Doug Mason

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Posts by Doug Mason

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  18

  GOD in the Beginning

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the ancient hebrews left two bequests:.

  a universal, single god named yahweh;.

  a series of writings identified as sacred scripture..

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  Doug Mason

  I find it difficult to accept that Yahweh was sexless/neutered.

  The environment does not appear to lend itself to any sexless/transgender god.

  The ancients considered that El and his consort Asherah had 70 sons (the Elohim) through normal sexual activity.

  In my Study, I did not enumerate the characteristics of El, but they were of the kindlier nature, the Ancient of days, the Creator God. On the other hand, Yahweh was an angry, warrior, fierce God, who was only "tamed" when characteristics of El were merged into Yahweh, and at the same time El's female consort Asherah was assigned to Yahweh.

  There is no doubt that Asherah was a female as she is depicted with large breasts, usually with her hands beneath them to hold then out. This indicated sustenance and fertility.

  The Israelites worshiped several female goddesses along with a few male gods (symbolised with bulls or calves).
  

  Doug
  
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  18

  GOD in the Beginning

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the ancient hebrews left two bequests:.

  a universal, single god named yahweh;.

  a series of writings identified as sacred scripture..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  Thank you Phizzy and others for your kind words.

  I learned a lot, especially placing the Biblical texts into the context of the evolution of the Hebrew culture during the 12th to 6th centuries,
  

  I sincerely hope that people will be motivated to read the books I cited and some of those that I referenced.

  Doug
  
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  18

  GOD in the Beginning

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the ancient hebrews left two bequests:.

  a universal, single god named yahweh;.

  a series of writings identified as sacred scripture..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  eyeuse2badub,

  If you read my Study you will see that history agrees with you. The Bible was written by a small group of men for men about men who had a male God. The vast majority of the Hebrews worshiped several gods and many more goddesses, and the women played a significant role in that worship, family based. However, these people, being illiterate, did not write their story, and so we have been left with a biased account of true Hebrew worship.

  Maybe women should now stand up and write their accounts,

  Doug
  
• 
  18

  GOD in the Beginning

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the ancient hebrews left two bequests:.

  a universal, single god named yahweh;.

  a series of writings identified as sacred scripture..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  Crazyguy,

  The Gods such as El, Asherah, Baal, and so on came from the north, from the Canaanites. Yahweh apparently came from the south, from the Midianites.

  The stories you read, such as the introduction of Yahweh in the Moses' story, are religious "histories", not literal ball-by-ball literal records. The story you refer to was a mechanism for introducing the change of name to Yahweh.
  

  The purpose of these stories was to create the power base of the writing group. Those who came from Israel wrote of "El", hence their documents are known as "E"; those from Judah, who were intent in having Jerusalem as the center of all religious activities, wrote of "Yahweh", hence their documents are known as "J". (I shall comment on that below).

  Each of the other sources of documents (DTr; P, etc) also sought to legitimize their own power base. Chronicles was written well into the Persian Period because the writer wanted to "correct" the record at the Books of Kings.

  The introduction of Yahweh started with a minority of Hebrews during the 8th century BCE. It took until the Babylonian Exile (6th century) and the Persian Period for them to evolve their focus on Yahweh and at that time they moved Yahweh from Israel's god to the sole universal God. They placed the story back into the past to make it look as if they were always monotheists. They were not.
  

  (Comment: the letter "J" in German, which is the source of this nomenclature, is pronounced as if it were the letter "Y" - as in Yahweh. My mother's maiden surname was Jellinek and it was always pronounced as "Yellinek").

  Doug
  
• 
  18

  GOD in the Beginning

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the ancient hebrews left two bequests:.

  a universal, single god named yahweh;.

  a series of writings identified as sacred scripture..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  Crazyguy,

  My position is far more simple than the suppositions you propose.

  I understand that the Hebrews were hill-dwelling Canaanites, that they were always there. The Patriarchs would have lived during the late Bronze Age but the earliest likely historical evidence comes from the "Tribal/Judges" period of the subsequent Iron Age I.

  Their worship evolved from and remained consistent with their Canaanite roots. The Hebrews shared the gods and goddesses of the Canaanites and of their neighbours, although the size of the Hebrew pantheon was smaller.

  The Scriptures we now read come from the latter part of the Babylonian Exile and the subsequent Persian Period. These authors were Yahweh-aloneists (see their Isaiah 40-55) demanding all worship to be centralised in Jerusalem. Hence their skew of the "historical" record. However, in their denunciations, such as of the god Baal, the writers inadvertently reveal that the Hebrews were worshiping that god, other gods and several goddesses.

