Dr. Julius R. Mantey was a first rate scholar who studied Greek for more than 65 years. He was well known for "A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, which he co-authored with Dr. H.E. Dana. The following is a discussion that took place between Dr. Martin and Dr. Mantey on the Jehovah's Witnesses' New World Translation. Christian Research Institute founder, Dr. Martin. begins by saying: DR. MARTIN: In John 1:1, the New World Translation (NWT) says that "the Word was a God," referring to Jesus Christ. How would you respond to that? DR. MANTEY: The Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) have forgotten entirely what the order of the sentence indicates - that the "Logos" has the same substance, nature, or essence as the Father. To indicate that Jesus was just "a god," the JWs would have to use a completely different construction in the Greek. DR. MARTIN: You once had a little difference of opinion with the Watchtower about this and wrote them a letter. What was their response to your letter? DR. MANTEY: Well, as a backdrop, I was disturbed because they had misquoted me in support of their translation. I called their attention to the fact that the whole body of the New Testament was against their view. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus is glorified and magnified - yet here they were denigrating Him and making Him into a little god of a pagan concept. DR. MARTIN: What was their response to what you said? DR. MANTEY: They said I could have my opinion and they would retain theirs. What I wrote didn't phase them a bit. DR. MARTIN: I don't know whether you're aware of it, but there is not a single Greek scholar in the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. I did everything I could to find out the names of the translating committee of the NWT, and the Watchtower wouldn't tell me a thing. Finally, an ex-JW who knew the committee members personally told me who they were, and the men on that committee could not read New Testament Greek; nor could they read Hebrew; nor did they have any knowledge of systematic theology - except what they had learned from the Watchtower. Only one of them had been to college, and he had dropped out after a year. He briefly studied the biblical languages while there. DR. MANTEY: He was born in Greece, wasn't he? DR. MARTIN: Yes, he read modern Greek, and I met him when I visited the Watchtower. I asked him to read John 1:1 in the Greek and then said, "How would you translate it?" He said: "Well, 'the word was a god."' I said: "What is the subject of the sentence?" He just looked at me. So I repeated, "What is the subject of the sentence?" He didn't know. This was the only person in the Watchtower to read Greek and he didn't know, the subject of the sentence in John 1:1. And these were the people who wrote back to you and said their opinion was as good as yours. DR. MANTEY: That's right. DR. MARTIN: Often we find JW publications quoting scholars. Do they quote these people in context? DR. MANTEY: No. They use this device to fool people into thinking that scholars agree with the JWs. Out of all the Greek professors, grammarians, and commentators they have quoted, only one (a Unitarian) agreed that "the word was a god." DR. MARTIN: You have been quoted as saying that the translators of the NWT are "diabolical deceivers." DR. MANTEY: Yes. The translation is deceptive, and I believe it's a terrible thing for a person to be deceived and go into eternity lost, forever lost because somebody deliberately misled him by distorting the Scripture! DR. MARTIN: What would you say to a JW who was looking for the truth? DR. MANTEY: I would advise him to get a translation other than the NWT, because ninety-nine percent of the scholars of the world who know Greek and who have helped translate the Bible are in disagreement with the JWs. People who are looking for the truth ought to know what the majority of the scholars really believe. They should not allow themselves to be misled by the JWs and end up in hell. Christian Research Institute | |
Deception Exposed: | We feel Mantey has exposed the deception with his own words! How much more powerful can it get than that? |
Number1Anarchist
JoinedPosts by Number1Anarchist
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New World Translation ! Watchtower Misquotes!
by Number1Anarchist inletter by dr. julius mantey - .
misquoted by the watchtower society.
http://caic.org.au/jws/theology/mantey.htm.
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Number1Anarchist
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New World Translation ! Watchtower Misquotes!
by Number1Anarchist inletter by dr. julius mantey - .
misquoted by the watchtower society.
http://caic.org.au/jws/theology/mantey.htm.
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Number1Anarchist
Excellent. Alot more Misquotes! Nice
I bet it's almost impossible to find a celebrated W.T. Scholar! You have to look under the rocks and get your hands dirty!
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Dictatorship of Rutherford!
by Number1Anarchist ina new leader with a different spirit.
one of the board members, joseph franklin rutherford, was a lawyer who was active in politics before coming into the truth.
before pastor russells death, the pastor had dismissed rutherford from bethel and provided him funds for a new start in california.
