Where did they come up with COLPORTEUR and why don’t they call themselves that today?

by LUKEWARM 10 Replies latest jw friends

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  LUKEWARM

  ***

  w07 8/1 pp. 12-13 Serving Jehovah—An Honor and a Privilege Beyond Compare***
  Eventually, on July 22, 1924, I was baptized in symbol of my dedication to Jehovah. Soon thereafter, Mother arranged her affairs to become a colporteur, as full-time ministers of Jehovah’s Witnesses were then called. Her fine example and that of other colporteurs instilled in me a desire to enter that work.

  Where did this term come from - I think they should scrap the term pioneer and go back to calling themselves colporteurs...
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  designs

  From an early French Bible Student named Col Porteur
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  wobble

  Didn't he write some good music ?
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  designs

  Begin the Beguine
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  teel

  From the Meriam-Webster dictionary:

  Main Entry: col·por·teur Pronunciation: \ ' käl- ? p o? r-t?r, ? käl-p o? r- ' t?r\ Function: noun Etymology: French, alteration of Middle French comporteur, from comporter to bear, peddle Date: 1796

  : a peddler of religious books

  I think this answers both questions. They dropped it because of the negative connotation one may think of who knows the etymology of the word. It's a pretty accurate description though.
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  blondie

  *** yb79 p. 128 Canada ***

  COLPORTEURS PRESS ON WITH THE WORKColporteurs were well organized by the early 1930’s. Besides those who worked by themselves, there were about seven "camps" or groups. These colporteur "camps" were in British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta-Saskatchewan, Quebec, eastern Ontario, southwestern Ontario and the Maritimes. Such groups ground their own wheat, cooked their own meals and traded literature for fresh food. They witnessed in rural areas using house-cars in camping caravans during months when the weather permitted this. In the wintertime, these colporteurs moved into a large house in a city where they could assist a local congregation in covering its territory. At times these groups moved to several cities in one winter.

  About that time, colporteurs began to be called pioneers.

  By searching this website, you can find comments about colporteurs in WTS literature (from 1885 on)

  http://www.ctrussell.us/

  http://www.exjws.net/museum/colporteur.htm
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  LUKEWARM

  So Colporteurs = "Religious book Peddlers"

  Who says the religion got nothing right?
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  lepermessiah

  Colporteur = Latin for "SLAVE"
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  blondie

  It might be interesting to see what the meaning was in 1885 to the general public.
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  Never_Enough

  I suppose New Light™ revealed the term to be incompatible with 2Cor 2:17?

  "...we are not peddlers of the word of God as many men are..."