Posts by Jeffro

45

The Elusive and Shy creator god.---

by prologos in

is there only a 50 / 50 chance that there is a ceator or.

assuming that there is one, and looking at it all,- it is hard to imagine that there is not,.

particularly if you tried all your life to make stuff work.

Jeffro

tec:

Sarah gave her maidservant Hagar to be Abraham's wife, to build a family.

Seriously? That's your justification for Abraham using Hagar as a sex slave? Because she was Sarah's property? Such is the dispicable 'morality' of the Bible.

That rivalry can be seen in their sons... Ishmael to Isaac at first... and that is why they were permitted to be sent away.

That's right. If siblings (or step-siblings) don't get along, the parents don't help them get along, they send the child and its mother into the wilderness. Do you understand that this is freaking insane??

38

Yet another Septuagint manuscript using the divine name found

by slimboyfat in

larry hurtado mentioned on his blog that yet another early manuscript of the septuagint has been found that uses the divine name instead of lord (kurios), this time representing the divine name with ancient hebrew letters (yhwh) in what is the earliest extant copy of the psalms in greek.

hurtado argues that the use of the definite article before the divine name indicates that the manuscript relies on earlier copies that used lord (kurios), but the fact remains that all the earliest copies of the septuagint that have survived use some form of the divine name and none use lord (kurios) as a substitute.

that's about ten out of ten for manuscripts of the septuagint earlier than mid-second century c.e so far.. http://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/new-oxyrhynchus-manuscripts/.

Jeffro

Use of the term "the divine name" suggests superstition about supposed names of the deity of Abrahamic religions. Did I accidently wake up in the wrong millenium?

25

Can't get any bibles?

by gold_C in

so according to people in every congregation i've mentionned it to, the slave isn't producing any more bibles.

at first i thought that they were going to release an updated translation, like the updated brochures that were given at the latest convention, but that didn't happen, and everyone from the branch claims that there is "a reason for it", yet they're being extremely secretive.. .

can anyone who's got ties to bethel help me out here?

Jeffro

Maybe they just expect people to download it themselves to cut costs on printing.

25

Can't get any bibles?

by gold_C in

so according to people in every congregation i've mentionned it to, the slave isn't producing any more bibles.

at first i thought that they were going to release an updated translation, like the updated brochures that were given at the latest convention, but that didn't happen, and everyone from the branch claims that there is "a reason for it", yet they're being extremely secretive.. .

can anyone who's got ties to bethel help me out here?

Jeffro

gold_C:

things like this make me nervous that there's a possibility they might have been right

Maybe that is their aim?

But probably not.

38

Yet another Septuagint manuscript using the divine name found

by slimboyfat in

larry hurtado mentioned on his blog that yet another early manuscript of the septuagint has been found that uses the divine name instead of lord (kurios), this time representing the divine name with ancient hebrew letters (yhwh) in what is the earliest extant copy of the psalms in greek.

hurtado argues that the use of the definite article before the divine name indicates that the manuscript relies on earlier copies that used lord (kurios), but the fact remains that all the earliest copies of the septuagint that have survived use some form of the divine name and none use lord (kurios) as a substitute.

that's about ten out of ten for manuscripts of the septuagint earlier than mid-second century c.e so far.. http://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/new-oxyrhynchus-manuscripts/.

Jeffro

the fact remains that all the earliest copies of the Septuagint that have survived use some form of the divine name

So...?

78

More bad chronology from the Watch Tower Society

by Jeffro in

it seems that more often than not, when the watch tower society says something about biblical chronology, they're probably wrong.

this seems to be the case even for uncontroversial matters!

insight on the scriptures volume 1, page 584 states (bold formatting added):.

Jeffro

I think you'll find this book right up your alley: J. VanderKam, From Joshua to Caiaphas: High Priests After the Exile (2004)

That book did come up in my earlier searches for sources, but alas I couldn't find an online copy.

78

More bad chronology from the Watch Tower Society

by Jeffro in

it seems that more often than not, when the watch tower society says something about biblical chronology, they're probably wrong.

this seems to be the case even for uncontroversial matters!

insight on the scriptures volume 1, page 584 states (bold formatting added):.

Jeffro

Conjecture.

Of course. In the absence of solid evidence, that's all that can be done. Plus, I'm the Messiah. Or messier. One of them.

Whether Darius II or III, it is an interesting puzzle, but I have spent waaay too long on this the past few days and been neglecting other, more mundane, RL things. I'm glad you are chasing up the Wikipedia writer. Let us know how that goes.

Thanks for all your hard work.

I'll keep you posted on whether I get a response from the Wiki editor...

*drum roll* .... Darius III.

Ye of little faith.

Past my bedtime now...

53

What exactly was going on after Jesus was put to death and no longer around?

by Terry in

the jesus believers were meeting in people's homes.

members of that community would take turns using private homes to gather.

thus, they went house to house.. these footstep tracers of jesus (they called themselves akolouthontes "followers" or some called themselves mathetai or "learners.

Jeffro

Terry:

What exactly was going on after Jesus was put to death...?

Assuming he existed at all, probably not much. His friends and family would have been upset. That's about all. It wasn't until years later that the grandiose stories were made up about an archetypical god-man character.

78

More bad chronology from the Watch Tower Society

by Jeffro in

it seems that more often than not, when the watch tower society says something about biblical chronology, they're probably wrong.

this seems to be the case even for uncontroversial matters!

insight on the scriptures volume 1, page 584 states (bold formatting added):.

Jeffro

Britannica says Bagoas was a name often used for Persian eunuchs - which makes it more like a title, so it is more likely that there might be more than one of those than a repeated sequence of other people's names. So it is possible that there was a different Bagoas during Artaxerxes III's reign distinct from the one during Darius II and Artaxerxes II. But it's not impossible that they're the same person.

78

More bad chronology from the Watch Tower Society

by Jeffro in

it seems that more often than not, when the watch tower society says something about biblical chronology, they're probably wrong.

this seems to be the case even for uncontroversial matters!

insight on the scriptures volume 1, page 584 states (bold formatting added):.

Jeffro

It wouldn't have been noteworthy that, while he was there, he didn't eat or drink anything

The noteworthy part of him not eating is why he stayed there without eating, not necessarily where he stayed without eating. The point is to illustrate his grief, and the reason for his not eating is explicitly stated as because he was mourning, and not 'despite being where there was food'.

Note that the NWT translates the word for 'chamber' as 'dining hall', and sets up a contrast by using the word "although", but that doesn't seem to have any basis in the original text.