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Number1Anarchist
Took awhile but i did find it!
http://cfmin.wordpress.com/category/influential-people-in-christianity/
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Dictatorship of Rutherford!
by Number1Anarchist ina new leader with a different spirit.
one of the board members, joseph franklin rutherford, was a lawyer who was active in politics before coming into the truth.
before pastor russells death, the pastor had dismissed rutherford from bethel and provided him funds for a new start in california.
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Number1Anarchist
That's not the correct link sorry. I'm still searching
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New World Translation ! Watchtower Misquotes!
by Number1Anarchist inletter by dr. julius mantey - .
misquoted by the watchtower society.
http://caic.org.au/jws/theology/mantey.htm.
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Number1Anarchist
I got it from the internet. There was another letter also. Here is the link. they had tons of info. thx
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/dirty_watchtower_secrets_pt2.htm
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Dictatorship of Rutherford!
by Number1Anarchist ina new leader with a different spirit.
one of the board members, joseph franklin rutherford, was a lawyer who was active in politics before coming into the truth.
before pastor russells death, the pastor had dismissed rutherford from bethel and provided him funds for a new start in california.
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Number1Anarchist
It took me awhile to find it but here is the link! it had alot more info. It told alot about the groups that broke away and so forth. I'm not saying i subscribe to everything written because i did not read everything there. thx
http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/dirty_watchtower_secrets_pt2.htm
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New World Translation ! Watchtower Misquotes!
by Number1Anarchist inletter by dr. julius mantey - .
misquoted by the watchtower society.
http://caic.org.au/jws/theology/mantey.htm.
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Number1Anarchist
Letter by Dr. Julius Mantey -
Misquoted by the Watchtower Societyhttp://caic.org.au/jws/theology/mantey.htm
Dear Sirs:
I have a copy of your letter addressed to Caris in Santa Ana, California, and I am writing to express my disagreement with statements made in that letter, as well as in quotations you have made from the Dana-Mantey Greek Grammar.
(1) Your statement: "their work allows for the rendering found in the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures at John 1:1," There is no statement in our grammar that was ever meant to imply that "a god" was a permissible translation in John 1:1.
A. We had no "rule" to argue in support of the trinity.
B. Neither did we state that we did have such intention. We were simply delineating the facts inherent in Biblical language.
C. You quotation from p. 148 (3) was a paragraph under the heading: "With the subject in a Copulative Sentence." Two examples occur here to illustrate that "the article points out the subject in these examples." But we made no statement in this paragraph about the predicate except that, "as it stands the other persons of the trinity may be implied ;in theos." And isn't that the opposite of what your translation "a god" infers? You quoted me out of context. On pages 139 and 140 (VI) in our grammar we stated: "without the article, theos signifies divine essence...'theos en ho logos' emphasizes Christ's participation in the essence of the divine nature." Our interpretation is in agreement with that in NEB and TED: "What God was, the Word was"; and with that of Barclay: "The nature of the Word was the same as the nature of God," which you quoted in you letter to Caris.
(2) Since Colwell's and Harner's article in JBL, especially that of Harner, it is neither scholarly nor reasonable to translate John 1:1 "The Word was a god." Word-order has made obsolete and incorrect such a rendering.
(3) Your quotation of Colwell's rule is inadequate because it quotes only a part of his findings. You did not quote this strong assertion: "A predicate nominative which precedes the verb cannot be translated as an indefinite or a 'qualitative' noun solely because of the absence of the article."
(4) Prof. Harner, Vol 92:1 in JBL, has gone beyond Colwell's research and has discovered that anarthrous predicate nouns preceding the verb function primarily to express the nature or character of the subject. He found this true in 53 passages in the Gospel of John and 8 in the Gospel of Mark. Both scholars wrote that when indefiniteness was intended that gospel writers regularly placed the predicate noun after the verb, and both Colwell and Harner have stated that theos in John 1:1 is not indefinite and should not be translated "a god." Watchtower writers appear to be the only ones advocating such a translation now. The evidence appears to be 99% against them.
