The Watchtower's Bible Language Fallacy

by metatron 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • metatron
    metatron

    When I was an elder, it bothered me that many Watchtower teachings seemed to depend upon exact and precise technical meanings

    of various words in the Bible. The problem with this was, as I realized from a brief look at Hebrew in particular, that it is a fallacy to think

    that ancient people used languages in the precisely technical and legalistic way we do today. We live in an advanced scientific and

    technical ( and legalistic) culture - not a primitive agricultural setting. Treating Koine Greek or Biblical Hebrew as if it was an exact 21st

    century language is absurd- and so is the notion that the Bible is some sort of precisely drafted legal document that allows for heaps of

    meaning to be piled upon every verse.

    So, the Society's comments about "parousia" and "telos" and so on are just speculative silliness. They are translating the words used

    by primitive , ancient people - not 21st century scientists or lawyers. Even if some Bible writers were well educated, they were still bound

    by the common languages of the day - and their inherent imprecision. That's just the way it is.

    metatron

  • proplog2
    proplog2

    This is a good topic.

    For instance the "everlasting life" / "time indefinite" problem.

    I still can't see "everlasting life" as a deliverable promise nor a necessary one.

    I can understand the idea of living a long healthy life in a world without war.

    But zillions of years?

    A friend of mine is a hebrew scholar (no longer a witness) and he told me that the New World Translation always makes it seem that the faithful did "just so". For example - And Noah did "just so". Suggesting a pharisaic attention to detail. In actuality the Hebrew merely says "he did it."

    The peek-a-boo "parousia" is especially irksome.

  • sir82
    sir82

    Isn't the whole "in the Lord's Day" expression a good example of this?

    Their entire interpretation of Revelation, literally every single thing that they teach on it, revolves around that phrase in Revelation chapter 1, verse [don't recall] where the New World Translation translates it as "by inspiration I came to be in the Lord's day..."

    The WTS interpretation is, the "Lord's day" began at Jesus' "invisible presence" in 1914, so all the stuff in Revelation must have fulfillment since that date.

    But I remember reading that the real idea conveyed by that verse is more along the lines of "This one Sunday I happened to have this vision..."

    "The Lord's day" means "Sunday", the day set aside to worship the Lord!

  • metatron
    metatron

    In regard to "time indefinite", I have often felt that there is no scripture ( NWT) that actually says the earth will exist forever. They all say

    to "time indefinite".

    In science classes, they warn you not to assert accuracy where none exists. Like saying " 25.0002 " , when you can only speak

    confidently about the 25.

    metatron

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    I have written about this in the past. The Society frequently makes what I have called an etymological fallacy, i.e. favoring the etymological or most basic sense of the word instead of the usage of the word in similar contexts. For instance, the Society wants to deprive the word stauros of its signification "cross", saying that only "later" did the word mean "cross" and that originally it referred to a simple stake. Of course, it does not explain when the word began to refer to crosses (although it hints that it had some to do with Constantine centuries later), and it ignores the literary evidence that in fact both crux and stauros referred to crosses in the first and second centuries AD. See my discussion here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/92381/1.ashx

    Another example is their instance that parousia means "presence" in the NT, even an invisible presence (whereas invisibility is not ever attested as part of the meaning of the word), denying that it should mean "coming" on no other basis than the fact that "presence" is the etymological sense of the word (i.e. a "being alongside"). It is however indisputable that "coming" was a common, even most typical, sense of the word in the Greek of the time, and that the NT eschatological context of the word demonstrates that "coming" is the appropriate meaning. See my discussion here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/98235/1.ashx

    My favorite example is the special pleading involved in their denial of the sense of "punishment" to kolasin in Matthew 25:46, preferring the awkward etymological meaning "cutting off". This ignores how the word (and the related verb) was used in the Greek of the time, even in the same eschatological context:

    "Flee from sexual promiscuity, and order your wives and your daughters not to adorn their heads and their appearances so as to deceive men's sound minds. For every woman who schemes in these ways is destined for eternal punishment (eis aióna tén kolasin). For it was thus that they charmed the Watchers, who were before the Flood" (Testament of Gad 5:5-6; written in the first century BC).
    "They [the Essenes] believe that every soul is immortal (psukhén pasan men aphtharton), but that only the souls of the righteous receive other bodies ... while those of the wicked are punished with an everlasting punishment (aidiói timória kolazesthai)....[The Sadducees] do not believe in an immortal soul and the punishments (timórias) and rewards in Hades" (Josephus, Bellum Judaicum, 163, 165; written in the laste first century AD).
    "He shall raise all men from the dead, and appoint some to be incorruptible, immortal, and free from sorrow in the everlasting and imperishable kingdom; but shall send others away to the everlasting punishment of fire (eis kolasin aiónion puros)" (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 117.3; written in c. AD 155).
    "This, then, to speak shortly, is what we expect and have learned from Christ, and teach. And Plato, in like manner, used to say that Rhadamanthus and Minos would punish the wicked (kolasein tous adikous) who came before them, and we say that the same thing will be done, but at the hand of Christ, and upon the wicked in the same bodies united again to their souls (tois autois sómasi meta tón psukhón ginomenón) which are now to undergo everlasting punishment (aiónian kolasin kolasthésomenón); and not only ... for a period of a thousand years" (Justin Martyr, 1 Apology 8.3-5; written in c. AD 156).
    "Even when the martyrs were so torn by whips that the internal structure of their flesh was visible as far as the inner veins and arteries, they endured so patiently that even the bystanders had pity and wept. But they themselves reached such a level of bravery that not one of them uttered a cry or a groan, thus showing to us all that at the very hour when they were being tortured (basanizomenoi) the martyrs of Christ were absent from the flesh, or that the Lord was conversing with them. And turning their thoughts to the grace of Christ they despised the tortures (basanón) of this world, purchasing at the cost of one hour an exemption from eternal punishment (tén aiónion kolasin)....But Polycarp said: 'You threaten with a fire that burns only briefly and after just a little while is extinguished, for you are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment (to tés mellouses kriseós kai aióniou kolaseós pur), which is reserved for the ungodly' " (Martyrdom of Polycarp 2:2-3, 11:2; written c. AD 155-160).
    "Then you will see that though your lot of on earth, God lives in heaven, then you will begin to declare the mysteries of God ... and condemn the deceit and error of the world, when you realize what the true life in heaven is, when you despise the apparent death here on earth, when you fear the real death, which is reserved for those who will be condemned to the eternal fire (katakrithésomenois eis to pur to aiónion) which will punish (kolasei) to the very end those delivered to it" (Epistle to Diognetus 10:7; written in the middle of the second century AD).
    "Among those who had denied [Christ] was a woman of the name of Biblias. The devil, thinking that he had already swallowed her, and wishing to damn her still more by making her accuse falsely, brought her forth to punishment (kolasin), and employed force to constrain her, already feeble and spiritless, to utter accusations of atheism against us. But she, in the midst of the tortures, came again to a sound state of mind, and awoke as it were out of a deep sleep; for the temporary suffering (tés proskairou timorias) reminded her of the eternal punishment in Gehenna (tén aiónion en Geennéi kolasin), and she contradicted the accusers of Christians, saying, 'How can children be eaten by those who do not think it lawful to partake of the blood of even brute beasts?' And after this she confessed herself a Christian" (Epistle From the Church of Lyons and Vienna, 1.25; written in c. AD 177-178).
    "I am obedient to God to whom you should also submit and believe. If you remain unbelieving for the time being, you will be convinced hereafter, when you are tormented with eternal punishments (aióniois timóriais)....But do you also, if you please, give reverential attention to the prophetic Scriptures, and they will make your way plainer for escaping the eternal punishments (tas aionious kolaseis), and obtaining the eternal prizes of God....But to the unbelieving and despisers, who obey not the truth, but are obedient to unrighteousness, when they shall have been filled with adulteries and fornications, and filthiness, and covetousness, and unlawful idolatries, there shall be anger and wrath, tribulation and anguish, and at the last everlasting fire (pur aiónion) shall possess such men" (Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolycum, 1.14; written in the late second century AD).

    Note especially the passages that contrast temporary suffering or the "fire that burns only a little while" with eternal punishment, the same phrase that occurs in Matthew 25:46.

    I'm sure there are many other examples of the preference of the etymological sense for its own sake.

  • JosephMalik
    JosephMalik

    I realized from a brief look at Hebrew in particular, that it is a fallacy to think that ancient people used languages in the precisely technical and legalistic way we do today.

    Metatron,

    I agree with both your posts above and the observations you made in them. Technical and legalistic precision is not what inspiration means. The way "angels" is used for human beings in texts but applied to non-human beings by the WTS is another example very visible in Hebrews as well as Jude. The Egyptians that left Egypt with the Jews were called angels and yet few notice. We have to think the way they thought and applied words. We have to grasp what context really is and how it changes definitions. Can we imagine how life was back then? They had their own spiritually based language not recognized today. We can see it being used to target the elite ones in the faith if we take the time. But it does take time and a lot of thought, not popular in today's busy world.

    Joseph

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