A welcome change indeed, though it will not improve JW tolerance of anyone else's beliefs nor will it change their attitude towards dissenters.
--sd-7
i want to thank jehovah's witnesses new world bible translation committee for changing the words, "mentally diseased" as found in the 1984 edition of the nwt, to "obsessed with arguments," as found in 1 timothy 6:4 in the 2013 revised nwt.. on february 6, 2012, david splane, the overseer of the watchtower's writing department received an open letter from me which i posted below especially for new posters.
the topic of my letter was in response to the writing department's statement that ..."apostates are mentally diseased" in their july 15, 2011 watchtower.
the 1984 edition of the new world translation reads:.
A welcome change indeed, though it will not improve JW tolerance of anyone else's beliefs nor will it change their attitude towards dissenters.
--sd-7
among the inane fb comments i've come across about the agm, this one stood out as more inane than the most enthusiastic jw slobbering:.
"before we start taking about what happened at the agm we must be absolutely certain that all the meetings are over.
make sure that we are obedient in the small things ago that we will be obedient in the big things.
Of course that no longer includes Jesus' admonition, “Let the one of YOU that is sinless be the first to throw a stone at her,” because THAT'S NOT IN THE nNWT!
It was never part of the oldest manuscripts to begin with, and to my knowledge was never quoted in any WT literature probably for that reason. It's a nice story, but somebody made it up.
Epic is the word you use to describe sitting in a building with no windows staring at a large video monitor for 3 hrs.
Yeah, but more so if I'm watching a Peter Jackson film, like 'King Kong' or 'Return of the King'. Those were pretty epic, for 3 hours.
So...if the organization does not claim to be perfect, then why is even a minor disagreement with their doctrine tantamount to insulting God? You can't have it both ways. If you're imperfect, that means at some point, you have to make a mistake or teach something incorrectly. Which they do, but by employing their own doublethink version of Magisterium, in fact let's just coin a term there, Doublethink Magisterium, they make it impossible to disagree, much less call them out on an erroneous teaching.
Doesn't seem to make sense to continue engaging someone who accuses you of slander for recounting what they just studied in the magazine they claim to believe in word-for-word. But I get why you do. Problem is, more often than not, it takes something more than reason to wake people up. "Sometimes the mind has to discover things for itself."
--sd-7
i see the wts has now removed the reference to jesus' rendering punishment of death by sword, when the master returns and finds the evil servant abusing the other slaves; they've sanitized the reading of matt 24:51 as this:.
51 "and he will punish him with the greatest severity and will assign him his place with the hypocrites.
there is where his weeping and the gnashing of his teeth will be.".
--sd-7
so who here wants to run an experiment?
if you still attend the meetings, are you willing to cling to the "old" new world translation?.
keep using it in front of all of the rest of the cultists.
"You don't fear the Old World Translation, you welcome it. Your punishment must be more severe." "Torture?" "Yes. But not of your body. Of your soul."
--sd-7
the new bible is up at jw.org!.
I'm actually rather pleased with some of the stuff in this New NWT. It's kind of a blend of what a lot of other Bibles already had--footnotes/alternate renderings (and the Reference Bible had that already, but it was rather large)--with the same old JW Bible. Some of their renderings of certain verses definitely appear to have improved, though they have maintained most of the doctrinal bias. It's actually pretty--I like the gray color and the font and while I see that much of the extra stuff is recruitment-related, it's still shiny.
Of course that's in no way relevant to the truth content of the material contained therein, but it's nice, I'll admit that. I guess all the rumors were true after all, huh, about a new Bible. I suppose a project that big couldn't possibly be conducted in total secrecy. As a drama queen/door mat/lost soul searching for meaning in life after being in a cult, this sort of thing could get me interested again in reading an ancient text about a divine being who is soon to murder me without so much as a phone call.
I, too, noticed the appendix about their use of the name Jehovah. The logic remains the same, I see. But without any original copies of any of the books of the NT, how can it be assumed that the divine name was ever there? The tradition of not pronouncing it was already in place long before the time of the first-century Christians. Are we to assume based on a couple of verses in the Gospel about Jesus 'making God's name known' that they broke with that tradition? If so, why do the Gospels contain no controversy about this man who was using the name of Jehovah over and over in his teaching despite the long-standing tradition of not doing so? Oh, right, because Jesus refers to God as 'the Father'. Huh. Kind of throws you for a loop, there.
But it's a lot like a Blu-ray Disc with special features and deleted scenes, except the deleted scenes have already been deleted and there's a note telling you somebody added the scenes to the movie later by mistake. Or whatever.
