i'm writing for some advice from former jws.
my family is christian, and my 15yo daughter is "dating" a jw boy.
(the quotes are because they aren't old enough to actually go out on dates... they consider themselves bf/gf and have hung out and gone places with each other, but always with parents, family, etc.
Their is a new movie coming out called "Apostasy" with Emma Thompson as a family court judge (I think)
Lol Smiddy3. You kinda mashed up two Jw films into one there. The one with Emma Thomson as a judge is The Children Act. It is a bit weird that there are two out in the same year. I know Apostasy is the one you meant to recommend.
historians of ancient history along with bible scholars have found from where the ancient hebrews acquired their god yhwh .. el was the all powerful god of the canaanites which the hebrews converted mostly to a monotheist style of worship for themselves.. apparently their were ancient civilizations that predated the canaanites as well .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnpaoappiqm.
Earnest, I can't begin to argue with you on the details of the subject. I haven't read the book you mention. I notice though that you say that Lawson Younger is an authority on the Aramaeans. I wonder why you particularly mention him on this matter when there are scholars who have more specialisation in the study of very early Canaanite civilization and the traces of Canaanite belief in biblical texts.
I saw that Lawson Younger for example has edited a book called Ugarit at Seventy Five and while specialists in this area such as Mark Smith discuss Uragitic texts and links to the bible head on and make a case consistent with Finklestein's OP, Younger's chapter in this book is called The Late Bronze Age / Iron Age Transition and the Origins of the Arameans. This suggests to me that he is not a specialist in this area. I am sure he is a smart guy but scholars tend to have very narrow and deep niches.
I would rather read a scholar who specialises in the niche at hand and is widely regarded as the goto person on a subject than someone who is more tangentially linked to it.
I openly admit that I cannot understand a lot of the detail of the scholarly argumentation. Much of it is above my head. These people have made it their life's work to look into it and they are very smart. But there is always a range of opinion in every area of study - people making cases using different lenses and they often disagree. There tends to be an overall consensus where scholars understanding centres, and then there are also people who hold minority theories out of line with the consensus. When I have no expertise in the field, I think it is safer - I feel I will be closer to the truth of a matter, if I go by the understanding of the people that most know what they are talking about - the majority consensus view - and read books by the scholars who are most respected in their niche.
You say
The view that the God of the Hebrews, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is related to the Canaanite god Elsimply because he is referred to as el or elohim is not accepted by all scholars. El is both a name and a description, but the Hebrew scriptures make clear that the name of the God (elohim) of the Hebrews is Jehovah.
I'm sure you are right that not all scholars accept this. But it is the consensus view by the people who have made it their most particular area of study and I'd rather go with that.
historians of ancient history along with bible scholars have found from where the ancient hebrews acquired their god yhwh .. el was the all powerful god of the canaanites which the hebrews converted mostly to a monotheist style of worship for themselves.. apparently their were ancient civilizations that predated the canaanites as well .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnpaoappiqm.
It is eye opening stuff alright. I was fascinated when I read about the Ugaritic discoveries and how Yahweh evolved to take on attributes of El and Baal. Once you see how the Israelite God evolved, it really is the death knell of any belief in it. It is so foundational.
With a name like Finklestein it is obvious that this was key to you too. I don't normally buy physical books but two I did buy that I'd already read in electronic form were Who wrote the Bible by R.E. Friedman and The Bible Unearthed by Israel Finkelstein. I read that William Dever has some issues with Finkelstein on dating and I don't know the right or wrong of that but its a fascinating book nonetheless. Mark Smith is great on the Ugaritic stuff.
historians of ancient history along with bible scholars have found from where the ancient hebrews acquired their god yhwh .. el was the all powerful god of the canaanites which the hebrews converted mostly to a monotheist style of worship for themselves.. apparently their were ancient civilizations that predated the canaanites as well .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnpaoappiqm.
Excellent info! Who is the woman giving the lecture? I would like to read more about this.
The woman's name is Christine Hayes an accomplished scholar at Yale Divinity school. I recommend the entire lecture series which is available on youtube. Its a valuable recourse.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfbxB0kKayCQ2Hf6JlCCDN6z47ySYxsCW
after all those prayers and letters that didn't do squat.
and it was trump that helped the russian brothers.
then what would the jdub's say?
JW's don't vote so I can't see he'd care.
one of the things that really bothered me is how most of the book of revelation isn't understood by most jws.
most of the trumpets were already sounded many decades ago, is that still right?
it seems like most jws just look the other way.
Its interesting to look into Apocalyptic literature of the time. I just googled it and came up with this for example
As Phizzy says, once you see Revelation as just part of a Apocalyptic genre with similar tropes and imagery it stops being that special.
It is like in an old cowboy movie, the man in black hat and shirt is the baddie and the man in white hat and shirt is the goodie. You can guess this straight away if you have seen enough of them.
hi what will be the next thing that watchtower will cut,if you say the leaked video that fay put up the finance guy from the watchtower was saying that they had spent $26 million in about 6 months.
so if they are getting through money that fast then they are going to have problems.
I definitely agree about the songbooks, particularly with them publishing new songs on an ad hoc basis now, it'll be hopelessly outdated.
when the world shuns jws because of difference of opinion, it is described as the action of satan.. when jws shun others because of difference of opinion, it is described as theocratic action.. such confused mind is at the root of getting wrong teachings.
jws shun anything what anyone would rate as the best of the bible or christian traditions:.
1)cross (with a longer descending arm) is the symbol of controlling the less powerful (“acts of the flesh”) with the more powerful (“spirit” within)—galatians 5:17, 19, 25.
John 8:1-11 is a powerful story. Unfortunately, from what i understand, it isn't in the earliest manuscripts and most scholars believe it to be a later addition.
Whilst the original gospels included made up stories by people who never knew Jesus a generation after he died, this made up story seems to have been put in at a later stage, thereby somehow making it dubious.
Personally i think it is a highly resonant passage with positive implications and deserves to be followed more than much of the so called original material.
videos from the summer jw conventions ("be courageous) show the "urgency" about the end racheted up several notches.
paranoia rules supreme!.
curiously, though, very few, if any, statements in the convention program about 1914 and the overlapping generations.
Jookbeard:
Apostates have access to Russell and Rutherford too, for all the good it does.
The religion is nearly self supporting. Noone researches anymore. Doing it too well gets you in trouble. Nobody cares about doctrine. People know the overlapping generation is nonsense and don't care. The belief system is rotted away but the mental construction stays up. It is suspended by a central pole and that is this: The unquestioning acceptance of the authority of the GB in determining what is true.
videos from the summer jw conventions ("be courageous) show the "urgency" about the end racheted up several notches.
paranoia rules supreme!.
curiously, though, very few, if any, statements in the convention program about 1914 and the overlapping generations.
1914 used to be a load bearing wall. It couldn't have been taken away without everything else falling down. It is still their most significant date in the sense of JW history so they can't admit to being wrong about it - not for a long time yet. But I don't think its holding the building up in the same way anymore. If 1914 was taken away, people would be unhappy but I think the structure of belief would still mostly keep standing.
The reason they don't mention 1914 is because it is connected to the new overlapping generation doctrine which is just so ridiculous, embarrassing and confusing that nobody wants to talk about it. So it exists but is ignored. More and more it'll become a doctrinal vestigial organ, like an human appendix, that people know they have in their body academically, but never need to think about. It need not be taken out as long as it does no harm.
