Book Of Jasher: Nimrod, Terah, Abraham

by *lost* 28 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Satanus

  'Lets not forget, the church burned people if they had a copy of the Bible.'

  Yes, but, that wasn't because it was trying to hide 'truths' in the bible. Rather, the church knew that the bible had problems in the form of conflicting thought streams. By different people glomming on to these different conflicting thoughts, all kinds of conflicting groups would fragment the catholic church. Church authorities were attempting to prevent fragmentation. This is the very thing that happened when luther and others started protestantism. Protestantism brought in the sola scriptura idea, bible only, or bible first. The catholic church had been putting the church first, ahead of the bible for a thousand yrs.

  As for those stories, they are another subject. I can't really add anything on that, except encourage you to look through leolaia's postings. She really has a lot of knowledge on biblical background.

  S
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  Satanus

  Ugarit is the source of a lot that ended up in genesis and some of the other stories and ideas.

  S
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  *lost*

  Satanus - thanks. although I believe the church wasn't really interested in preserving or promoting Biblical truth, as they are steeped in paganism an dnon-boblical teachings, rituals etc. I think you will find it was more about control. If the masses could read the info contained therein about Jesus and God, they would see the Church for what it was. the church was a political business entity.

  Research Arch Bishop McQuaid Ireland, you will understand a modern version of totalitarian rule with and iron fist.

  Paganism, ancient religions, were mostly mystical, conroling peole and using fear. When we obtain the information (education, get the facts ), the mystery dissapears, breaking the grip of control.

  Hence the dark ages.

  regards
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  Cold Steel

  The Book of Jasher has some problems, but it also answers one question I asked my parents as a kid. "How come the people didn't just break into the ark Noah was building when the rain came?" Or, why didn't they break in just to keep Noah from completing work on it?

  The Book of Jasher explains that when the animals began to show up, the excess animals took up stations around the ark and kept Noah's enemies at bay. When the rains came, these animals perished too, but they did the Lord's will to the end. (I believe animals have spirits, just like humans, so they went to their reward.)
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  mP

  @lost

  Considering hte bible was a closed book, how would the layperson even here of these other books. By the time it was printed it was too late to edit these books out. Editing a large book using primitive means is very difficult. Just try and find Jasher without "search", would require months of reading. This is also why matthew makes mistakes when he attempts to quote the OT, he just remembered incorrectly. Perhaps half the problem is our modern ignorant knowledge is also wrong. Maybe the ancients never thought of Joshua having written his own book, but rather simpy thought of it as the adventures of Joshua. They didnt make the mistake, dumb xians today made the assumption and are the ones in error. Lets also remember there were probably very few cpoies of books like the b of Jasher, and they thought it was true , even with its rediculous and other problematic content. If you read the rest of the bible with the same critical eye, you will see many books are downright stupid as well. Many things xians say are simply not in the bible, eg that Jesus was good, read the story truthfully and you will see that he wasnt oustandingly good, but simply a common jewish man with local prejudices, culture and so on, which is quite different from their beleifs that we should all copy him as an example.
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  mP

  @lost

  i have never read the book of jasher so my answer is my own. If we look back at the ancient world about 3000 years ago, Israel was a backwater while Babylon and Assyria were the aspirations and gfreat cuultures. They also put a lot into bloodlines, thus in order to make themselves greater than their local neighbours they made themselves from a far rich culture which was superior to their neighbourhood. The authors simply lied and made up fancy stories to give themselves pedigree.
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  Comatose

  I thought the flood was ridiculous. But animals guarding it is completely wackadoo.
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  Band on the Run

  I read the wikipedia article about these books. Interestingly, I never heard of these books before someone posted the info on this forum. So many ancient items are turning up now with newer technology. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gnostic Gospels shook the Bible scholars world. Perhaps some reference or copies of these books will be found. It might change so much of what we think. The Bible reference assumes people are familiar with these works.

  Lost, I find it very hard to determine what is credible and not in these situations. The Internet makes it easy for almost anyone to post crap and make it look authentic. When I studied religious history, the prof. gave the students a bibliography for research topics. She said it was hard to discern what is noteworthy or distinguish scholarship from bunk. Most of these fields require advance knowledge to figure it out.

  I admire how you search.
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  ShirleyW

  We need Snowbird back to discuss the book of Jasher, she used to quote from it all the time !
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  Band on the Run

  If I recall correctly, scholars do not believe the so-called copies of these books exist. If they do, almost all newspapers would carry large headlines. College courses would abound. Anyone can write these books. People want to know what the actual books said. Heck, I know enough to fake a copy. Creativity is all that is needed.

  People are too gullible. When it comes to ancient times, and especially anything Biblical, know your sources extremely well. If one hundred international scholars in the specialty agree that these are actual copies, one can begin to believe they may contain some truthful element.

  The Middle Ages were chock full of relics and extra writings from the apostles. One, such items brought income to the monk or monastery. Second, such items brought trade and improved the locale. Third, the Roman Catholic Church has abundant legends or traditions that were utter bunk. We laugh today but people believed it. We are not more sophisticated. Our technology has changed not our brains.

  Of course, perhaps Russell was correct. Perhaps Joseph Smith actually met an angel who gave him golden plates of the Book of Mormon in upstate New York. The upstate NY part makes me laugh. It is far from the Holy Land. Smith may have been delusional and sincerely believed it. People followed him at great peril.