Well, we start out with a parable which in the KJV reads "Well done, O good and faithful servant", corrected to be a Slave and one of significant authority akin to the "Fisherman" or the Shepherd. Moreover it is collective. And it didn't know it was Discrete until after attorney Moyle was told by Rutherford that he talked too much. Moyle resigned and Rutherford gave no recommendation, firing him ex post facto. But the point being, service ended. Now what about this Biblical GB-FDS? No matter how you look at it, it's been more than 7 years.
kepler
JoinedPosts by kepler
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If the Faithful and Discreet Slave is Biblically based, shouldn't its term of indenture be long over?
by kepler inwell, we start out with a parable which in the kjv reads "well done, o good and faithful servant", corrected to be a slave and one of significant authority akin to the "fisherman" or the shepherd.
moreover it is collective.
and it didn't know it was discrete until after attorney moyle was told by rutherford that he talked too much.
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Catholic Approach to Scripture: How It Made Me Leave the Jehovah's Witnesses
by Hernandez inindoctrinated into all things watchtower, i once believed the bible was true history, that evolution was false and evil, and that the bible could be trusted to be reliable when it touched on science issues.
then i got introduced to the official catholic bible translation of u.s. catholics, the new american bible revised edition (or nabre--not to be confused with the protestant nasv or new american standard version) and things changed.
i was shocked to learn that the nabre teaches.... the creation and flood stories of genesis are jewish adaptations of mesopotamian heathen creation-flood mythology, not history.
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kepler
Hernandez,
Thanks for the survey.
I might add that historical problems with Catholicism are obvious - just as there are with Protestantism. If you can't believe there are any comparisons, check out Ireland or witch trials. But even as late as this day, I still notice that Evangelical Protestantism in the guides of Biblical prophecy attempts to equate Catholicism with the diabolic or beasts of Revelation. Thankfully, it is not reciprocated.
Londo111,
Ditto.
Found the New Jerusalem Bible eventually, but too late to do anything about the domestic crisis of circa 2009. But since then, almost every time one of these scriptural controversies come up, I look at its text and annotations, compare it with a Greek NT or a Hebrew TaNaKh. It might not result in a definitive answer of how or why things are as they are, but it does give further understanding.
I
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The Jewish Temple(s) In Egypt. (Circa 5th Century BCE)
by fulltimestudent inthe web address on the above sketch is misleading as the sketch (it seems) was included originally, in a article in a peer reviewed archaeological journal by a stephen rosenberg.. there is little doubt that the temple was genuine and it demonstrates that the ot stories about the role of egypt in the formation of judaism do not tell the truth about the complete relationship between israel and the egyptian empire.. we know that this temple on elephantine island was genuine.
some papyrus correspondence has survived .
there is also another (claimed) jewish temple that an archaelogical team explored last century, but the precise location has been lost.. more on the above temple tomorrow..
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kepler
Mephis,
Not sure that I'm following you. My understanding here is that there is a Jewish temple ( i.e., a facility for religious observances ) located on the Upper NIle on Elephantine Island and that there are archeological remains or documents associated with it. This facility was for Judeans located there. Some of the inhabitants were supposedly Judean soldiers in garrisons of the Persian Empire. The Persian empire moved into Egypt during the reign of Cambyses.
Now a request "to rebuild the temple": Are you referring to the Jerusalem Temple or a structure on the Egyptian Upper Nile at Elephantine Island?
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The Jewish Temple(s) In Egypt. (Circa 5th Century BCE)
by fulltimestudent inthe web address on the above sketch is misleading as the sketch (it seems) was included originally, in a article in a peer reviewed archaeological journal by a stephen rosenberg.. there is little doubt that the temple was genuine and it demonstrates that the ot stories about the role of egypt in the formation of judaism do not tell the truth about the complete relationship between israel and the egyptian empire.. we know that this temple on elephantine island was genuine.
some papyrus correspondence has survived .
there is also another (claimed) jewish temple that an archaelogical team explored last century, but the precise location has been lost.. more on the above temple tomorrow..
