Doug Mason

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Posts by Doug Mason

• 
  110

  References to YHWH in ancient documents

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  page 15 of awake!

  2017 provides an image that shows hebrew writing with the statement: “the personal name of god written in ancient hebrew characters appears abundantly in early manuscripts of the bible”.. alongside that image, the awake!

  provides a listing to show “the rendering of ‘god’s name’ in various languages”.. the facts do not support either assertion that the watchtower society makes:.

  1. 
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• 

  Doug Mason

  Hi Jan,

  You raise interesting issues.

  We must ensure that we do not impose our concepts onto the idioms of the past. For those Jews, a "name" was more than an appellation, it was the very being of that person. Hence the need at times to change a person's name (to "Israel" or to "Peter/Petros" - although he "petered out").

  The be saved (whatever that means) by the name of Jesus could equally be understood as requiring one to live in accordance with that as a standard. The reality of course is that the "name" Jesus is a distortion of the original, which was Yeshua, and which in turn is Anglicised as "Joshua". Interestingly, this is the earliest recorded genuine Yahwist name.

  Yes, the WTS does intrude its prejudices upon the scriptural texts - and everyone does that - but more fundamental to me is to ask them: Why have they accepted and adopted the Protestant's scriptures?

  I provide one of their sources that shows which OT texts cited in the NT employed the tetragram:

  See the second page:

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

  The other factor is that there were several versions of the LXX and the NT writers worked from them, some of which we no longer have.

  Doug
• 
  110

  References to YHWH in ancient documents

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  page 15 of awake!

  2017 provides an image that shows hebrew writing with the statement: “the personal name of god written in ancient hebrew characters appears abundantly in early manuscripts of the bible”.. alongside that image, the awake!

  provides a listing to show “the rendering of ‘god’s name’ in various languages”.. the facts do not support either assertion that the watchtower society makes:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  Phizzy,

  I would not be surprised if Moses was an actual person, but I do not accept the biblical portrayal. The ancients' view of history does not accord with our concepts. They wrote the stories to promote a religious outcome according to each ideology. Rather than read the Bible as "history" I am interested in the history of the history: historiography:

  https://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/writing/history/critical/historiography.html

  Given that Moses (an Egyptian name) would have lived around about the 12th century BCE, the stories were written some 500 years later - and modified during and after the Neo-Babylonian captivity and exile. And each part was influenced according to which group of scribes was responsible for writing it and in its subsequent editing. (The Watchtower is an amateur when it comes to amending the texts.)

  I am currently wearing my fingers down to my elbows collecting and collating material about the early Israelites. At the rate I am going, I suspect it will take me up to a month to cobble my first draft.

  One interesting source - written in 1906 - in two parts

  http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/473770
  

  http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/473788
  

  While Dever is convinced that the Judahite Pillar figurines depict Asherah, I am yet to be convinced.

  Doug
• 
  110

  References to YHWH in ancient documents

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  page 15 of awake!

  2017 provides an image that shows hebrew writing with the statement: “the personal name of god written in ancient hebrew characters appears abundantly in early manuscripts of the bible”.. alongside that image, the awake!

  provides a listing to show “the rendering of ‘god’s name’ in various languages”.. the facts do not support either assertion that the watchtower society makes:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  Ruby,

  There is no doubt that monotheism became the dominant form as an outcome of the Neo-Babylonian Captivity and Exile. As one clear example, consider Deutero-Isaiah (ch 40ff), which were written at that time.

  Prior to that, the nation was monolatrous, not monotheistic. Some apply the term henotheistoc. All of these terms would be foreign to them. They were created in recent centuries.

  Study the evolution from the god named EL, who appears for example in Genesis 1. There are several serious books and scholarly articles that explain the way that the Israelites took a war-god named Yahweh and over time they assimilated the features of other Gods, such as EL, creating a very different Yahweh.

  For example, they took the pantheon of gods from EL and passed them onto Yahweh. Initially, EL was the creator God, but that was given to Yahweh. EL was the "Ancient of Days", and so on and on.

  EL and his pantheon came from the northern neighbours. Yahweh was not one of those northern gods. Instead, he came to the Israelites from the south with Moses.

  Doug
• 
  110

  References to YHWH in ancient documents

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  page 15 of awake!