(5) Your statement in your letter that the sacred text itself should guide one and "not just someone's rule book." We agree with you. But our study proves that Jehovah's Witnesses do the opposite of that whenever the "sacred text" differs with their heretical beliefs. For example the translation of kolasis as cutting off when punishment is the only meaning cited in the lexicons for it. The mistranslation of ego eimi as "I have been" in John 8:58, the addition of "for all time" in Heb. 9:27 when nothing in the Greek New Testament support is. The attempt to belittle Christ by mistranslating arche tes kriseos "beginning of the creation" when he is magnified as the "creator of all things" (John 1:2) and as "equal with God" (Phil. 2:6) before he humbled himself and lived a human body on earth. Your quotation of "The father is greater than I am, (John 14:28) to prove that Jesus was not equal to God overlooks the fact stated in Phil 2:6-8. When Jesus said that he was still in his voluntary state of humiliation. That state ended when he ascended to heaven. Why the attempt to deliberately deceive people by mispunctuation by placing a comma after "today" in Luke 23:43 when in the Greek, Latin, German and all English translations except yours, even in the Greek in you KIT, the comma occurs after lego (I say) - "Today you will be with me in Paradise." 2 Cor 5:8, "to be out of the body and at home with the Lord."
These passages teach that the redeemed go immediately to heaven after death, which does not agree with your teachings that death ends all life until the resurrection. (Ps. 23:6 and Heb 1:10)
The afore mentioned are only a few examples of Watchtower mistranslations and perversions of Gods Word.
In view of the preceding facts, especially because you have been quoting me out of context, I herewith request you not to quote the Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament again, which you have been doing for 24 years. Also that you not quote it or me in any of your publications from this time on. Also that you publicly and immediately apologize in the Watchtower magazine, since my words had no relevance to the absence of the article before theos in John 1:1. And please write to Caris and state that you misused and misquoted my "rule."
On the page before the preface in the grammar are these words: "All rights reserved - no part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher."
If you have such permission, please send me a photo-copy of it. If you do not heed these requests you will suffer the consequences.
Regretfully yours,
Julius R. Mantey
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Dictatorship of Rutherford!
by Number1Anarchist ina new leader with a different spirit.
one of the board members, joseph franklin rutherford, was a lawyer who was active in politics before coming into the truth.
before pastor russells death, the pastor had dismissed rutherford from bethel and provided him funds for a new start in california.
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Number1Anarchist
A NEW LEADER WITH A DIFFERENT SPIRIT
One of the board members, Joseph Franklin Rutherford, was a lawyer who was active in politics before coming into the Truth. Before Pastor Russell’s death, the Pastor had dismissed Rutherford from Bethel and provided him funds for a new start in California. When Pastor Russell died, Rutherford was working as a floorwalker in a department store. Upon hearing of the Pastor’s death, he telegraphed Bethel and told them to hold everything until he arrived. At the time of his death, Pastor Russell was in process of making several changes in the Bethel family, and evidently had not yet updated the members of the board of directors. Since he no longer wanted Rutherford at Bethel, it is doubtful that he wanted him on the board of directors in event of his death.Rutherford was an extremely forceful, self-seeking character. By legal tricks and maneuvers, he was able to avoid the will’s intent and directives to establish himself as President of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, contrary to the wishes of the majority of the Board of Directors. ”Judge” Joseph Franklin Rutherford usurped total control of the Society and became an absolute dictator. While in legal practice, he had once served briefly as a temporary fill-in judge and thus retained the title of “judge” by which he was often referred to. He became the Watchtower’s legal counsel in 1907; one year after he was baptized, and the same year Pastor Russell’s will was drawn up (June 29, 1907). His first contact with the Truth was in 1894.
Rutherford apparently felt that he needed something to establish his position and show leadership capabilities. He was an accomplished public speaker, a skill honed in politics, but others were also. He decided to quickly publish a new book and rush it into print without consulting or receiving approval from the editorial committee as required by Pastor Russell’s will. Two brothers, both from Scranton, Pennsylvania, had developed material for treatises on Ezekiel (George H. Fisher) and Revelation (Clayton J. Woodworth), while Brother Russell still lived. These were hastily completed and combined into one book published in the summer of 1917, the same year the United States entered the war in Europe (April 6, 1917). The Judge released the book on July 7, 1917, the same day he announced the replacement of four WTBTS directors, named by Pastor Russell in his will, with directors of his own choosing. It was falsely proclaimed to be the posthumous work of Pastor Russell. The book was titled the “Finished Mystery” and presented as Pastor Russell’s long expected “Seventh Volume.” It was laced with quotations from Pastor Russell’s writings, which supposedly supported the prophetic theories of the two authors.
One theory, held by the authors, was an expectation that the last members of the church class would die violent deaths at the hands of political and religious leaders in response to a brief but powerful Bible Student message critical of their sinful practices. Consequently, the “Finished Mystery” was written in this spirit and contained harsh condemnations of the government, the churches of America and their leaders. At the same time, Rutherford admonished all young Bible Students, subject to the draft, to oppose military service as conscientious objectors.
