thousand year reign...

  • M.J.
    M.J.
    DUH! Like Yeah, after the thousand year reign...

    OMG, you're so right. The pool of people who can be potentially 'zapped' during/after the 1000 year reign, according to the WTS version of the story, will be larger than ever before--about 65 BILLION! http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/77577/1.ashx

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