I look forward to downloading the .pdf version since I'm too disloyal to Jehovah and his organization to obtain a paper copy of the New New World Translation on my own. Hey, New New World Translation? It's like Futurama or something. "Not Sure If Old New World Translation Is Now Called Old World Translation Now, Or If 2013 New World Translation Should Be Called New New World Translation".
--sd-7
there is now a footnote that offers the alternative "was divine" ... which is the preferred rendering of jason d. beduhn ph.d. as stated in his book truth in translation.
That was one of the first things I noticed about it. I actually appreciate the presence of the alternate rendering "was divine" there.
--sd-7
i had been wondering over the past few years whether there really was a historical jesus at all, until a few months ago when i read bart ehrman's latest book "did jesus exist?
" initially i was persuaded by his argument that the nt contains multiple sources that testify to jesus' existence.
but more recently i have been reading the christ myth position of richard carrier and his responses to ehrman.
the Turin shroud
At the very least, this is proof that Turin Turambar, son of Hurin, existed, or else why have a shroud named after him? Right? Right??
--sd-7
i had been wondering over the past few years whether there really was a historical jesus at all, until a few months ago when i read bart ehrman's latest book "did jesus exist?
" initially i was persuaded by his argument that the nt contains multiple sources that testify to jesus' existence.
but more recently i have been reading the christ myth position of richard carrier and his responses to ehrman.
As Douglas Adams wisely put it, he was nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be if everyone was a little nicer to each other. No matter how improbable, then, if we engage Improbability Drive, Jesus not only existed, he even came back, at least twice, ordered snacks, and then left to consume them. They were excellent snacks.
--sd-7
--my wife has this as a ringtone on her cell phone, so i can't get the darn song out of my head.
thus, i had no choice but to lampoon it.
in order to do so perfectly, i knew that making seven verses--rather than six, which would be handling the matter imperfectly--was not only necessary, but wise.
those darn mp3s Kingdom maladies.
Indeed. Our neighbors must think we're from another planet, when that stuff's blaring out of the speakers...so you're not alone, Magwitch :) Thanks, though one wonders if I have a gift or a curse that I can write such things...fine line between genius and madness and all that...
I did have to stop watching "Today's Special," where a department store mannequin magically came to life. Sounds perfectly logical to me.
Wasn't there a movie called 'Mannequin' with that premise, or was that the name of the movie and I've just forgotten? There are so many products with the word 'magic' in them that it's almost worth writing a Beast-Tower article about their use...but I've been out of practice.
Honestly, I feel like maybe my hormones played the role of Leeroy Jenkins in my life...that could be another Beast-Tower article there, 'Who Make Up the Antitypical Leeroy Jenkins Class Today?' Those who rush ahead of Jehovah's organization, heedless of the consequences, would surely in large part fit this description...
Okay, maybe not so out of practice, after all...I haven't read any WT literature in...well, probably not since looking at that new book with the chapter about Abel. How do you write a chapter about a guy who gets introduced and then killed in like, half a page? But I digress...
I am one tired dude...I'm surprised this song was viewed so many times. I feel honored. "A god's voice and not a man's!" [Falls over eaten up by worms]
--[the 'evidently' immortal soul of] sd-7
--my wife has this as a ringtone on her cell phone, so i can't get the darn song out of my head.
thus, i had no choice but to lampoon it.
in order to do so perfectly, i knew that making seven verses--rather than six, which would be handling the matter imperfectly--was not only necessary, but wise.
Nice_Dream--Thanks.
Also, blasted cell phones these days (well, not mine, since I got mine for free but she has a more advanced one, I've been too cheap to upgrade mine) have the ability to play MP3s, so of course JW music can be used the same as any MP3 file...hence the ringtones.
Thirdly, thanks--I, too, am a big Zelda fan, though motion sickness while playing some of the later games made it hard to keep playing them. Ocarina of Time is the last Zelda game I finished. I chose the avatar in response to my mom's sudden JW-inspired rejection of all things Zelda after having allowed us to play them for decades... Talk about nerd alert, are you excited for the 3DS game 'A Link to Two Worlds' or what??? Also related to nerd alerts, I just now finally discovered the origin story of this Leeroy Jenkins thing. I was afraid I was going to die laughing, seriously. It was scary for a moment. But beautiful, nonetheless.
LoisLane--I'm only smiling on the outside. Deep down I'm crying. "You might join me for a weep!" Ha ha ha ha!
3rdgen--A wise choice. I have a feeling this would go well for someone who was incredibly drunk and red-faced, because people would be wondering when the song was going to end, and it would get really awkward. But then they'd clap at the end, like, two of them.
--sd-7