The government took swift action against what it considered sedition. In May 1918, federal arrest warrants were issued for Rutherford and 6 other top Society officers. In June 1918, all were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for conspiracy, and sent off to a federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. This was what we might call today a country club prison. The prisoners were allowed the freedom of walking and talking together while playing tennis.
According to provisions in the WTBTS charter and Pastor Russell’s will, direction of the Society resided in its seven board members who were now in prison. Bethel workers left behind in Brooklyn without leadership pondered what to do with the now headless Society.
In August 1918, with its principal leaders in prison, the Society shut down the New York office, sold the Brooklyn Tabernacle, closed the Bethel home, and moved back to Pittsburgh.
In March 1919, after the war ended in November 1918, the imprisoned Society leaders were released from prison under $10,000 bail. To escape his prison sentence, “Judge” Rutherford had made a deal with the government. So much for dying at the hands of the government and ending the church’s earthly course in glorious martyrdom.
It was agreed that Bible Students should cut out certain offensive pages from the “Finished Mystery”, the false “Seventh Volume”, and that the Society would cease printing them. Some followed government orders and cut out pages 245 to 254 in chapter 16, titled “Ecclesiasticisms Seven Plagues”, while others ignored the government edict. This chapter applied the “seven last plagues” of the book of Revelation to Pastor Russell’s 6 Volumes of Studies in the Scriptures and Rutherford’s new “Seventh Volume”. The “Finished Mystery” was claimed to be the hail plague. Many Bible Students, fearful that all their Volumes would be confiscated, hid them in cellars and attics or buried them in the back yard. To this day, some old Volumes retain a musty smell from this treatment.
Young Bible Students were still in prison. Bible Students everywhere were suffering ignominy in the eyes of their neighbors, while Rutherford was making legal deals to escape prison time. Many Bible Students were incensed at the perfidy of the man who had wrestled control of the Society from the hands of its legally appointed administrators.
JUDGE’S ACTIONS CAUSE THOUSANDS TO DEPART
Bible Students left the Society by the thousands. It was no longer the organization they had known under Pastor Russell. They recognized the noble, holy, spirit of Christ in Pastor Russell, but the new head was an entirely different type of leader: a scheming, cunning man with a dictatorial spirit. The first book Rutherford published after Pastor Russell’s death, “The Finished Mystery”, was a very different kind of book than Pastor Russell’s “Studies in the Scriptures.” One doesn’t find the spirit of Pastor Russell in the “The Finished Mystery,” nor does one find the spirit of the “Finished Mystery” in Pastor Russell’s writings. Some perceived the difference, and some did not.Among the dissenters who departed, the burning question became, “What do we do now”? This question has not gone away.
Bible Students expected the Gospel Age to end about 1914 and the earthly kingdom to follow swiftly. As 1914 approached, Pastor Russell saw that much was still left to be done in God’s plan before the full establishment of God’s Kingdom in Earth and God’s will be done as it is in heaven. He repeatedly warned the Brethren, but expectations were high and ears dull. 1914 came and went and the Brethren were still here. The date 1918 seemed likely, and hopes were transferred to that date. It also passed, and hopes were advanced to 1925. This date also proved to be another disappointment, as have numerous hoped for dates since then.
After Pastor Russell died, the Bible Student movement divided roughly in two in the years 1917 to 1918: half stayed with the Society, now called the “Channel”, with Rutherford at its head, while the other half, who opposed Rutherford, showed their opposition by leaving. The dissenters went several different directions as they refused to be associated with an organization dominated by a man of such questionable character as “Judge” Rutherford. By 1930-32, about 75% had left of their own accord, or had been forced out by Rutherford, who tolerated no opposition of any kind.In 1922 in Romania, Rutherford ordered the Romanian Brethren to print only material issued from New York. In 1924, nearly 100% of the Romanian brethren left the Society after Rutherford sold the presses upon which they were printing Truth literature.
Similar actions occurred throughout the Bible Student world.
This sad picture of what happened to the Society following Pastor Russell’s death is the basis for understanding the Bible Student movement since then.
