Help with Family Study: God's Name. Ideas?

by Open mind 16 Replies latest members private

• 

  OnTheWayOut

  You can cover how the Divine name was definitely NOT in the Greek scriptures.
  You could evern use WTS stuff to show why they thought it should be there, then
  discuss whether it should be there or not. Regardless of their reasons, it is easy to
  show how they wanted the scriptures to retain their original intent, and putting the
  name in where the writer probably did not (you could say definitely did not) is
  changing the intent of the original writing.

  You could discuss how it wouldn't be so wrong to properly address God by his
  title. We show respect to titled people by addressing them by their title-
  Mister President, Your Majesty, Senator Smith, Doctor Jones. We would not
  call our earthly father Bill or Ted, so what's wrong with other religions saying
  Our Heavenly Father or God instead of Jehovah?
• 

  AK - Jeff

  I agree with OTWO. I don't know the nature of your family, as to how they would accept certain things, or their ages either.

  But a suggestion; Why not turn to the Index and show all the references that were made by the NWT committee to 'validate' the use of that name. Then assign the family to look up these references online or at the library and report what they are. They will come back with info that shows that most of the so called support documents are Jewish translations made 1500 years after Jesus. This could lead to some interesting discussions, and could lead them to conclude independently that Jehovah, as inserted in the NWT, has no real place there. You never have to say it - they can conclude it privately. There are quotes in the KIT forward that basically admit that no early manuscripts contained the name. These could be looked at carefully.

  Having used only the Society's own publications and Bible, your kids may begin to see just how clever the WTS has been in insertion of it.

  Just a chip here and a chip there. Proud of your work there man. Your kids will thank you for it later in life, when they realize just how hard you had to work to get them thinking without getting yourself hung.

  Jeff
• 

  AK - Jeff

  Oops - Lady Lee already said it - sorry LL.

  Jeff
• 

  sspo

  I would not worry about the pronunciation of god's name.

  I would ask why is it that Jesus never used it, the son of god never used it.

  You look at all the books that the apostles wrote and once again you never see them using it as the JW do in every sentence.

  When Jesus was dying on the cross or stake he used the term Abba or papa.

  If the name was important as the JW claim as one of the identifying mark of true christians.......... early christians would have used it.
• 

  Open mind

  Excellent points made by all. Thank you. This is going to be interesting.

  Open Mind
• 

  eclipse

  Let us know how your family study was.
• 

  M.J.

  Another line of thought, with a JW point of view in mind: In ancient Israel, "the God of the Bible" would hold no meaning to an Ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, etc. Not to mention there was no "Bible" at the time. At the time, every people had a special god or gods with a particular name, so having a distinct name for God was helpful for the comprehension of such people. All of God's actions, his reputation, could be associated with a pronounceable word.
  
  But, as you point out, the pronounceable word was not preserved for us...but his reputation was. When God wiped out the Egyptian army in the Red Sea the Knowledge book says that "Jehovah thus made a great name for himself" on that day [p26 paragraph 11]. What "name" did he make for himself? It wasn't a pronounceable name, it was the establishment of a reputation. The pronounceable name was simply a point of reference for God's TRUE name, his reputation...
  
  I'll work on refining this...