Posts by Doug Mason

17

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad

by God_Delusion in

hi guys and gals!.

i've just put the finishing touches to my latest article, which talks about the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.. you see, i've always been fascinated with the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.

both are incredibly weird stories.

Doug Mason

[Part 1 of 2] - from Jewish Scholar Marc Zvi Brettler:

The Meaning of Genesis 2:4b – 3:24

The story as widely known has been filled out through various (Christian) interpretations. For example, nowhere does the text itself tell us what the forbidden fruit was. In early Christian tradition it was generally understood as an apple, whereas early Jewish tradition offered several opinions as to the fruit's identity, with the fig being the most popular—and contextually the most appropriate (see especially Gen. 3:7).

Other dearly held views of this text are also not borne out by a close reading. Thus, we might believe that its main theme is the curse received by the woman (and all women), yet the word "curse" is absent in God's comments to her (Gen. 3:16), while it is present in God's statements both to the serpent (3:14) and to the man (3:17). Moreover, the doctrines of the Fall of Man or original sin are nowhere to be found in this passage, though they appear in early Christian interpretation of the text.

The Garden Story is about immortality lost and sexuality gained. It begins from a simple premise: originally, people were immortal. In fact, the huge life spans recorded in the early chapters of Genesis are part of an effort to make a bridge between that original immortality and "normal" life spans. As immortal beings, they were asexual; in the Garden story God does not tell them to "be fertile and increase" as they were told in the first creation story (Gen. 1:28). Sexuality is discovered only after eating from the tree, when "they perceived that they were naked" (3:7). In fact, the divine command of 2:17 should not be understood as often translated—"for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die" (so the JPS translation)—but rather "for as soon as you eat of it, you shall become mortal." The connection between (procreative) sexuality and mortality is compelling and was well understood even in antiquity—if people were to be both sexually procreative and immortal, disastrous overpopulation would result.

Many details within chapters 2-3 support this interpretation. The tree that is first forbidden is (literally) "the tree of knowledge of good and bad." Here da-at ("knowledge") is being used in a sense that it often has in the Bible: intimate or sexual knowledge. "Good and bad" is being used here as a figure of speech called a "merism": two opposite terms are joined by the word "and"; the resulting figure means "everything" or "the ultimate." (Amerism is likewise used in Genesis 1:1, "heaven and earth," which there means the entire world.) The words "good and bad" have no moral connotation here.

[continues in following post]

3

The end was near

by Doug Mason in

nearly wiped out.. https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/24549348/earth-survived-near-miss-from-2012-solar-storm-says-nasa/.

doug.

Doug Mason

Nearly wiped out.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/24549348/earth-survived-near-miss-from-2012-solar-storm-says-nasa/

Doug

5

Attack is the best form of distraction

by Doug Mason in

while the wts attacks evolution, it needs to prove its hypothesis that each "day" of genesis 1 is actually 7000 years.. at least evolution has the evidence that enables it to reach the status of a scientific theory, whereas there is no tangible evidence for the wts to lift its idea above that of a mere hypothesis.. as an aside, it is interesting to note that lamarck published his evolutionary theory in the year that charles darwin was born.. doug.

Doug Mason

Even today, not all evolutionists are Darwinian. The WTS is superficial in laying the foundation and execution of Evolution at Darwin's feet.

I simply put it as an aside to show that many others, such as Lamarck, proposed models of Evolution. Charles Darwin had to rush his book into publication in order to beat others to the punch.

Doug

++++++++++++

“In recent times, some fundamentalist religions have put forward creationism as the answer to evolution. But in doing so, they make a claim that is both unscriptural and unbelievable. It is that the heavens, the earth, and everything on the earth were created by God in 6 days of 24 hours each—yes, in just 144 literal hours! This teaching has caused many to ridicule the Bible. But is a “day” in the Bible always 24 hours in length?” (“The Watchtower”, April 1, 1986)

“The Genesis account of creation allows for the earth to be billions of years old and does not limit each creative day to 24 hours.” (“The Watchtower”, Dec. 1, 2000, page 31)

