burdens

by A Paduan 1 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  A Paduan

  I've been leaning toward starting a series on biblical words - so here goes.

  Is anyone familiar with the distinctiveness of the term "burden" ?

  If you see the ass of one who hates you, lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it, you shall help him to lift it up.

  `the burden of the LORD' you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man's own word

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  it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things

  What was the reason for the burden - abstain from blood - why were the gentiles subjected to that - because a burden was the law??

  Or because the law required something else be considered - understanding and stumbling - as when Paul had Timothy circumcised. (" real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal")

  But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ.

  So should the whole world refuse blood for the sake of jws? Or is it time the wt grew up.

  paduan

  Edited by - a paduan on 6 February 2003 21:50:51
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  peacefulpete

  The Christians in Jerusalem under James leadership continued the law observance as Jesus was said to, whereas the christians dispersed into other gentile areas like Tarsus saw the Law as an obsticle to growth and true piety. The latter ones eventually won out. This was made easier after 70 C.E. when the Jerusalem group was dismantled. The writings of the Gnostic influenced Saul of Tarsus were then recompiled and fragments were sewn together to make a new version of Christianity. The book of Acts has taken the historical division within the Christian cult and rewritten it to make it appear that these deep theological differences were worked out during the life of Paul and James. It must strike us as quite implausible that Jesus would have left such fundemental teachings to be discerned on their own and a rogue "Apostle" working independantly from the main group in Jersalem would have been the one to discern it. This is called history revisionism.

  Edited by - peacefulpete on 8 February 2003 15:29:29

  Edited by - peacefulpete on 8 February 2003 15:32:49