A NEW NAME FOR A NEW MOVEMENT
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and its other legal entities became the sole domain of Rutherford until his death, January 8, 1942. At a convention in Columbus, Ohio, July 24-30, 1931, Rutherford renamed the Society the “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” While we may show compassion towards those deceived by him, we can no longer think of the Society after Rutherford took over, as the Society that Pastor Russell founded. Under its new autocratic head, it had become the enemy of sincere, truth seeking, thinking Bible Students, whatever other good it might have done. For Bible Students eager to witness to the Truth in our day, the stigma of the Jehovah’s Witnesses still attaches to us in the public mind and hinders every effort to represent God’s present Truth to the world.NEW TEACHINGS FOR THE NEW MOVEMENT
While we leave a detailed history of the Jehovah’s Witnesses to others, we note their numerous departures from the Truth and its spirit.Their claim that Pastor Russell is their founder is patently false. Rutherford founded the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Some viewed this move as a marketing stroke of genius.
Their belief that only living Jehovah’s Witnesses pass through the time of trouble into the blessings of Christ’s kingdom on Earth assigns all the rest of mankind, over 6 billion living persons, to second death with no further hope for life. How ludicrous, that one visit from a Jehovah’s Witness constitutes one’s trial for eternal life. This teaching is a denial of the ransom without directly so stating. Such a spirit is in total opposition to the spirit of God’s love, justice and merciful plan for all mankind.
Claiming to be walking in the light, book after book presented new teachings, the latest often contradicting the former. Jehovah’s Witnesses had to read the last edition of the Watchtower magazine to know what was currently accepted as truth.
Some notions were particularly revolting. Since all of mankind not converted to the Jehovah’s Witnesses (over 99.9 percent) was expected to die the second death in Armageddon, this would leave the earth almost void of population. Thus it was taught that the “Jonadab” class, Jehovah Witness couples, would re-populate it.
Eventually, in 1939, the Ransom was totally denied by refusing Adam a resurrection.
The Society’s departure from the Truth did not happen all at once. It was a gradual dilution and perversion of the Truth by substituting new teachings for old. After publishing the “Finished Mystery” in 1917, Rutherford published a book, apparently of his own writing, in October 1, 1921 titled, “The Harp of God.” In general, this book held quite closely to the Truth, but made the rash speculation that, “Millions Living Will Never Die.”
For a while the Judge continued to publish Pastor Russell’s “Studies in the Scriptures.” Then, in 1924, he ceased their publication. In October 1920, Rutherford re-published Pastor Russell’s “Tabernacle Shadows” along with 23 pages of his own added footnote changes to Pastor Russell’s text. These expressed his own, often contrary Tabernacle views.
In 1919, the Society published the green “Reprints” of the Watch Tower magazine, beginning with the first edition in 1879 and including issues up to 1919. In 1920, the remaining supply was sold to the Pastoral Bible Institute, and made available to the Brethren for $2.50.
A NEW FINANCIAL OPERATION
Note the sharp contrast between the Society’s financial operation under Pastor Russell and under Judge Rutherford. Under Pastor Russell’s administration, the Society received voluntary donations and used these to finance the witness work, giving away free tracts and selling books at cost or slightly above. Under Rutherford, the Society was organized as a large printing operation to cheaply print books and sell them for a handsome profit. The Society was no longer solely dependant upon contributions from supporters, as in the past. It now generated funds from a well-organized and profitable book selling operation. Labor costs were almost non-existent, since brethren volunteered their time and labor for subsistence compensation. This change funded Rutherford’s ambitious expansion plans, and freed the Society from money worries.The dissenters, who walked out, had neither Pastor nor Society. Those who remained had no Pastor, but they had what they viewed as the “Channel”. The proposition was put forth that even though bad characters might prevail, the Society is still the “Channel”. It reminds one of Papacy’s past claims. Many have labored long and hard, enslaved to the false notion of “Channelism.”
The dissenters on the other hand were on their own, cast adrift upon a sea of uncertainty. What do we do now? The sheep were scattered without a shepherd. Yet our Good Shepherd is always there, watching over his true church even unto the end. God always provides
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Number1Anarchist
LOL mY bAD! just wanted it confirmed. thx
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Are women accountable to Christ?
by yknot in(1corinthians11:3)3 but i want you to know that the head of every man is the christ; in turn the head of a woman is the man; in turn the head of the christ is god.
so woman answers to man, man to christ, christ to god...... .
are woman held accountable to christ at his return or at the end of the millenial reign?.
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Number1Anarchist
I wanted to add to that so nobody is confused. I did not mean the woman was cursed but was given curses like the pains and the craving for her husband and she would be dominated.
Man got his curses too!
Society has dominated women and still do making them out to be lesser then men!
We can see that now women can be just as intelligent as any man or even alot smarter!
I think women are just as accountable as men!