Narkissos

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Posts by Narkissos

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  28

  I Don't Have to Be "RIGHT" Anymore.

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for the record, i don't believe in the god of the bible, and i find it hard to believe in the god of any religion on earth.

  i am closest to atheist in my beliefs if you want a traditional title, but i prefer "rationalist.

  " i will do god's will for me when he directly tells me what it is.

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  Narkissos

  Believe it or not, yesterday I started writing a post entitled "(When) Do You Need to Be Right?" which went along very similar lines... and finally gave it up. :)
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  20

  Watchtower magazines in Hitler's airplane!--by request!

  by Atlantis in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  where can i find that document?

  also, i have a medical question on bone-marrow i would need assistance with answering.

  thanks, fourwheelerguy.

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  Narkissos

  It might be fun to see how this was translated in other languages. Pretty tricky one.
• 
  62

  What/Who are the Saints?

  by PSacramento in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  according to the ot:.

  saints :gadowsh meaning holy one and referes to those that have kept themselves free of difelment, idolatry, and other unlcean and profane things or the word gaddiysh which means those who are sacred to the most high, but can also man gods or deities.. in the nt:.

  saint: hagios, meaning someone(something) revered, worthy of veneration, someone whos services god employs.. both meaning show that the individul is special and unique in god's eyes, yet there is no mention of any saint by name, the term always being use din the plural.. paul often addresses his letters to "the saints" of whatever church he was writing too and mentions "the saints" in general.. .

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  Narkissos

  The Listener,

  It's quite a stretch to distinguish two groups in those texts, especially in view of the syntax of the article: in both texts one article applies to both substantives coordinated through the conjunction kai, making it even clearer that both apply to the same people as a kind of compound address:

  tois en Kolo/assais hagiois kai pistois adelphois en Khristô [Ièsou] = to the saint-and-faithful brethren in Christ [Jesus] in Colossae.
  tois hagiois [pasin] [tois ousin] [en Ephesô] kai pistois en Khristô Ièsou = to [all] the saints [that are] [in Ephesus] and faithful in Christ Jesus.

  PS & Leolaia,

  "Prostitute" is certainly a misleading term for the qdshym/qdshwt, for its negative connotation at least; the noun means nothing but "holy, sacred, consecrated"; however sexual implications are obvious in Genesis 38:21f (// v. 15 zwnh "prostitute"; same parallelism in Hosea 4:14). The context of the other occurrences (Job 36:14; and 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:47; 2 Kings 23:7 which echo the Deuteronomy 23:18 prohibition) is too weak to ascertain their exact function (besides the connection with Asherah). A connection with the "women serving at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting" in Exodus 38:8 and 1 Samuel 2:22 (the latter text indicating that they were normally not to have sex with the priests, as PS suggested) is likely imo.
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  62

  What/Who are the Saints?

  by PSacramento in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  according to the ot:.

  saints :gadowsh meaning holy one and referes to those that have kept themselves free of difelment, idolatry, and other unlcean and profane things or the word gaddiysh which means those who are sacred to the most high, but can also man gods or deities.. in the nt:.

  saint: hagios, meaning someone(something) revered, worthy of veneration, someone whos services god employs.. both meaning show that the individul is special and unique in god's eyes, yet there is no mention of any saint by name, the term always being use din the plural.. paul often addresses his letters to "the saints" of whatever church he was writing too and mentions "the saints" in general.. .

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  Narkissos

  The vocabulary of "holiness/sanctity" in the Bible has a double background. The Semitic root qdsh refers to the "sacred," without any "moral" connotations; the gods are qdshym, the temple is qdsh, the temple prostitutes are qdshwt... But Israelite prophetism (Isaiah etc.) has moralised this basically priestly notion. The very choice of hagios rather than hieros as a Greek equivalent to qdsh in the LXX and the NT (except for the temple and priests) reflects this mix of sacrality and ethics (as well as a will to separate Jewish and then Christian "holiness" from the "Gentile/pagan" concept of "sacred"). Still, the sacral roots are perceptible, especially in Paul: the "saints" or "holy ones" in the most embracing sense (all Christians) are "sanctified" because they belong to God in/through Christ/the "Holy" Spirit. It is a communitarian rather than individual notion (like in some Qumran texts, or the Jerusalem "saints"). But the notion also combines with moral exhortation. To Paul Christians are "holy ones" by definition so to say. It doesn't depend on particular moral behaviour but calls for it.
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  148

