Going Door to Door with Scrolls

by VM44 61 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  PublishingCult

  Flip through the pages of WT mags and other WT publications and you will find quite a few illustrations falsely depicting 1st Century Christians carrying and distributing WT publication-like scrolls, bound books, and tracts on papyrus.

  In those days, there were no printing presses. Scriptures were copied by hand, AND were very expensive. Few could afford hand-copied copies! Nevertheless, the GB commissions illustrations of 1st Century Christian meetings and field service activity in which literature is depicted prominently as being used by those ancient people. We're talking about absurdly inaccurate illustrations depicting ancient family Bible studies with scads of scrolls and bound books are laying all over the table, Daddy and Sonny Boy out preaching to Roman Soldiers reading to them from bound books, and lovely princess-like sisters placing papyrus tracts with a local pagan woman. Again,

  A Blatant attempt to brainwash JW's into accepting literature peddling for the WTBTS and into believing they are imitating Jesus and 1st Century Christians.

  I am sorry, but, if JW's want to imitate 1st Century Christians, they should go feed themselves (excluding their children) the fucking lions
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  Aussie Oz

  I made some adjustments to that picture... t'was not hard, the basics were already laid out by the art department!

  

  oz
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  dozy

  Why does this remind me of the Morecambe & Wise sketch:

  Ernie: "Do you have the scrolls?"

  Eric: "No - I always walk like this."

  In all seriousness , the writing committee & Governing Body have meticulously researched the pattern of the 1st century Christians and have confirmed that they went door to door distributing scrolls as they went. They also have confirmed that a 13 year old Ethiopian girl turned down a job offer of 3000 euros a month to pioneer (May 15th 2011 wt). We should accept what they say without question & with a humble and meek attitude.

  w873/1p.15par.18‘Upon the Watchtower I Am Standing’

  Each article in both TheWatchtower and Awake! and every page, including the artwork, is scrutinized by selected members of the Governing Body before it is printed. Furthermore, those who assist in writing articles for TheWatchtower are Christian elders who appreciate the seriousness of their assignment. (Compare 2 Chronicles 19:7.) They spend many hours in researching the Bible and other reference material to make sure that what is written is the truth and that it faithfully follows the Scriptures. (Ecclesiastes 12:9, 10; 2 Timothy 1:13) It is not unusual for one magazine article—that you may read in 15 minutes—to take from two weeks to over a month to prepare.
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  teel

  The average JW will buy this without questioning. Their general knowledge comes from the magazines, so even the smarter ones are mostly dumb as a rock when it comes to stuff not written in WT or Awake. I remember in a bookstudy I had to argue once that the majority of the 1st century folks could not read - and they looked at me like I'm the one confabulating. Add to that, that I was conducting that BS group at that time They must have had that mental image of similar congregations in the 1st century of everyone sudying his own scroll in groups.
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  ambersun

  In those days, there were no printing presses. Scriptures were copied by hand, AND were very expensive. Few could afford hand-copied copies!

  Exactly right, PublishingCult.

  Who had the job of copying these scrolls? After all, someone had to do it as they wouldn't write themselves. Are we to believe these men spend their entire nights sitting up at their dining tables by candle light writing out dozens of copies neatly by hand in order to devote the daylight hours to going from door to door giving them out to householders who were most probably illiterate anyway?

  How would these men afford all the papyrus and ink? It is hightly unlikely they would be able to charge enough money to cover these costs. Also, the writers' cramp they would experience would be excruciating to say nothing of sleep depravation in order to get all the scrolls ready for an early start out in field service next morning. Really silly.

  Mind you, even when I was a JW I always tended to be very sceptical about things like this that other JWs just accepted as wonderful upbuilding 'facts'. Sometimes I felt like pulling my hair out in frustration at some of the highly improbable examples they gave us in the WT, but thanks to JWN I realise I was not on my own
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  Heaven

  LOL @ Aussie Oz! I like it.
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  Leolaia

  This is wrong on so many counts.

  1) As everyone else mentioned, most people were illiterate. It just wouldn't have been done this way. The depictions of preaching in Acts are all oral, whether preaching in public spaces or in synagogues.

  2) The picture evidences a misunderstanding of Acts 20:20. There Paul was talking about his teaching to fellow Christians at the church at Ephesus (see also v. 27-31), and this teaching was privately in the homes that hosted the church, for the reference to Paul's teaching in homes is the counterpart to his teaching of Christians "publically".

  3) Ephemeral documents tended to be on sheets of papyri (see the docs in the Oxyrhyncus trash heap), unless they were particularly long. Which brings up the next point....

  4) These are substantial documents. Definitely not the equivalent of a tract. More like the length of an epistle like 1 Peter, maybe. Paul wrote to churches and privately to individuals. Are these supposed to be the first-century precursor of the Watchtower magazine that people are distributing? Who was doing the copying by hand? Did each church have a dozen scribes working feverishly to keep up with the demands of the scroll-placement work in the field? ;) Love those book bags too.

  It's just a really funny comical picture. :P
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  GOrwell

  I'm no artist, but that is such an amateurish drawing, it looks it was drawn by someone of about 12 years old. Seriously, can you imagine having that painting/drawing mounted against some of the genuinely good paintings they have in Brooklyn? All the pilgrims would laugh their asses off!
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  freddo

  Do you notice that in WT illustrations Jesus always seems to be no further than 100 paces from a hairdresser or washing machine! Perfect hair, not covering the ears, white garments. Hahaha!
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  VampireDCLXV

  You could swear that someone at headquarters was asleep at the switch. They shouldn't have let that train through...

  V665