Celebrated WT scholars? :)

Augustin

Prof Lester L. Grabbe on Rolf Furuli's "Oslo Chronology":

" Once again we have an amateur who wants to rewrite scholarship" (JSOT 28:5 [2004], p. 42).

...celebrated WT scholars? Sure!

--Augustin --

"F. shows little evidence of having put his theories to the test with specialists in Mesopotamian astronomy and Persian history. Perhaps the most telling point is his rather naive argument that the 70 years of Judaean captivity must be a literal 70 years of desolation of the land because some biblical passages make such a statement" (p. 43).

under_believer

A rather interesting essay that very reluctantly publically skewers Furuli, by Carl Olof Jonsson (writer of The Gentile Times Reconsidered):

http://user.tninet.se/~oof408u/fkf/english/furuli.htm

An entertaining excerpt:

Finally, in their discussions with Furuli, Åge Grønning and Jan and Wenche Kalstø were shocked at the way Furuli dragged my name through the mud and repeatedly attacked me and my motives. In a discussion with Jan and Wenche Kalstø about my Supplement to the Gentile Times Reconsidered (published 1989), Furuli claimed that I had falsified letters from authorities, that my quotations from letters I received from scholars D. J. Wiseman and C.B.F. Walker were false, and that he had received a letter from Walker that contradicted what I wrote. Because Furuli did not allow the Kalstøs to read Walker’s letter, they wrote to me and asked about these allegations. I sent the Kalstøs copies of the letters I received from Wiseman and Walker that proved that I cited them correctly. I also wrote to Walker and asked him about his letter to Furuli. He sent me a copy of that letter, which I forwarded to the Kalstøs. They could see that nothing in the letter contradicted what I had written. They were forced to conclude that Furuli had lied to them and had tried to hoodwink them, which made them very upset. (Letter from Jan & Wenche Kalstø to Jonsson, dated September 20, 1990)

Augustin

Leolaia,

You are so sweet!

-- Augustin --

Hellrider

Hm, no Scholar jw yet? He must be out in field service.

By the way...That very unprofessional, childish and intelectually dishonest behaviour Rolf Furuli is described as having (in under_believers post), doesn`t that remind you of someone?...not to mention the extreme emphasis on the few biblical passages that talks about "70 years of desolation"...

Could Scholar jw be mister...?? (and it even rhymes too)

Narkissos

Hellrider,

For all I know scholar is Australian. You are the closest to Furuli (in geographical terms) I guess.

I had to come to this board to learn about Furuli, but frankly this guy amazes me. A full-fledged JW (an elder, from what I read online) as University professor in the field of religious studies is quite unique I guess. I always wondered how he was dealing with "apostates" on JCs.

Hellrider

Narkissos:

Hellrider,
For all I know scholar is Australian. You are the closest to Furuli (in geographical terms) I guess.

Lol, I know. And it makes me a bit ashamed that a fellow countryman could use his academic position to spew out his religious Watchtower-nonsense. His name, title and position and what really is a very good university (I was there for a year myself), used to back up the intelectual dishonesty of the Watchtower...I really don`t like that.

had to come to this board to learn about Furuli, but frankly this guy amazes me. A full-fledged JW (an elder, from what I read online) as University professor in the field of religious studies is quite unique I guess.

Professor in religious studies? I thought he was a linguist, and that his field was middle-eastern languages (hebrew, aramaic etc). But "religious studies", does that mean that he works with ancient religious texts from that area?

drew sagan

Isn't it a suprise that people like Furuli even exisit at all? The WTS has no interest in keeping such a presence on the 'University' scene. Furuli is toothpick trying to tear down a brick wall. The Watchtowers arguments where never created to hold up in the 'higher learning' arena. It's all just retorich used to stir the emotions of people without such knowledge. When people like retorich go out there on a limb and try to back this stuff up they simply end up being the fools in a game that is much bigger than themselves.

Narkissos

HR,

You're right of course, he's in the Semitic Languages dept. (this time I was mixing him up with scholar ).

drew sagan,

Agreed. This must actually embarrass the WT quite a lot. Not the least quotation of Furuli in the WT literature thus far apparently (when you search for his name, the closest match is "furuncle").

scholar

Augustin

I think you are the amateur not Furuli because you did not give details or paste the article containing Grabbe's biased opinion of Furuli's scholarship. At least Furuli has had his work peer reviewed which the apostate Jonsson with his amateurish hypothesis has not.

Further, Lester Grabbe is a recognized authority in biblical history and promotes 586 BCE for the Fall of Jerusalem wheras the Jonsson nonsense advocates 587 BCE.

scholar JW

Celebrated WT scholars? :)

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