marking
Scholastic Dishonesty - June 2012 Awake - Jewish Exile Timeline
by Ultimate Reality 31 Replies latest watchtower bible
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undercover
marking
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Disillusioned Lost-Lamb
@LostGeneration:
My thoughts exactly, maybe he'll sue for copy write infringement and defamation.
Wouldn't it be grand if his suit demanded a letter of apology and retraction to go out to all who received a copy of this? (Oh how I dare to dream.)
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AnnOMaly
A JW on another forum wheeled out this quote too - no doubt prompted by the Awake! although he didn't disclose this. What passes most JWs by is that the period in question related to Nebuchadnezzar's 1st year (604 BCE) to Cyrus's 1st year (538 BCE), and NOT the period from Jerusalem's destruction to 537 BCE.
And as the source article St. George links to and Leolaia's summary of Prof. Stern's views make very plain, the quote does not corroborate the WTS's position of the land being totally devoid of inhabitants!
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kepler
I encountered this argument last year too. It is one of the things that kicked me into gear in protest.
Someone quoted it to me based on their ministry school:
Question 29:
In correspondence with someone who was close to me, I received the following:
Subject: Prophecy of 70 year desolation
Date: 3/3/2011 9:56:18 AM Central Daylight Time
From:
Reply To:
…I called you after I responded to your email to apologize to you for allowing my emotions to get in the way when we speak on these matters. Believe me I don't act that way in my ministry. I won't let it happen again. This question was on my Theocratic Ministry School Review that will be covered tonight:
How does 2 Chronicles 36:21 underscore the fulfillment of the prophecy recorded at Jeremiah 25: 8-11?
***w0611/15p.32DidJudahRemainDesolate?***
DidJudahRemainDesolate?
THE Bible foretold that the land of the kingdom of Judah would be devastated by the Babylonians and would remain desolate until the return of the Jewish exiles. (Jeremiah 25:8-11) The strongest reason to believe that this prophecy came true is the inspired historical account recorded some 75 years after the first group of exiles returned to their homeland. It states that the king of Babylon “carried off those remaining from the sword captive to Babylon, and they came to be servants to him and his sons until the royalty of Persia began to reign.” And regarding the land, it is reported: “All the days of lying desolated it kept sabbath.” (2 Chronicles 36:20, 21) Is there any archaeological evidence to support this?
In the journal BiblicalArchaeologyReview, Ephraim Stern, professor of Palestinian archaeology at Hebrew University, points out: “The Assyrians and Babylonians both ravaged large parts of ancient Israel, yet the archaeological evidence from the aftermath of their respective conquests tells two very different stories.” He explains: “While the Assyrians left a clear imprint of their presence in Palestine, there is a strange gap after the Babylonian destruction. . . . We find no evidence of occupation until the Persian period . . . There is a complete gap in evidence suggesting occupation. In all that time, not a single town destroyed by the Babylonians was resettled.”
Professor Lawrence E. Stager of Harvard University agrees. “Throughout Philistia, and later throughout Judah,” he says, the Babylonian king’s “scorched-earth policy created a veritable wasteland west of the Jordan River.” Stager adds: “Only with Cyrus the Great, the Persian successor to the Babylonians, does the archaeological record begin again . . . in Jerusalem and in Judah, where many Jewish exiles returned to their homeland.”
Yes, Jehovah’s word concerning Judah’s lying desolate was fulfilled. What Jehovah God foretells always comes true. (Isaiah 55: 10, 11) We can put our complete confidence in Jehovah and in the promises recorded in his Word, the Bible.—2 Timothy 3:16.
88888
Subject: Re: Prophecy of 70 year desolation
Date: 3/6/2011 5:32:55 PM Central Daylight Time
From:
Reply To:
None of this supports a 70 year desolation. The Gap between 586 and 538 is 48 years. Stern also says Edomites moved into most of territories.
You are being deceived.
The Babylonian Gap
The Assyrians impressed their culture on Israel … the Babylonians left no trace
By EphraimStern
The Assyrians and Babylonians both ravaged large parts of ancient Israel, yet the archaeological evidence from the aftermath of their respective conquests tells two very different stories. Why?
In 721 B.C.E., the Assyrians brought an end to the northern kingdom of Israel. A little more than a century later, the Assyrians themselves suffered defeat at the hands of the Babylonians, who became the world’s new superpower. The Babylonians were no less bent on mayhem and destruction than the Assyrians had been: In 586 B.C.E., they burnt Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, bringing an end to the southern kingdom of Judah and 400 years of Davidic rule.
BAR 28:03, May/Jun 2002 <<Previous | Table of Contents | Next>>
The people in the ministry school are instructed to deceive people like me. They become party to the deception.
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breakfast of champions
Anyone ever try to forward the society's breakthrough chronology to the archeology community for peer review? Certainly, historians and archaeologists would love to hear this new and exciting information. . .
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Doug Mason
A search of Stern’s book, “Archaeology of the Land of the Bible: The Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Periods (732-332 B.C.E.), Vol. 2” (which can be done online at Amazon) shows that his position is totally at odds with the position held by “Awake!”.
A comprehensive presentation of current scholarly views is provided in the freely available review of Oded Lipschitts’ book, “Rise and Fall of Jerusalem”. See, for example:
http://www.jwstudies.com/Review_of__The_Fall_and_Rise_of_Jerusalem_.pdf
Doug
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cofty
Marking thank you.
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Flat_Accent
Martha-I mean, Marking!