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kepler
It should be noted that the Aramaic documents found on Elephantine Island are connected to the Persian occupation of Egypt. To quote the Wikipedia
"Though some fragments on papyrus are much older, the largest number of papyri are written in Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Persian Empire, and document the Jewish community among soldiers stationed at Elephantine under Persian rule, 495–399 BCE"
Egypt came under Persian rule during the reign of Cambyses,starting around 530 BC and Darius I, who reigned until 486 BC, expanded the frontiers west into Libya and up the Nile river. Since the Persian garrison did not show up until after 500 BC, what Jewish community preceded them is a matter of conjecture..
I'd say that there is as much or more of a story in how the Persian Empire affected Judean beilefs versus the Egyptian influence.
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John 20: 24-29 In the NWT it says the same as elsewhere. Dissonance somewhere?
by kepler inthomas the apostle's name came up in conversation today, ostensibly about his travels to india.
i was originally wondering about the documentation for these journeys from whatever sources - and then reviewed what he had said or done in the gospels or acts.
thomas appears in the gospel of john and sources at least as early as the 3rd century describe him as a missionary to india.
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kepler
Sir82,
Thank you.
Seems rather re-miss though that they did not mention John eighth chapter 58th verse.
I had to write it out because there is an edit feature that deleted first time.
Kepler
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John 20: 24-29 In the NWT it says the same as elsewhere. Dissonance somewhere?
by kepler inthomas the apostle's name came up in conversation today, ostensibly about his travels to india.
i was originally wondering about the documentation for these journeys from whatever sources - and then reviewed what he had said or done in the gospels or acts.
thomas appears in the gospel of john and sources at least as early as the 3rd century describe him as a missionary to india.
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kepler
Thomas the Apostle's name came up in conversation today, ostensibly about his travels to India. I was originally wondering about the documentation for these journeys from whatever sources - and then reviewed what he had said or done in the Gospels or Acts. Thomas appears in the Gospel of John and sources at least as early as the 3rd century describe him as a missionary to India. But what struck my attention is a review of the end of John in chapter 20 where Christ reappears to a group of disciples with the sceptical Thomas among them (24 to 29). Having examined the marks of the nails in Christ's hands, Thomas exclaims, "My Lord and my God!" Since there has been so much Trinitarian vs. Aryan debate in the Christian community since, not to mention the reasoning of the JW movement, howdoes this near final episode in John fit into the picture?
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What were two Chinese doing in Roman London?
by fulltimestudent inin the ancient world, people moved around much more than we may have expected, (think of paul's reported journeys and those of his supporters), but the identification of two skeletons in a roman era burial ground, as chinese has surprised historians.. the uk bbc reports: .
dr rebecca redfern, curator of human osteology at the museum of london, told bbc radio 4's the world at one, the find was "the first time in roman britain we've identified people with asian ancestry" and it was "absolutely phenomenal".. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37452287.
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kepler
I'll keep an eye out for the details, but this matter reminds me of claims about the ancient world prior to the 13th century BC. When it came to alloy production of bronze, there was need for sources of alloying metals copper and tin. Copper was in plentiful enough supply around the Mediterranean basin. So no big problem for Egyptians and peoples along the eastern shores such as in Asia minor or Canaan.
Just one of the interesting background observations of E. H. Cline's book, 1177 BC, the Year that Civilization Collapsed.
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Lucifer:" Care for a light, anyone?" John Calvin: "No, thank you."
by kepler inabout a week or so ago, this old subject came up again within the family.
none of us were jws, but i see evidence that many have mulled this subject over too.
and then were a couple of remarkable coincidences.. but my less than casual reading of isaiah and ezekiel was reference to nebuchadnezzar and the king of tyre respectively.
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kepler
About a week or so ago, this old subject came up again within the family. None of us were JWs, but I see evidence that many have mulled this subject over too. And then were a couple of remarkable coincidences.
But my less than casual reading of Isaiah and Ezekiel was reference to Nebuchadnezzar and the King of Tyre respectively. And the epithets employed in Isaiah depended on whose translation you studied. In some cases Lucifer is not used in translation. Especially outside of the English language. And with the Vulgate in Latin, it is not entirely clear what Jerome had meant if proper nouns were not denoted by capital letters. King James uses this expression. Others use Day Star, whatever that would be. But taken in context, where both Isaiah and Ezekiel are predicting or calling on downfall for earthly monarchs in other chapters - and these as well, I don't see the satanic connection. And if the Prince of Darkness is, well, the Prince of Darkness, how could he be Lucifer as well?
