Posts by opusdei1972

14

Numbers 5:11-31. How does the society make application of this ridiculous scripture?

by stuckinarut2 in

if you haven't read it yet, please do so.

numbers 5:11-31. this is a scripture that is as stupid as the "medieval witch trials"!.

it is also so degrading to women, and shows how the bible views them as mere property that can be treated as just possessions.. i would love to see how the wt tries to use this passage and make a modern day twist (as they try to do with so many other passages!).

opusdei1972

What absurd practice. The Law of Moses was a mess !!!!!

11

"The Cyrus Cylinder"

by Doug Mason in

i suspect that i am the last one here who has read the book: the cyrus cylinder: the king of persias proclamation from ancient babylon, edited by irving finkel; published by i. b. tauris, 2013; 144 pages.. so i simply wish to record my deep admiration for the book.

it explains and analyses the cylinders text as well as providing a sympathetic account of the people involved with its ancient and modern history.

(chapter 1: the babylonian perspective; chapter 2: discovery; chapter 5: a persian perspective.

opusdei1972

I think the readers of this forum need to read how different was what the Cyrus Cylinder said compared to what the Bible said:

Ezra 1:

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,

2 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia:

All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. 3 Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem. 4 And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.

Cyrus Cylinder:

By his own plan, he [Nabonidus] did away with the worship of Marduk, the king of the gods......I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king.......When I entered Babylon in a peaceful manner, I took up my lordly abode in the royal palace amidst rejoicing and happiness. Marduk, the great lord, established as his fate for me a magnanimous heart of one who loves Babylon, and I daily attended to his worship.

26

Jesus as a Ransom for Humans or not

by fulltimestudent in

i have not got an answer (theoretical or not) to the above question.. but the main text book (introducing the new testament- its literature and theology - achtemeier, green and thompson) for my study unit (early christian literature and thought) in the assigned reading for today's lecture on the gospel of john, has a section on the ransom.

it says (p. 237): one of the few passages that explicitly speaks of jesus dying for others is mark 10:45:.

"for even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.. .

opusdei1972

It seems that Jesus did not foresee that he would be condemned in the way it happened. He believed he was the Messiah primarily for the Jews, and he thought that the earthly kingdom would come during his days and he would be enthroned by God and Jerrusalem would be free from the romans. But it seems that he did something politicaly wrong in the temple, so he was condemned and crucified. After that, his disciples tried to justify this unexpected death by finding verses of the Old Testament. Then, after 70 AD, some gentile disciples propagated the idea that he was born from a virgin, so he preexisted. Whatever, Jesus wanted to propagate his ideas to the Jews, but not to the gentiles. The Gospel of John contains a higher Christology (Jesus as God the Logos), who was invented many decades after Jesus's death.

10

Interesting query and reply about THE CROSS on Bart Ehrman's blog

by Terry in

kleenmaint july 5, 2014. dear bart:.

i couldnt find a topic on josephus so i hope you see my question.

in your book did jesus exist on page 59 you quote (antiquities 18.3.3).. both this quotation and the more conservative version that seemed more plausible as his original writing have one very fundamental flaw that you didnt mention.

opusdei1972

STAUROS had the primary meaning of a simple pole in Homer's times (eight centuries before Christ). But in Jesus days it could be t-shaped, T-shaped, I-shaped and X-shaped. Any honest research would conclude that. Also, Romans generaly placed the patibulum ( a pole) as a crossbar at the vertical stake of the CRUX. Of course, when there were many convicted ones to be tortured, romans had to use one pole on account of the limited numbers of woods.

11

"The Cyrus Cylinder"

by Doug Mason in

i suspect that i am the last one here who has read the book: the cyrus cylinder: the king of persias proclamation from ancient babylon, edited by irving finkel; published by i. b. tauris, 2013; 144 pages.. so i simply wish to record my deep admiration for the book.

it explains and analyses the cylinders text as well as providing a sympathetic account of the people involved with its ancient and modern history.

(chapter 1: the babylonian perspective; chapter 2: discovery; chapter 5: a persian perspective.

opusdei1972

thank you Bart Belteshassur and AnnOMaly for the links, I will read them.

AnnOMaly, I think I know you from another ex-witness forum. You used the same nickname, but I was not OPUS there.

20

The More I Think, The More I Lose Faith In BIBLE!!

by NoMoreHustle in

sitting through this weeks wt study.

paragraph came up about how "a fire came out from jah & consumed (korah and) the 250 men offering the incense".

i said to myself this supposedly happened couple of thousand years ago.

opusdei1972

The Christian Bible has anything to do with what is happening now, because their last books were written for people of the end of the first century or the first half of the second century. According to the Synoptics Gospels, Jesus would come back before the end of his generation. But it did not happen, so, if Jesus said it, he was a false prophet.