  Christians explain? Jews never believed in a Trinity even today so how/when did it start?

  by Witness 007 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jews for thousands of years have believed in their "one god" so i always wondered if in jesus time this was the view, how and when did the trinity start?

  did jesus start it off?

  are you saying jews were trinitarian?

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  Narkissos

  designs, that was Jupiter, not Venus :)
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  63

  Is Christianity a form of mental disorder?

  by John Doe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  take the average born again.

  they begin their day imagining a powerful imaginary friend, and then go around mocking rational people and daring them to disprove the imaginary friend exists.

  some even hear voices from their imaginary friend and claim he exercises magic for their benefit.

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  Narkissos

  Once Christians were proud to look insane.
• 
  100

  Polanski moral equivocation makes me sick...

  by avishai in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-z-shore/polanskis-arrest-shame-on_b_301134.html.

  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/09/the_outrageous_arrest_of_roman.html.

  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/aleqm5jsliygp7jjrlsryfva5vj_hzhlsgd9b0f3503.

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  Narkissos

  BTS,

  I didn't say what he did was OK (and I doubt he would say that either). But imo his victim's opinion on what should be done about it now should matter more than yours, mine or anybody else's. Time to get consistent with your "libertarian" poses?

  Thank you sir and Ada. Going by Ada's testimony it sounds even more ludicrous than I imagined. No sex at all under 18? As to the age differences (sir)it makes sense to an extent... only. 17-25 (which used to be pretty common 30 years ago) will get you to the crime pages, 18-60 will get you to the celebrity pages... lol.
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  34

  Do You Need to Learn Hebrew and Greek? (WT 11/01/09)

  by Midget-Sasquatch in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i'm sure quite a few of you on the board remember the km that discouraged learning the biblical languages.

  well, here are scans of this newer article from the nov public wt.

  very boring read with little direct prohibitions (understandable since its for outsiders), but still a bit of an eye roller with their reasons for not bothering to learn them.

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  Narkissos

  On the plus side, one good thing that comes of studying highly inflected ancient languages like Greek or Latin is that a person is forced to give much more thought to the grammar of their own language.

  Very good point. The correlation of monolinguism and dogmatism (or, plurilinguism and scepticism) would be a fascinating subject in se. Struggling with several languages forces you (I think it's the right term, because it is a painful experience at first) to realise that meaning, concepts and thinking do not belong to some supra-linguistic sphere which could be accessed indifferently from any language.
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  100

  Polanski moral equivocation makes me sick...

  by avishai in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-z-shore/polanskis-arrest-shame-on_b_301134.html.

  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/09/the_outrageous_arrest_of_roman.html.

  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/aleqm5jsliygp7jjrlsryfva5vj_hzhlsgd9b0f3503.

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  Narkissos

  Cultural gap: "moral" America's national sport of backseat justice (which as "public opinion" has very real consequences in law and court decisions) tends to make me sicker.

  California's age of consent at the time was 18 as it is today.

  I'm not sure what that means: does that make sex between a 17- and a 18-year old a crime?
• 
  19

  The Life Of Brian

  by Charlie Cheddar in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  anyone seen this film?.

  i saw it years ago and absolutely howled at it.. the way it takes the piss out of the religious leaders, the newly turned christians, and has a cheeky stab at the romans and pontius pilate is great.. seeing the funny side of what so many people take so seriously, for me is a breath of fresh air.. .

  fwow him to the fwoooor.... .

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  Narkissos

  "Crucifixion? Good."

  -- "You're all different!"
  -- "We're all different!"
  -- "I'm not."
  -- "Shhh...."