Posts by careful

27

ANGOLA - JW Regional Convention target of attack.

by EdenOne in

according to news sources in luanda, angola (read it here, although it's in portuguese language), a regional convention of the jw's taking place this weekend at the outskirts of capital luanda was targeted yesterday, friday, by what may be described as a 'terrorist attack'.. more than 400 attendees (mostly female) passed out in rapid succession in the vicinity of a toilet at the convention place.

reportedly, toxic gas devices were planted there by 3 young members of unita, the main political party that opposed mpla, the dominant regime party in angola since its independence in 1975.

43 people were rushed to the hospital and a few remain there, under medical surveillance.

careful

An English news report:

http://saharareporters.com/2017/08/27/jehovah’s-witnesses-attacked-toxic-gas-angola

8

Earliest Latin Commentary on the Gospels

by Earnest in

the earliest latin commentary on the gospels, lost for over 1500 years, has been rediscovered and made available in english for the first time.

the work, which was written by a bishop in north italy, fortunatianus of aquileia, dates back to the middle of the fourth century.

despite references to it in other ancient works, no copy was known to survive until a researcher from the university of salzburg identified the commentary in an anonymous manuscript copied around the year 800 and held in cologne cathedral library.. it is reported on here and an english translation and information about the commentary and the bishop can be accessed here.. this commentary tended to allegorise scripture in order to explain it.

careful

I guess what I mean is that I'm surprised that an academic publishing house like De Gruyter would ever participate in an open access publication. Their financial survival depends on charging a pretty high price for their books—compare the prices of books published by other such book houses like Brill, Peeters, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Blackwell. How many of them have participated in open access? Perhaps they only did so in this case because the ERC made up the difference, giving them a profit?

8

Earliest Latin Commentary on the Gospels

by Earnest in

the earliest latin commentary on the gospels, lost for over 1500 years, has been rediscovered and made available in english for the first time.

the work, which was written by a bishop in north italy, fortunatianus of aquileia, dates back to the middle of the fourth century.

despite references to it in other ancient works, no copy was known to survive until a researcher from the university of salzburg identified the commentary in an anonymous manuscript copied around the year 800 and held in cologne cathedral library.. it is reported on here and an english translation and information about the commentary and the bishop can be accessed here.. this commentary tended to allegorise scripture in order to explain it.

careful

Thank you, Earnest. I'm surprised that De Gruyter is letting people DL the book for free (???)—our benefit!

72

JW`s Lie about Christendom hiding the Name Jehovah.or its equivalent Yahweh

by smiddy in

jehovahs witnesses have been outspoken over the years/decades that christendom have been hiding or obscuring or even eliminating gods name jehovah from the general public.. how true is that statement .?.

1. it was a catholic monk of the 13th century that first coined the name jehovah in the english language.. 2.the roman catholic douay version of the bible does have the name jehovah in it.

about the 16th century.

careful

There is an interesting new book out by Robert J. Wilkinson published in 2015, Tetragrammaton: Western Christians and the Hebrew Name of God. It's big and dense. In his chapter 10, "The Tetragrammaton in Vernacular Bibles, Popular Print, and Illustration," he has some discussion on the name Jehovah. Among the things he notes is that this form of the divine name "commended itself to English Protestants" (page 357), so that's why it caught on so much in the English-speaking world. You might want to look at it, or to the review of it by Frank Shaw (who also has a book out on the divine name—see here: https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6276841381822464/most-successful-teaching-jehovahs-witnesses-amazing-new-book-on-divine-name) in the Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 67 (2016) pages 759-762: https://academic.oup.com/jts/article-abstract/67/2/759/2568861/Tetragrammaton-Western-Christians-and-the-Hebrew?redirectedFrom=PDF.

There is still much to learn on this subject.

29

Relaxed rules toward oral sex?

by Socrateswannabe in

these people won't state anything definitively, but here's an excerpt from the study article entitled "making christian marriage a success", in the august, 2016 watchtower.

it does make me wonder.. although the bible does not provide specific rules about the kinds and limits of love play that might be associated with natural, sexual intimacy, it mentions displays of affection.

(song of solomon 1:2; 2:6) christian marriage partners should treat each other with tenderness.

careful

Chook,

What publication is that from, CO Guidebook, Branch Organization, or what?

14

New book on early Christianity

by careful in

i'm not quite sure that this post fits under jws/wts since they do not keep up with real biblical scholarship, but i don't know where else to post it.. thomas a. robinson (university of lethbridge) has just published a book through oxford university press on the earliest christians, entitled who were the first christians?