“A study of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and of our location in the stream of time strongly indicate that each of the creative days (Genesis, chapter 1) is 7,000 years long. It is understood that Christ’s reign of a thousand years will bring to a close God’s 7,000-year ‘rest day,’ the last ‘day’ of the creative week. (Revelation 20:6; Genesis 2:2, 3) Based on this reasoning, the entire creative week would be 49,000 years long.” (“The Watchtower”, Jan. 1, 1987, page 30)

“Since the seventh day has been continuing for thousands of years, it may reasonably be concluded that each of the six creative periods, or days, was at least thousands of years in length.” (“Insight on the Scriptures”, Vol. 1, page 545)

“The Bible shows us that God proceeded to rest from his creative works some 6,000 years ago” (“Insight, Vol. 1, page 1129)

“The Bible does not reveal exactly when [God’s rest day] started. It was some time after the creation of Adam’s wife, Eve, about 6,000 years ago.” (“The Watchtower”, Oct 15, 2012, page 22)

“World events as well as Bible chronology indicate that we are now [in 1980] rapidly nearing the time for the thousand-year-long reign of Jesus Christ to start. His reign of a thousand years … will occupy the last thousand years of Jehovah’s rest day or Sabbath day of seven thousand years” (“The Watchtower”, Nov, 15, 1980, page 19)

5

Attack is the best form of distraction

by Doug Mason in

while the wts attacks evolution, it needs to prove its hypothesis that each "day" of genesis 1 is actually 7000 years.. at least evolution has the evidence that enables it to reach the status of a scientific theory, whereas there is no tangible evidence for the wts to lift its idea above that of a mere hypothesis.. as an aside, it is interesting to note that lamarck published his evolutionary theory in the year that charles darwin was born.. doug.

Doug Mason

While the WTS attacks Evolution, it needs to prove its hypothesis that each "Day" of Genesis 1 is actually 7000 years.

At least Evolution has the evidence that enables it to reach the status of a scientific theory, whereas there is no tangible evidence for the WTS to lift its idea above that of a mere hypothesis.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that Lamarck published his Evolutionary Theory in the year that Charles Darwin was born.

Doug

21

For those in the Watchtower who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible

by opusdei1972 in

the watchtower says:.

9 while most major books of religion say very little, if anything, about god, the bible acquaints us with jehovah god and his activities.

it helps us to see the many facets of his personality.

Doug Mason

The Hebrews were the hill-dwelling, low-caste Canaanites. In their dreaming they created mythical heroes and mythical adventures, like Moses, the Exodus, and king David.

The Arabs are also descended from the Canaanites.

The theory of "fallen man" and "original sin" is likely to have originated with Augustine.

Doug

21

For those in the Watchtower who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible

by opusdei1972 in

the watchtower says:.

9 while most major books of religion say very little, if anything, about god, the bible acquaints us with jehovah god and his activities.

it helps us to see the many facets of his personality.

Doug Mason

When did Jesus become a Christian?

Doug

21

For those in the Watchtower who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible

by opusdei1972 in

the watchtower says:.

9 while most major books of religion say very little, if anything, about god, the bible acquaints us with jehovah god and his activities.

it helps us to see the many facets of his personality.

Doug Mason

opus,

What interesting observations you create.

The different versions (Septuagint versus Masoretic, Symmachus, Theodotian, etc) reflect the biases and amendments made by the translators and copiers, right from the outset. The WTS does the same with its NWT version, which in turn is based on which OT and NT sources that it selected. Consider the enormous differences between the versions of Jeremiah in the Septuagint (LXX) and in the Masoretic Text (MT). And it is not as if there is one version of the LXX; there are several.

If the NT references from the LXX indicated that the verses being cited were "inspired" but the rest of the LXX is not inspired, what does this say of the people who created and edited the LXX? Was their "inspiration" switched on and off as they worked their way through the pile of Hebrew scrolls? And it must be noted that the Hebrew text they worked from was at least 1300 years older than the earliest Hebrew text that is available to us.

If an NT writer had to resort to the Greek text of the Hebrew ("OT") scrolls, then using the WT's logic, what does this say of the equivalent text in the Hebrew OT scrolls? Does this show that the Hebrew passage was not inspired?

Inasmuch as NT writers regularly resorted to Hebrew scrolls that were later deemed to be non-canonical, what does this say of these non-canonical writings?

Doug

21

For those in the Watchtower who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible

by opusdei1972 in

the watchtower says:.

