Why was Jesus begging in Gethsemane? Who was he begging? Why was he sweating blood?
Jesus was pleading. He was importuning...even groveling.
Does the greater beg the lesser?
No, we all know the story.
Jesus is very weak and human in Gethsemane. He was terrified in his prayer to his father.
If he ever needed comfort and assurance he needed it right then and there.
All of his disciples were sound asleep. They had been told to keep on the watch. But, they fell asleep anyway.
Who is the reporter on the scene in this incident?
Who was there watching?
Who was listening to each and every word copying it down or memorizing it?
Why was not one word of comfort or assurance spoken by Jesus' Father at that critical moment? An angel is inserted into the story at one point to comfort him, but, his Father does not speak.
Is this incident in Gethsemane an eyewitness account or a fictional reconstruction after the fact?
Why do I insert these questions at this juncture in the discussion?
Simply to bring everybody's focus back to a salient point which cannot be ignored.
You cannot FIGURE OUT the early church or what they did or said without reliable records with a solid provenance.
We just don't have that with our Jesus stories.
These were told word-of-mouth. Some of them might contain excellent details and some are probably entirely fictional.
We don't know and can't know.
We have to grit our teeth and pretend really hard we have anything at all that passes the sniff test.
If you simply WILL yourself to accept and believe--that's okay. But, why also pretend you can PROVE any of it?
Jehovah's Witnesses have an agenda they push and a BRAND NAME to promote.
Take note! In the very SAME WAY JW's insert "Jehovah" into the mouths of these Jesus' story characters forcing them to sound like JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, early redactors and copyists were JUST AS FREE to do the same with their OWN agendas!
A hundred years from now the NWT might survive some natural catastrophe of history. What forced conlusions will future historians argue over?
What conclusions will they form holding their green bible?