Loyalty? Today's WT The RC. It's a fix!

by Slidin Fast 38 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Slidin Fast

  Broke my heart to read that paragraph where the mother called the daughter because she was lonely and wanted to visit, then the daughter turned her down and asked her to return to the Org.

  It’s the word “kindly” that that disgusts, sinister and repulsive.

  “Anne wrote and kindly reminded her mother that she had cut herself off from the family by her wrongdoing”

  people pick up a spoonful that says one word and sometimes it's another, none is worth hanging your life on.

  Absolutely right. The problem is though they are using this word to demand reverence like the leader of a totalitarian government. You obey or you are “disappeared”. I believe if they could do it literally, they would.
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  Half banana

  Remember NWT = Not Well Translated.

  This is appalling. Where there might be an ambiguity in a text, a translator will attempt to give the most likely meaning intended by the original writer.

  Not so with JW org, given half a chance they will bend any scripture round to the idea of demanding slavish obedience to its cult leadership. It thinks God is guiding them, it has become so brazen in its efforts to push its non existent authority that it feels perfectly entitled to alter the Bible text. They are delusional.

  I agree with you SF,  they really do want those who leave to disappear and have no influence.
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  careful

  Slidin Fast, thanks for the post. It is good to get input on changes in the rev. NWT. Some have been good, some, bad.

  It is also good to have an informed background on the matter. As jwfacts brings out, it is not as simple as just bashing the WT again. Why would those translators he mentions also have the rendering "loyalty" (ERV, MSG) and "faithfulness" (HCSB,NET) if this were some WT oddity? He could have added the reading I find in my NASB: while they render the Heb. word as "kindness" in the main text, they offer "loyalty" in the margin.

  Thus it looks, Slidin Fast, like your check of 37 translations was incomplete. Obviously something bigger than the WTS is going on here. For a informed background on the matter, one needs to read the entry on the Heb. word involved, hesed, in vol. 1 of the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (or TWOT, 1980), written by one of its main editors, R. Laird Harris. He explains that the famous Heb. scholar Nelson Glueck (pronounced as "glick") wrote his dissertation (1927), later turned into an English book (1967), on this word. Harris describes Glueck's work as "a watershed in the discussion." Glueck argued for a "loyalty" meaning based on covenant obligations. Some scholars have later accepted or rejected his argumentation. Even one of his detractors, Kathryn Sakenfeld, believes that "prophetic usage includes faithfulness" (p. 305). This then explains why some would include this translation in the one of the prophets, Micah.
  

  I am not defending the rev. NWT. There are plenty of faults in it. But a simplistic bashing of the WT again here is uninformed. A person wanting the facts should read Harris's article. It's only about 5 columns on 3 pages. BTW, for those using Strong's numbering system, his 2617 = 698 in the TWOT.
  

  I hope this is helpful for those who really want to know the facts...
  
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  Robo Bobo

  So some are arguing that the ERV and MSG justify the WT "translation." Let's compare them:

  ERV: This is what he wants from you: Be fair to other people. Love kindness and loyalty, and humbly obey your God.

  MSG: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don’t take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.

  NWT: And what is Jehovah requiring of you? Only to exercise justice, to cherish loyalty, and to walk in modesty with your God!

  Kindness and compassion are something usually expressed to our peers, our neighbors, our children. These words have disappeared from the NWT!

  But loyalty, that's expressed to those superior to us: God, Christ and most importantly, the governing body and congregation elders. If you are at the convention this year, watch how they will stress loyalty to the organization and how they use their new tweaked scripture to do it!

  
  
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  Dreamerdude

  The song that opened the study will also close the Loyalty Convention. It's Song #63, "Ever Loyal", and we know who to, as Robo pointed out.

  Verse three cuts to the chase and tells the sheeple to give heed to men that take the lead.

  
  

  The sheeple really need more kindness, compassion, and mercy, and less obedience to men who tell them to be loyal 103 times in the Convention Program.
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  stuckinarut2

  Well said DreamerDude!
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  ScenicViewer

  The attitude of serious Bible translators:
  
  

  Slidin Fast:  Out of 37 translations not one uses the word loyalty .
  

  
  The attitude of serious Jehovah's Witnesses:
  
  

  Outlaw:  They could put a Picture of this Garden Gnome on the Front of Their Bible..
  
  JWs wouldn`t care..
  

  
  

  
  
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  Slidin Fast

  Careful, two swallows don't make a summer. Your rather condescending post about the nuances of the Hebrew language don't alter the fact that the borg has translated this scripture to suit themselves. None of the 37 translations that came up when I checked used the word loyalty. The two you came up with use the word much more softy. "Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love" MSG.

  The point here is not scrupulous Hebrew scholar translators struggling with a difficult word. It is an unscrupulous organisation using a handy spin to beat the faithful over the head. If you want evidence, look at how the scripture was used on Sunday.
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  Island Man

  Outlaw: They could put a Picture of this Garden Gnome on the Front of Their Bible..
  
  JWs wouldn`t care..

  JW: "Jehovah caused the faithful slave to put that picture there for a reason. Jehovah is using that picture to sift his people. Those with a pure heart can clearly see that the picture is illustrating how the skin of an elderly man in paradise has been restored fresher than in youth. The skin on the buttock is usually very prone to wrinkling so this is why the man is showing his buttock to show that even his buttock is smooth and youthful, how much more so the rest of his skin. But those with a murmuring, fault-finding attitude like the faithless Jews in the days of Moses, will find fault with the Slave's depiction and they will use it as an excuse to say bad things about the Slave and leave Jehovah's organization. Jehovah knows what he's doing. We should always have the attitude of loyally going along with whatever the slave publishes even if it may not seem practical or strategic from a human standpoint. Jehovah knows better than we do."