On the other hand, the Hebrew Bible contains many accounts now proven to be false by archaeologists and scholars of textual criticism.

Therefore, the Bible can't be useful to guide our daily life in this modern age.

3

Unquestionably, the Bibles account of Moses is credible

by opusdei1972 in

the article entitled "mosesman or myth?

" was published in awake!

2004 (g04 4/8 pp.

opusdei1972

The article entitled "Moses—Man or Myth?" was published in Awake! 2004 (g04 4/8 pp. 4-9). Here I quote the relevant portions of the article:

Many scholars today dismiss these events [told in the book of Exodus] as fiction. “The fact is,” says Christianity Today, “that not one shred of direct archaeological evidence has been found for [the years] the children of Israel sojourned in Egypt.” While direct physical proof may be lacking, there is considerable indirect evidence that the Bible account is credible. In his book Israel in Egypt, Egyptologist James K. Hoffmeier says: “Archaeological data clearly demonstrates that Egypt was frequented by the peoples of the Levant [countries bordering on the eastern Mediterranean], especially as a result of climatic problems that resulted in drought . . . Thus, for a period roughly from 1800 to 1540 B.C., Egypt was an attractive place for the Semitic-speaking people of western Asia to migrate.”

Ok, the Hiksos were ruling partialy the land of Egypt, but the Insight book noticed the following:

Regarding this period of Egyptian history, C. E. DeVries noted: “In attempting to correlate secular history with the biblical data, some scholars have tried to equate the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt with the Israelite Exodus, but the chronology rules out this identification, and other factors as well make this hypothesis untenable. . . . The origin of the Hyksos is uncertain; they came from somewhere in Asia and bore Semitic names for the most part.”—The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, edited by G. Bromiley, 1982, Vol. 2, p. 787. (it-1 pp. 686-699)

Even so, critics balk at the notion of a large-scale exodus of Jews from Egypt. Scholar Homer W. Smith argued that such a mass movement “would certainly have resounded loudly in Egyptian or Syrian history . . . It is more likely that the legend of the exodus is a garbled and fanciful account of the flight from Egypt to Palestine of a relatively few members.”

True, no Egyptian record of this event has been found. But the Egyptians were not above altering historical records when the truth proved to be embarrassing or went against their political interests. When Thutmose III came to power, he tried to obliterate the memory of his predecessor, Hatshepsut. Says Egyptologist John Ray: “Her inscriptions were erased, her obelisks surrounded by a wall, and her monuments forgotten. Her name does not appear in later annals.” Similar attempts to alter or conceal embarrassing facts have even taken place in modern times.

As for the lack of archaeological evidence for the wilderness sojourn, we must remember that the Jews were nomads. They built no cities; they planted no crops. Presumably, they left behind little more than footprints. Still, convincing evidence of that sojourn can be found within the Bible itself. Reference is made to it throughout that sacred book. (1 Samuel 4:8; Psalm 78; Psalm 95; Psalm 106; 1 Corinthians 10:1-5) Significantly, Jesus Christ also testified that the wilderness events took place.—John 3:14.

Unquestionably, then, the Bible’s account of Moses is credible, truthful.

Note that there was no proof provided to conclude that "unquestionably" the Bible's account of Moses is credible. Do you believe that after 40 years of a wilderness sojourn the israelites left "little more than footprints"?

10

Jehovah's Witnesses come knocking

by opusdei1972 in

interesting video, and how the witnesses reacted:.

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvyaoilfmqw.

opusdei1972

Interesting video, and how the witnesses reacted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvYaOIlFMqw

11

"The Cyrus Cylinder"

by Doug Mason in

i suspect that i am the last one here who has read the book: the cyrus cylinder: the king of persias proclamation from ancient babylon, edited by irving finkel; published by i. b. tauris, 2013; 144 pages.. so i simply wish to record my deep admiration for the book.

it explains and analyses the cylinders text as well as providing a sympathetic account of the people involved with its ancient and modern history.

(chapter 1: the babylonian perspective; chapter 2: discovery; chapter 5: a persian perspective.

opusdei1972

I did not know that stuff. How could I compare the words of Ezra with those in Cyrus' Cylinder? Can you provide some quotations?

Regards,

OPUS

23

The New World Translation

by Coded Logic in

one of the jws foundational doctrines is their belief in the inerrancy of the bible.

there are several methods they use to try and support this position including their claim that the bible, as it exists today, is the exact same bible that has been around for thousands of years.

they teach that gods word has been perfectly preserved.

opusdei1972

The Church Father Polycarp quoted the book of Tobit in the second century. Clement, bishop of Rome, quoted the book of Wisdom at the end of the first century. The canonical letter of Jude quoted the book of Enoch. Accordingly, early christians used more books than those in NWT.