there's an article posted by william dalton at the andover townsman on steven t. byington, translator of the bible in living english.
there are some interesting tidbits about the man which i didn't know, including the fact that he was an anarchist!.
you might want to head over to the comboxes, because there's only me (with a neutral post) and a couple of rah-rah jw posts.
There's an article posted by William Dalton at the Andover Townsman on Steven T. Byington, translator of the Bible in Living English. There are some interesting tidbits about the man which I didn't know, including the fact that he was an anarchist!
You might want to head over to the comboxes, because there's only me (with a neutral post) and a couple of rah-rah JW posts. The article itself is worth the visit.
http://www.andovertownsman.com/archivesearch/local_story_198151856.html
Cathy
something has been bugging me for years and years, and always bugged me when i was an active witness.
i've never mentioned it before and i've never seen it discussed.
like with a lot of other matters, i just assumed that this meant that i was missing something that everyone else understood.
Hi Heather,
Why is their go-to Roman Catholic translation of the Bible the Douay Bible? This has always struck me as being very weird. Their older publications (pre-1990s) quote this version all the time, often as one of only three or four translations cited in a book. This is not a common translation at all.
At the time that many of the older WT publications were written this was the most common Bible translation found in Catholic households. This would be especially true of Judge Rutherford's time. Both the New American Bible and Jerusalem Bible weren't published until the late 1960s/early 1970s. Later WT publications do reference these. Have they used the Douay version as a reference lately? I haven't been keeping track.
the only time I've ever seen a Douay Bible, it was a hundred year old antique being offered as a collectable.
It's still in print, available from publishers like TAN Books and Publishers, which caters to a more traditionalist type of Catholic. Older copies are in demand as collectibles, as you note.
Parade prints trivia, puzzles, cartoons, psychic predictions, celebrity and entertainment gossip, and ultrapatriotic rhetoric. Why would the Writing Department turn to this, of all publications, as a frequently cited news source? (To their credit, more recent issues of Awake! seem to be relying more heavily on The Economist, which is a totally reliable and absolutely mainstream news source--but why didn't they always use it?)
The simplest answer is probably that it's what the guys in the Writing Department read on Sunday mornings. It's a likely source for lots of their ideas.
Cathy
having problem pasting this...
Re: The Brooklyn Heights Congregation. I was accorded the ``honor" of becoming a ``Heights Conductor" upon completion of Primary School, a coveted position among newbies. Malcom Allen was the Presiding Overseer (Congregation Servant) and Harold Dies his assistant. One of my duties was to help out with compiling the monthly service report, and let me tell you, all- I mean ALL -- of the biggies (people like Knorr and Suiter) were mid- to low one-digit publishers. LIkely the time they reported was from talks they gave.
Thanks, Room 215. Does this fit in with the "spirit of sacrifice" that the writers of articles in things like KM go on about?
***km8/05p.3par.3NowIstheTimetoPreach!***
HowtoPioneer: Recognizing that "the time left is reduced," pioneers strive to keep their life simple. (1 Cor. 7:29, 31) They look for ways to reduce expenses so that they can spend less time doing secular work. For example, some have moved into smaller dwellings. Others have eliminated unnecessary material possessions. (Matt. 6:19-21) Often, they must also curtail personal pursuits. All of this is done with the goal of devoting more time and attention to the ministry. (Eph. 5:15, 16) With persistence, a self-sacrificing spirit, and prayerful reliance on Jehovah, many publishers have been able to arrange a practical schedule that enables them to pioneer.
They'd probably argue that they're already putting in service time, but by the same token so are the other Bethel workers. They don't hesitate to recommend that non-Bethelites put fewer hours into "secular work" in order to pioneer and that they ought to do without "unnecessary" things (who decides that, BTW?), but excuse themselves from the frankly unpleasant door-to-door ministry. That alone would have had me grumbling if I worked there.
having problem pasting this...
cathy says: "In NYC, where the unions rule with an iron fist, this isn't uncommon if a job needs to be done quickly and with a minimum of personnel. If the union found out, though, there could be broken bones ..."
You're quite mistaken, in NYC large corporations and big money run this city with the iron fist, ...always have... always will... Even so, the unions and their skilled workers exist here through a lot of hard work and battles. Union projects are far more productive and safer, than non-union jobs, besides being inspected properly by licensed authorities.
I do not understand the negative views of unions... which essentially are workers who collectively negotiate and vote for a living wage.... The audacity of democracy.