In both cases these ruminations on the nature of evil distracts from some other problems with the passages. For in the case of Isaiah, he never met Nebuchadnezzar - or Cyrus. So a copy of Isaiah must have been interesting reading during Exilic times and the century leading toward them after Isaiah died. And in the case of Ezekiel, calling down God's wrath on Tyre or Egypt both appear to be unsuccessful prophecies, aside from the issue that Isaiah had remarked on Nebuchadnezzar already in the same context. But Egypt stayed intact against the Babylonians and the Prince of Tyre held off the Babylonians for 13 years as an island fortress and traded with its prosperous colonies. Nebuchadnezzar did not effect a blockade because he had no navy of any consequence. Ezekiel appears to have been playing the odds.
He addressed Isaiah chapter 14, but not Ezekiel. For that see Barnes.
Since Calvin wrote and did much, I do not suggest that anyone (non Presbyterian) take him as someone above error. But considering from whence a lot of what we hear (literally) about the origin of evil comes from his preaching successors ( hear it is nearly 500 years later), I have to wonder just how far we have really come.
Isaiah 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven!
Isaiah proceeds with the discourse which he had formerly begun as personating the dead, and cloncludes that the tyrant differs in no respect from other men, though his object was to lead men to believe that he was some god. He employs an elegant metaphor, by comparing him to Lucifer, and calls him Son of Dawn; and that on account of his splendor and brightness with which he shone above other. The exposition of this passage, which some have given, as if it referred to Satan, has arisen from ignorance; for the context plainly shows that these statements must be understood in reference to the king of the Babylonians. But when passages of Scripture are taken up at random, and no attention is paid to the context, we need not wonder that mistakes of this kind frequently arise. Yet it was an instance of very gross ignorance, to imagine that Lucifer was the king of devils, and that the Prophet gave him this name. But as these inventions have no probability whatever, let us pass by them as useless fables.
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Sun,moon, earth and mathematics .
by atomant injust thought id let you all in on some info i found on northeasttruth.com.
that magical moment where the moon blocks out the sun!
but only just enough to perfectly cover the suns disc, whilst still allowing us to see the corona of light and other electromagnetic forces radiating from it.. this only happens because the moon diameter is exactly 1/400th the size of the suns and is positioned at exactly 1/400th of the distance between earth and the sun!so, when we see it from the surface of earth, we are in the only place this can ever be seen, at the only time it could ever happen.
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kepler
I just noticed that half of the paragraphs I submit get edited out.
1. Something about the units of measure for the meter and the second in terms of integers and how they could be interpreted.
2. Remarked that Carl Sagan's science fiction novel "Contact" leaned remarkably on numerology.
They're both gone.
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Sun,moon, earth and mathematics .
by atomant injust thought id let you all in on some info i found on northeasttruth.com.
that magical moment where the moon blocks out the sun!
but only just enough to perfectly cover the suns disc, whilst still allowing us to see the corona of light and other electromagnetic forces radiating from it.. this only happens because the moon diameter is exactly 1/400th the size of the suns and is positioned at exactly 1/400th of the distance between earth and the sun!so, when we see it from the surface of earth, we are in the only place this can ever be seen, at the only time it could ever happen.
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kepler
Bode's law used to have a lot of currency among "planetologists" - until some extra solar planetary systems were detected via doppler and transits of other stars. Haven't heard much about Bode's law lately, save in used and very old astronomy books.
You could look at these as Pythagorean integers of import, or you could look at them as outcomes of efforts to define precise units of measure - until something better comes along.
Regarding planets and their rotation rates. Some planets have roughly ten hour rotation rates. Others don't. But usually planets are not formed in isolation. Their are mechanisms that dissipate their angular momentum so that they often rotate, after a time, synchronously with other bodies. What applies to moons such as ours and the principal satellites of Jupiter, can apply to planets as well with respect to suns.