  2017 provides an image that shows hebrew writing with the statement: “the personal name of god written in ancient hebrew characters appears abundantly in early manuscripts of the bible”.. alongside that image, the awake!

  provides a listing to show “the rendering of ‘god’s name’ in various languages”.. the facts do not support either assertion that the watchtower society makes:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  Ruby,

  When talking about the ancient Hebrews and Israelites, do not muddy the water by bringing in anything that came afterwards. Keep the discussion focused on the times.

  The Israelites were monolatrists. They were not monotheists.

  Doug
• 
  110

  References to YHWH in ancient documents

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  page 15 of awake!

  2017 provides an image that shows hebrew writing with the statement: “the personal name of god written in ancient hebrew characters appears abundantly in early manuscripts of the bible”.. alongside that image, the awake!

  provides a listing to show “the rendering of ‘god’s name’ in various languages”.. the facts do not support either assertion that the watchtower society makes:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  Ruby,

  Investigate the history as it is most fascinating.

  "Moses" is an Egyptian name. His father-in-law was a priest and he made offerings while Moses and Aaron watched on. I understand that Moses learned about Yahweh from his father in law. As the Bible says, prior to that, god was known as EL (shaddai).

  Areas that I am keen to investigate to check on:

  (1) Who were the Hebrews?

  (2) Where did the Israelites come from and what was their political alliance (phoenician?)

  (3) What language did they speak?

  (4) Which Gods did they have?

  (5) Where did the Judahites come from and what was their political alliance?

  (6) Did they speak a different language to the Israelites?

  (7) Which gods they have?

  (8) How did David manage to unite the two nations?

  Always remember that the Judaism we are familiar with did not emerge until their experiences with the Neo-Babylonian Captivity and Exile. That is when the monotheists took control (Isaiah 40 ff)

  Doug
• 
  110

  References to YHWH in ancient documents

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  page 15 of awake!

  2017 provides an image that shows hebrew writing with the statement: “the personal name of god written in ancient hebrew characters appears abundantly in early manuscripts of the bible”.. alongside that image, the awake!

  provides a listing to show “the rendering of ‘god’s name’ in various languages”.. the facts do not support either assertion that the watchtower society makes:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  Smiddy,

  I have several books by Bible scholars that discuss Yahweh and some include that word in the book's title.

  If God needs a name, does that mean he/she/it needs to be identified from the other gods? Otherwise, what's the point?

  Doug
• 
  110

  References to YHWH in ancient documents

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  page 15 of awake!

  2017 provides an image that shows hebrew writing with the statement: “the personal name of god written in ancient hebrew characters appears abundantly in early manuscripts of the bible”.. alongside that image, the awake!

  provides a listing to show “the rendering of ‘god’s name’ in various languages”.. the facts do not support either assertion that the watchtower society makes:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  Earnest,

  Thank you for your help,

  Doug
• 
  13

  The anonymity of Jehovah's Witness material

  by stuckinarut2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  is it vital for credibility to have the name of the writer of an article referenced?.

  does this allow for honesty and accountability?

  does this assist in ensuring that whatever is presented is as factual as possible, or not biased in some way toward the religion's ideas?.

  1. 
  2. 
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• 

  Doug Mason

  I suppose it's different now, but I had thought in the past they did not want to show that an author was not of the "Anointed Class".

  Things change,

  Doiug
• 
  110

  References to YHWH in ancient documents

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  page 15 of awake!

  2017 provides an image that shows hebrew writing with the statement: “the personal name of god written in ancient hebrew characters appears abundantly in early manuscripts of the bible”.. alongside that image, the awake!

  provides a listing to show “the rendering of ‘god’s name’ in various languages”.. the facts do not support either assertion that the watchtower society makes:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  hangedman,

  Blame the Kabbalah.

  Blame Gematria.

  Blame the irrationality of Religion in all its forms.

  Why oh why do otherwise rational people behave so irrationally, speculatively?

  Doug
• 
  110

  References to YHWH in ancient documents

  by Doug Mason in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  page 15 of awake!

  2017 provides an image that shows hebrew writing with the statement: “the personal name of god written in ancient hebrew characters appears abundantly in early manuscripts of the bible”.. alongside that image, the awake!

  provides a listing to show “the rendering of ‘god’s name’ in various languages”.. the facts do not support either assertion that the watchtower society makes:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Doug Mason

  Wow, Slim, there is just so much to discover but so little time do it all.

  Thank you for pointing out that book, which I have added to my wish list.

  Doug