  I find it interesting how the Watchtower complains that the word "LORD" hides "Jehovah" yet they inconsistently ignore the fact that in many cases (such as at Genesis 1) the word "God" hides the name of "EL" (the supreme god of the pantheon - the "Elohim").

  I am not in the position to state which of the Babylonian gods were espoused by some of the exiles.

  You ask specifically about my views on the Exodus: I doubt that it took place; I doubt there was a Hebrew known as Moses (an Egyptian name), since there is no archaeological evidence of that person nor is there any archaeological evidence of an exodus, despite millions of people and animals supposedly moving in an area for 40 years. The source of the final story is open to speculation but I suspect that its purpose was to ensure the authority of the people writing the story.

  Doug
  
• 
  18

  GOD in the Beginning

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the ancient hebrews left two bequests:.

  a universal, single god named yahweh;.

  a series of writings identified as sacred scripture..

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  The ancient Hebrews left two bequests:

  • a universal, single God named Yahweh;
  • a series of writings identified as sacred Scripture.

  Using highly credentialed sources, this Study examines how these bequests were formed:

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

  Doug
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  12

  "The Apostle" Paul & "The governing body" He paid not attention to them

  by LAWHFol in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  many witnesses view the structure of the organization, and the authority of the governing body , as a model of the first century congregation..if the governing body is, indeed structured similarly to the 12 apostles.

  paul provides a good example of how we need to view men such as these.. he admonishes christians to reject any teaching that is different from god's word gal 1:8 "but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.".

  he shows by his words that the first century leaders, meant little to him.. 2 cor 11:5 "indeed, i consider that i am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.".

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  Doug Mason

  The primitive church was split - Paul (from the Diaspora and unknown in Jerusalem - he says so) was based in Antioch while the group at Jerusalem, headed by James, Peter and John, focused on the Jews. Indeed, the Jerusalem Church saw themselves as part of Judaism.

  The Jerusalem Church morphed into the Ebionites whereas Paul's sect ultimately gained the political ascendancy, helped along in no small measure by the Roman emperors. The majority of the Christian Scriptures come from Paul or from his disciples, because they were selected - fundamentally from the 2nd century on but dominantly from the 4th to 7th centuries - by those whose allegiance was to Paul, not to the other sects, such as the Ebionites or with Marcion, for example.

  The sequence of the letters attributed by Paul is dictated by their length. Scholars say that only 7 of the letters attributed to Paul were actually by him. Many of those those that were by Paul is a collection of several letters, stitched together to make them appear as it was a single letter.

  As with any part of the Scriptures, the writer was concerned with his own immediate time, with his own immediate community, trying to influence them, using idioms, terminology, and illustrations that had meaning to them at that time, according to their cultures.
  

  Even the epistles attributed to Peter were written by a follower of Paul -- 2 Peter was written about 100 years after Peter's and Paul's deaths.

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

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

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

  Doug
  
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  24

  having a dark night of the soul

  by Miss Behaving in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm writing this here because i need someone to talk to, and you're the only folks i know who will understand.

  most of the time i think i'm a pretty happy and together person, but lately, i'll see something that reminds me of my family and i'll spontaneously start crying.

  i miss them so much and my heart keeps breaking, and even though i have kind people i work and volunteer with, i feel so incredibly lonely sometimes.

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  Doug Mason

  You are going through the very personal experience of a death. It might relate to the loss of a loved one (as in my experience), the breakdown of a relationship, or something as minor as losing a $10 bill.

  It is something personal that cannot be understood by another. Professional grief counselling is available.

  Doug
  
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  36

  Gods name

  by Mr.logic in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what is the correct spelling of gods proper name"yahweh or jehovah"?

  if the jw's maintain that yahweh is more proper, why do they misspell it "jehovah"?

  if the name of god is so important, then you should not only pronounce it correctly, but spell it correctly too.

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  Doug Mason

  The name "Jesus" is a westernized version of Yeshua which is the Hebraic version of "Joshua".
  

  Doug
  
• 
  36

  Gods name

  by Mr.logic in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what is the correct spelling of gods proper name"yahweh or jehovah"?

  if the jw's maintain that yahweh is more proper, why do they misspell it "jehovah"?

  if the name of god is so important, then you should not only pronounce it correctly, but spell it correctly too.

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  Doug Mason

  Hold-me,

  Thank you for your comment. My purpose is to state what I believe. You have every right to disagree and you have every right to express your views.
  

  I am most interested to know which are my sources that are you are referring to.
  

  I am interested in writing a Study that sets out the reasons for my position and I would like to work with you on a project. My thought is that the Study would be in two parts, with each part presenting our respective positions.
  

  You will find my email address at: http://www.jwstudies.com/contact_me.html
  

  I give you my personal guarantee that I do not share confidences, which enables people to freely communicate with me.
  

  Doug