9 while most major books of religion say very little, if anything, about god, the bible acquaints us with jehovah god and his activities.

it helps us to see the many facets of his personality.

Doug Mason

opus,

At (document) pages 22 to 26 of:

http://www.jwstudies.com/God-breathed_Scriptures.pdf

you will find a listing of allusions to and citations of non-canonical writings such as 1 Enoch throughout the New Testament, including Jesus' words at the Sermon on the Mount. See also (document) page 21 of my Study.

(I wrote "document pages" because the "PDF page" numbers are 26 to 31).

Doug

38

Paul - GB Member (W 9/15/14)

by pixel in

ok, is this a "new understanding" or what?

up until this point i thought that the borg refered paul as a co or do, but never gb member:.

p. 12 now, why would paul a spiritual giant who likely was a member of the first-century governing bodycall himself a miserable man?.

Doug Mason

I discuss this in my Study at:

http://www.jwstudies.com/2013_-_Did_a__Governing_Body__govern_Paul.pdf

Although it canvasses a range of related topics, the Contents listing is hyperlinked to the body.

Another relevant Study:

http://www.jwstudies.com/The_Watchtower_s_Achilles__Heel.pdf

Doug

21

For those in the Watchtower who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible

by opusdei1972 in

the watchtower says:.

9 while most major books of religion say very little, if anything, about god, the bible acquaints us with jehovah god and his activities.

it helps us to see the many facets of his personality.

Doug Mason

“Inerrancy” refers to the words written by the original writer.

“Absolute inerrancy is therefore to be attributed to the written Word of God. This is true of the original writings, none of which are known to exist today.” (“Insight on the Scriptures”, Vol. 1, page 1206)

The scrolls were perishable and in constant use, so they were continually copied and recopied. In the process, people kept changing the contents. By the time of the New Testament writers, they had to choose between the text of the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint) and the text of the Hebrew Old Testament.

“In a number of cases the writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures evidently made use of the Greek Septuagint translation when quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures. At times the rendering of the Septuagint, as quoted by them, differs somewhat from the reading of the Hebrew Scriptures as now known. … In a few cases the quotations made by Paul and others differ from both the Hebrew and Greek texts as found in available manuscripts.” (“Insight”, Vol. 1, page 1206)

Therefore, “inerrancy” does not refer to the Bible as it exists today.

“The copies of those original writings and the translations made in many languages cannot lay claim to absolute accuracy.” (“Insight”, Vol. 1, page 1206)

This means that the “inspired” Scriptures being read by Timothy are not the “inerrant” Scriptures that were originally written. He was reading words that were “inspired” but the words were not “inerrant”.

The “inerrant” texts no longer exist, so it is impossible to know how the existing text compares with the original.

To cope with the difference between “inerrancy” and “inspiration”, certain Christians use the term “inscripturation” to describe the transmission of information to the original writers.

The “Insight” book goes as far as saying that the only parts of the Septuagint which are “inspired” are those words that are quoted by a New Testament writer.

“Whether the original Hebrew text contained the phrase found in the Septuagint cannot be stated with certainty. Whatever the case, God's spirit guided Paul in his quotation, and therefore these words have divine authorization. This does not mean that the entire Septuagint translation is to be viewed as inspired”. (“Insight”, Vol. 1, page 1206)

Statements in the New Testament about “Scripture” refer to the texts used by the Hebrews (the “Old Testament”).

“(Joh 10:34, 35) … (Mt 5:18) … (Mt 22:29-32: Mr 12:24) … Mt 26:54; Mr 14:27, 49. These statements of course apply to the pre-Christian Hebrew Scriptures.” (“Insight”, Vol. 1, page 1205)

2 Timothy 3:6 does not indicate which Hebrew scrolls were “Scripture”. The list (canon) of Hebrew Scriptures was not decided until at least 100 years later, probably much later.

The list (canon) of New Testament writings took the Church many centuries to achieve general acceptance, although not universally. This casts serious doubts on the veracity of the following statement:

“That the Christian Greek Scriptures were likewise presented and accepted as inspired is also clear.” (1Co 14:37; Ga 1:8, 1 1, 1 2; 1Th 2:13). (“Insight”, Vol. 1, page 1205)

Not only was there no list of New Testament writings, none of the original New Testament writings exists, only copies.

Dooug