I am by and large pro-union, when they do what they're supposed to do. I belonged to the AFT myself, and was grateful for the collective bargaining process. On the other hand, I saw all sorts of abuses done in the name of union rules while I was a teacher -- not least of which was the protection of incompetents. As for the physical violence end of things, corporations are not alone in employing goons. I have it on the authority of my brother, who personally knew people who had run afoul of the unions. There were broken bones involved -- I wasn't using hyperbole. Growing up in NYC, there was more than a hint of some unions (not all, mind you) being run by organized crime. It was worse in some than in others. For example, I would guess that the printers' union, which my father-in-law belonged to, was relatively free of that sort of thing. On the other hand the Teamsters were pretty corrupt back in the 1970s.
I do know that the WTS used to drive the unions nuts because they could skirt the system. The WTS does not have any sense of what is due to a worker. If they did, they would do better at arranging financial security for their Bethel staff, among other things. Cathy oldlighthousebooks.blogspot.com
having problem pasting this...
Since so many of you were involved in NYC congregations, I have a few questions of personal interest:
1) One of the families around the block from me in Woodhaven were Witnesses. The father was an elder in the Kingdom Hall near Aqueduct Racetrack in the 1970s. I believe the family was originally from Pennsylvania. I can't remember the last name, but I think it began with an "S"; I have a vague recollection of it being similar to "Siebert", as in Gertrude Siebert, but I've probably misremembered it. Anyhow, they had two kids around my age: Kirk and Renee. They were all REALLY tall, the father well over 6 ft., and the mother not far behind. The kids both grew up to be tall as well.
2) I also knew the Leask family, who attended the same KH. I went to parochial school with Susie Leask until the family converted during the big run-up to 1975. I often wonder if they stayed in after that. I understood that not all the kids (and there were at least 5 of them) were thrilled with joining the JWs, but they didn't have much of a choice.
Anyone ever meet these people? They were pretty nice folks.
Cathy
having problem pasting this...
A comment and a question:
My roomate, who worked as a plumber, was once assigned as a lookout while others finished unlicensed plumbing work in the Greenpoint Avenue Assembly Hall.
In NYC, where the unions rule with an iron fist, this isn't uncommon if a job needs to be done quickly and with a minimum of personnel. If the union found out, though, there could be broken bones ...
Only George Ganges and Karl Klein were able to maintain idealism for all their years of service... and both were totally retarded.
My question is: Which members of the Governing Body actually went out in field service back then? I guess that Knorr probably didn't, nor Franz?
Cathy
the number of my books in academic libraries.
i have authored several scholarly books and monographs about the jehovahs witnesses.
my books and articles on the watchtower and related topics are found in hundreds of university, college and other libraries, and have also been translated into 12 languages.
Well, here's a link:
http://www.adam.com.au/bstett/JwVandals87.htm
Not sure if this is a print or strictly on-line magazine.
Cathy
the number of my books in academic libraries.
i have authored several scholarly books and monographs about the jehovahs witnesses.
my books and articles on the watchtower and related topics are found in hundreds of university, college and other libraries, and have also been translated into 12 languages.
As long as it will get your blood flowing, lest you die in your chair reading this crap all day. :-))
Seems you sure did that, Randy. I had to step over a lot of broken glass when I came in here.
Cathy
the number of my books in academic libraries.
i have authored several scholarly books and monographs about the jehovahs witnesses.
my books and articles on the watchtower and related topics are found in hundreds of university, college and other libraries, and have also been translated into 12 languages.
You may be familiar with this cathy but in the Salisbury NC assembly hall they have some Rutherford memorabilia there. It even shows some of the pyramidology stuff.
Hi Burger Time, Yes, that was the hall I was thinking of.
I wouldn't put a dub to destroy some books, but I just don't think it's as large scale as Bergman is trying to make it to be.
That's actually one claim I think might be corroborated by independent research. Bergman's books aside, titles like Crisis of Conscience, In Search of Christian Freedom, and other anti-JW works seem to become "lost" from public library shelves very frequently. Several posters who donate those titles to libraries note that they are constantly replacing them. One factor that might be responsible for the disappearance of some anti-JW (and a few pro-JW) titles which has not been mentioned is eBay. Beckford's Trumpet of Prophecy, Marley Cole's books, and quite a few of the pre-1970s books about JWs have disappeared from library shelves because they've got great resale value. Cathy www.oldlighthousebooks.com oldlighthousebooks.blogspot.com
the number of my books in academic libraries.
i have authored several scholarly books and monographs about the jehovahs witnesses.
my books and articles on the watchtower and related topics are found in hundreds of university, college and other libraries, and have also been translated into 12 languages.
umm, a witness wouldnt even touch those books. It would be considered a sin anyway (which i never agreed with), so i really doubt it.
Solace, Perhaps most JWs wouldn't touch them. However, I could see a few doing it -- those who consider themselves "spiritually strong" or somesuch. Not all JWs stalk "opposers," but a few might. But that's a subject for another thread ... Cathy oldlighthousebooks.blogspot.com www.oldlighthousebooks.com
