Bible Students wierd interpretation of Matthew 24:28

by lovelylil 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  lovelylil

  All you real Bible Students out there, lets discuss:

  Found this gem on a bible students forum. Thought we could discuss it here. Notice all the (additions) reminiscent of the JW's? This interpretation is wrong on so many levels. Apparently they also have the only truth. I'll give some of my opinions at the end. I copied this over exactly as it is written on a BS forum.

  Where shall we find these true sources of understanding? You have already come to the right place!
  
  “For wheresoever the carcass (the truth, the food) is found, there the eagles (those keen of vision and appetite) will be gathered together (brought together by the mutual apprehension of the truth, as eagles drawn to their food)” Matt 24:28
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  Terry

  What the scripture is erroneously telling us is that the eagle is a buzzard!

  This can join the Old Testament multiple mention of Unicorns and the description of locusts as going on four legs when insects have 6 legs!

  Human error is human error. The fact that other humans makes doctrines out of them and give "insightful" analysis out of them only adds to the sadness.
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  RAF

  Ok …

  You can take the bible biblically (word for word - religiously) or conceptually (main purpose / how things works). What I’m talking about is only my understanding (each one can have it’s own interpretation but the concept remains with the same meaning) that is why it is way more easy to look at it conceptually (believing in God do not have to be religiously understood it can be spiritually it's even more understandable this way at our stage 21th century).

  This is how I see conceptually the verse 28 which is actually related to verses 23 to 25 ( = being fooled).

  If you are fooled spiritually you are dead (you ain’t going anywhere) …. The eagle is a vulture it eats the dead once (spiritually talking) it is what is feeding them.
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  Narkissos

  This is a good example of how BSs, JWs (and many other believers, to be fair) don't read the Bible texts, but a mental "paratext" full of "explanatory" parentheses.

  The point of the aphorism in the context of Matthew 24 may be simply how the hardly visible (a corpse in the desert, cf. v. 26) is made visible (by buzzards flying over it) -- just as a distant storm is visible from afar through the lightnings, v. 27. We can't make it an allegory (with a term-to-term correspondance, e.g. the corpse means this, the buzzards mean that) without falling into arbitrary interpretation.

  Terry,

  The problem with "eagles" and "unicorns" is that they rest on questionable (especially Latin) translations, reflecting the imaginary world of the translators rather than the authors. By such standards you may also assume that the Bible counts spiders or mice among "reptiles," bats among "birds" or whales among "fish"... But actually the zoological taxonomy changed over time; it is conventional now as it has always been, only the conventions and criteria changed; this of course causes many problems to translators. In Matthew 24:28, many modern translations (NRSV, Jerusalem Bible) use "vultures".
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  RAF

  If you are fooled spiritually you are dead (you ain’t going anywhere) …. The eagle is a vulture it eats the dead once (spiritually talking) it is what is feeding them.

  to be more specific : if you let yourself being fooled spiritually you are vultures food.
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  lovelylil

  Thank you guys so far for your thoughts.

  Narkissos,

  My understanding of this verse, while not trying to be dogmatic is that since we are warned in the verse prior not to believe it when some say the Lord came in a secret manner, it is telling us we will see obvious signs of his coming. Therefore the comparison is made to "like lightening", it is visible in all parts of the sky (hence from east to west), or if we see vultures we know there is carrion present.

  None of this though seems to support that the Lord already arrived and revealed himself to a small few like the JW's and BS teach. Verse 33, says the signs given are to know the Lord is "near" nor that he arrived yet. A parallel account is Luke 17:24 which says the son of man in his day will "be like the lightening", this could mean he comes quickly, unexpected and visible to all. (just my thoughts)

  I believe the BS believe in the invisible arrival of Christ in 1874? I am fascinated by the addions made in quotes which is obviously Russell's thoughts. Adding to the scriptures seems to be one of Russell's legacies that lives on with the members of groups he "fathered", Any other thoughts on this? Lilly
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  lovelylil

  RAF and Terry,

  Thank you for your thoughts. Peace, Lilly
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  Terry

  The problem with "eagles" and "unicorns" is that they rest on questionable (especially Latin) translations, reflecting the imaginary world of the translatorsrather than the authors. By such standards you may also assume that the Bible counts spiders or mice among "reptiles," bats among "birds" or whales among "fish"... But actually the zoological taxonomy changed over time; it is conventional now as it has always been, only the conventions and criteria changed; this of course causes many problems to translators. In Matthew 24:28, many modern translations (NRSV, Jerusalem Bible) use "vultures".

  A most acute point!

  It is the TRANSLATOR who does the trick of making the erroneous assumptions/beliefs/superstitions more palatable to the present day by CHANGING the offending term into an acceptable one through the language transformation itself. In this way the translator actually HIDES the mindset of the previous person's world view and belief system from the contemporary reader.

  In reading a rather hefty tome about the history of the Mormon church by Richard Abanes I discovered this particularity. The ACTUAL grammer, spelling and syntax of Joseph Smith has been smoothed, polished, corrected and presented as beautifully "divine" and sentient by those who came after Smith with the agenda of presenting his mindset, education and "inspiration" in the best possible light. Shall we say they performed a "service"?

  (Why not, then, the words in the Koran too? Or, the Bible?)

  This is a magic trick of transformation which changes one thing into another and hides that any change (worth fretting over) has happened at all.

  That is the point I wish to make.

  Most bible readers just shrug off the fact that thousands of hands/minds have had a go at the particular wording of their beloved translations and completely ignore (on purpose) the politicking and ideology that went with it. Consequently, an evangelist can argue the fine points of his theology by focusing laser-like on the "actual" (sic) word choice of the writer in proving his point!! What ridiculous hubris!!

  Theology stands (and falls) by word choices. Hence, the word choice of a translator is the be-all/end-all of Theology itself!

  I can't emphasize this enough.

  How can anybody ever be confident of an interpretation when the words they are weighing and sifting are but the debris of a thousand minds???
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  RAF

  the arrival is also related to that 1thessalonians 4 :

  15. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.16. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.17. Then we who are alive and remain will becaught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

  the arrival is prepared in many ways ... but for those alive at this point it should be something happening very quick.
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  Terry

  to be more specific : if you let yourself being fooled spiritually you are vultures food.

  This, then, is the sort of "wisdom" we have to sort through to discover the mind of God? Hardly worth the effort if you ask me.

  Excuse my rude manners, but; why can't the most superlative superbeing in all the universe JUST COME RIGHT OUT AND SAY WHAT HE MEANS!!??

  A lot of so-called "wisdom" in scripture is like the noodling obfuscations of Nostradamus who can be interpreted after any event as having a prescient vision of reality before it occured.