WT Study Article Nov. 23, 2014--Adam understood "day" to be 24 hours

by Cadellin 43 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • Cadellin
    Cadellin

    Interesting admission in today's WT: Adam may have understood "day" (as in "in the day you eat from it, you will positively die") to be a literal 24-hour period. I don't think the WT has ever said this before; the usual emphasis is that Jah meant it as a figurative day, a day from his standpoint which is 1,000 years (and the article does state that, later).

    However, if Adam understood God's warning to be carried out in a 24 hour period, and God did nothing to alleviate that, then who did the lying? Actually, regardless of Adam's understanding, the question still stands but moving toward an admission of the use of day in that context to be 24-hours only makes the question even more valid. The article tries to explain things by saying that God mercifully allowed Adam to Eve to live longer in order to have children, but that doesn't change the plain fact that it was God lying, not Satan.

    Satan said three things would happen if they ate: (1) Eyes opened; (2) Be like God; (3) You will not die. He didn't add any kind of temporal aspect to the last, but it would be understood in the same way that God's threat would be understood. According to the WT, in this article, it would be understood as a 24-hour day. And what happened? Each of the three things took place, exactly as Satan said they would. Moreover, God's words later in Ch. 3 of Genesis imply that Adam and Even wouldn't die AT ALL if God didn't take action to prevent them from eating of the Tree of Life.

    No, I don't believe that Genesis is a literal history. My point here is that the WT's interpretation just doesn't fit the account as it is written, and is another example of eisegesis at its finest.

  • Apognophos
    Apognophos

    Yes, it's stunning to realize that "the father of the lie" didn't actually lie here at all.

    Reading it as the folk tale it originally was, it seems that Yahweh threatened to kill Adam as a bluff in order to keep him away from the tree, and the serpent merely told Adam and Eve the truth about the tree and encouraged them to call his bluff.

  • designs
    designs

    Well there is that cave drawing by Adam for Day

  • AndDontCallMeShirley
    AndDontCallMeShirley

    It always give me a good LMAO moment when WT speculates/wishes for/hopes/fantasizes about what they think some Bible character must have been thinking. Pure nonsense.

    I don't believe the Genesis account either (actually, none of the Bible), but taken as-is, you are right: Satan was the only one who told the truth.

    God mercifully allowed Adam to Eve to live longer in order to have children

    More like, god allowed A&E to have children for no other purpose than prolonging the suffering of humanity. God would be so bored not having anyone to persecute.

  • AndDontCallMeShirley
    AndDontCallMeShirley

    designs: Well there is that cave drawing by Adam for Day

    Adam, being perfect, already had an iPad. Obviously.

  • justme67
    justme67

    This just shows that , as we all know, watchtowers interpretation of the bible is off base again.

  • Terry
    Terry

    Bible redactors insert little mind-reading clues to "clarify" passages as well.

    In John 6, the writer becomes a mind-reader of Jesus himself!

    61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?

    62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?

    63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

    64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

    _______________

    This is referred to as "pious fraud" when well-intentioned people corrupt through personal interpretation.

  • Island Man
    Island Man

    The admission that Adam believed he would die in that literal day has strong implications for Adam's culpability for the suffering of all mankind. If Adam believed that he would die that day, then being childless at the time, he would have also believed that only he - not countless future generations - would die for eating the fruit. It is therefore unfair to hold Adam guilty for all the death and suffereing that has happened throughout the centuries, because he did not knowingly do this. So when JWs blame Adam for bringing suffering on mankind, it would be good to remind them that Adam did not deliberately and knowingly bring suffering on all mankind as he believed he was only killing himself.

    Another interesting point is how they stated that Satan accused God of lying. Actually, Satan never told Eve that God had lied - Just as Watchtower literature never said the end was coming in 1975. (Get my drift?) Yet the JWs are quick to say that Satan accused God of lying, but quick to deny that Watchtower said the end would come in 1975. Do you see the hypocrisy of Watchtower?

  • Apognophos
    Apognophos

    Another interesting point is how they stated that Satan accused God of lying. Actually, Satan never told Eve that God had lied

    Actually, I would differ with you on that one point, Island Man. Eve says to the serpent, "God says we will die in the day of our eating it." The serpent says, "You positively will not die." The only way this would not be saying that God was lying is if the serpent knew that God had misspoken earlier. God: "Oh, did I say you would die? My bad, I meant to say you would cry."

    But I like your point about Adam not realizing what was going to happen. He definitely was not warned in any way that he would be having children who inherited his curse.

  • konceptual99
    konceptual99

    I wonder why, when commanded to be fruitful, Adam and Eve were not at it like bunnies.? I am amazed that Eve did not have a bun in the oven straight away.

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