: dismantling the urban thesis.

for some years the idea has dominated scholarship that christianity grew strongly at first in ancient cities like rome, alexandria, and corinth; the notion has been largely influenced by wayne meeks' (of yale) thinking in his book the first urban christians (1986).. i once saw a member here cite meeks' idea of how many christians existed in the roman empire.

careful

Cold Steel: yes, that price is a bit out of my budget, but there is a library copy I can get a look at in a couple of weeks. Then I'll know more about it. My OP was based on some junk mail I got about it. I was hoping that perhaps someone else here has read it.

Earnest: yes, those archaeology books follow Meeks' thesis, since as noted above, it's held sway for 20 years now. Thanks for the links.

14

New book on early Christianity

by careful in

i'm not quite sure that this post fits under jws/wts since they do not keep up with real biblical scholarship, but i don't know where else to post it.. thomas a. robinson (university of lethbridge) has just published a book through oxford university press on the earliest christians, entitled who were the first christians?

: dismantling the urban thesis.

for some years the idea has dominated scholarship that christianity grew strongly at first in ancient cities like rome, alexandria, and corinth; the notion has been largely influenced by wayne meeks' (of yale) thinking in his book the first urban christians (1986).. i once saw a member here cite meeks' idea of how many christians existed in the roman empire.

careful

I'm not quite sure that this post fits under JWs/WTS since they do not keep up with real biblical scholarship, but I don't know where else to post it.

Thomas A. Robinson (University of Lethbridge) has just published a book through Oxford University Press on the earliest Christians, entitled Who Were the First Christians?: Dismantling the Urban Thesis. For some years the idea has dominated scholarship that Christianity grew strongly at first in ancient cities like Rome, Alexandria, and Corinth; the notion has been largely influenced by Wayne Meeks' (of Yale) thinking in his book The First Urban Christians (1986).

I once saw a member here cite Meeks' idea of how many Christians existed in the Roman Empire. For those who care about such things here's a blurb on Robinson's book that challenges the old view of Meeks:

"It has been widely assumed that there were 6 million Christians (or 10% of the population of the Roman Empire) by around the year 300. The largely-unexamined consensus view is also that Christianity was an urban movement until the conversion of Emperor Constantine. On close examination, it appears that these two popular views would nearly saturate every urban area of the entire Roman Empire with Christians, leaving no room for Jews or pagans.

In Who Were the First Christians?, Thomas Robinson shows that scenario simply does not work. But where does the solution lie? Were there many fewer Christians in the Roman world than we have thought? Was the Roman world much more urbanized? Or, is the urban thesis defective, so that the neglected countryside must now be considered in any reconstruction of early Christian growth? Further, what was the makeup of the typical Christian congregation? Was it a lower-class movement? Or was it a movement of the upwardly mobile middle-class? Arguing that more attention needs to be given to the countryside and to the considerable contingent of the marginal and the rustic within urban populations, this revisionist work argues persuasively that the urban thesis should be dismantled or profoundly revised and the growth and the complexion of the early Christian movement seen in a substantially different light."

57

interesting EX-CO AMA ( Ask Me Anything) over on exjwreddit

by Diogenesister in

ex-circuit overseer here, ama.

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/6usaky/excircuit_overseer_here_ama/.

careful

Thanks for the post—informative stuff.

61

Set the record straight!

by Colinconfused in

i would like to state publicly, on this forum, i no longer hold the views i had a year ago.. with much thought, research, study and logical examination i have come to a better understanding of my beliefs and where i stand on all these issues.. i'm very happy to announce i have returned to healthful teaching of the holy scriptures and i firmly believe that the governing body of jehovah's witnesses is the faithful slave.. sorry if i have contibuted to any kind of stumbling and know that if i can turn things around then there's hope for all who come to there sence.. phill4:6,7.

careful

half B: I don't know about the BOE reading posts on this forum, but I think it is standard procedure for the one under their "guidance" to post some sort of retraction as "evidence" of repentance and thus not getting DFed.

61

Set the record straight!

by Colinconfused in

i would like to state publicly, on this forum, i no longer hold the views i had a year ago.. with much thought, research, study and logical examination i have come to a better understanding of my beliefs and where i stand on all these issues.. i'm very happy to announce i have returned to healthful teaching of the holy scriptures and i firmly believe that the governing body of jehovah's witnesses is the faithful slave.. sorry if i have contibuted to any kind of stumbling and know that if i can turn things around then there's hope for all who come to there sence.. phill4:6,7.

careful

DOC probably has it right.

"I would bet that someone discovered the dude on this site and he has had to backpedal and "reaffirm" his conviction for the GB/F&DS. Let's face it, once one domino falls, you can't keep the others from following."

Years ago SBF signed off here with a statement of WT loyalty to placate the local BOE. He returned to the forum some months later, of course. Once you've partaken of the TTATT, it's really difficult, if not impossible, to go back to la-la land.