Posts by Bobcat

3

Are angels allowed to redeem others from all evil?

by I_love_Jeff in

genesis 48:15-16.

15 and he blessed joseph and said, “the god before whom my fathers abraham and isaac walked, the god who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, 16 [the angel] who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers abraham and isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.” – .

two-part question:.

Bobcat

Footnote 30 at Gen 48:16 in the NET Bible, concerning "angel," says (quoted from here):

Smr reads “king” here, but the traditional reading (“angel”) may be maintained. Jacob closely associates God with an angelic protective presence. This does not mean that Jacob viewed his God as a mere angel, but it does suggest that he was aware of an angelic presence sent by God to protect him. Here he so closely associates the two that they become virtually indistinguishable. In this culture messengers typically carried the authority of the one who sent them and could even be addressed as such. Perhaps Jacob thought that the divine blessing would be mediated through this angelic messenger.

Footnote 31, concerning "redeem," but rendered "protect" in the NET, says:

tn The verb גָּאַל (gaʾal) has the basic idea of “protect” as a near relative might do. It is used for buying someone out of bondage, marrying a deceased brother’s widow, paying off debts, avenging the family, and the like. The meanings of “deliver, protect, avenge” are most fitting when God is the subject (see A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of גאל,” Congress Volume: Copenhagen, 1953 [VTSup], 67-77).

Here is a comparison of how the verse is rendered in various translations. It will give you a sense of how these translators understood the verse.

This portion of Gen (48:9-18) has been proposed as having a chiastic structure. (See here.) In the chiasm, verse 15b and 16 form the pivot (or central) point. If so, then 15b (referring to God) and 16 (referring to the angel) form a sort of parallel idea.

On this page, all of Gen 48:1-22 is arranged into a chiastic structure. But, as you can see, verses 15-16 again form the pivot point. And, as such, the phrase about 'God being his shepherd' and the phrase about 'the angel protecting/redeeming him from evil' would form a parallel idea. Each phrase describing the same thing.

In a sense, Jacob acknowledges God as having 'shepherded' him (Gen 48:15) by means of an angel (Gen 48:16). The idea of 'shepherding' carries with it the implicit idea of 'protection.' Compare Psalm 23:1-4 here.

17

Sickle Cell Case

by Lee Elder in

the sad reality for jehovah's witness children who must depend upon the courts to get critical medical care their parents reject for them, even when their lives depend upon it.

to support the irrational blood policy of the watchtower society.

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-12-05-three-jehovahs-witness-families-taken-to-court-to-save-childrens-lives/.

Bobcat

Marked.

37

My sister passed away this evening

by smiddy3 in

it was only about two months ago she was diagnosed with lung cancer and she was a non smoker .. she was never a jw and she never held it against me that i was for 33 years.. we had a good relationship even though we lived in different states about 2000 miles apart,.. tears are rolling down my cheeks as i type this .

r.i.p.

sylvia .

Bobcat

Very sorry for your loss of such a good sister smiddy. I wish you comfort and peace.

4

JWResearch

by Tigris in

jw
friends

so what’s up with the jwresearch .

info site?

i noticed it was down last thursday, and then came back up.

Bobcat

I wonder if they had copyright problems? When I google "JWRESEARCH" all the hits seem to be associated with some consulting firm.

20

Leaders or liars

by ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara in

i was a thriving regular pioneer, doing all thr things wholeheartedly, had 16 bible studies, 7 attending meetings regularly, 11 magazine routes and 100's of rv's.

you can imagine i was always runnin out of literature and always a good list of books to order every month.

(not bragging,just stating facts.all this is wasted anyway).

Bobcat

Zindag,

Sounds a lot like Ezekiel 34:2-3.

15

William Redding

by Bobcat in

is anyone familiar with this person and his possible relationship with ctr or the wt?.

if you are wondering why i ask, take a look here and scroll down one page and start reading a little.. i could not find any mention of him in the wt online library.

i wonder if this is something barbara anderson would be familiar with?.

Bobcat

Thank you Vienne!

Rub, I believe that was William's brother, Otis, singing about "gentle times on the dock of the bay."

15

William Redding

by Bobcat in

is anyone familiar with this person and his possible relationship with ctr or the wt?.

if you are wondering why i ask, take a look here and scroll down one page and start reading a little.. i could not find any mention of him in the wt online library.

i wonder if this is something barbara anderson would be familiar with?.

Bobcat

Thank you very much OC, for all that research.

15

William Redding

by Bobcat in

is anyone familiar with this person and his possible relationship with ctr or the wt?.

if you are wondering why i ask, take a look here and scroll down one page and start reading a little.. i could not find any mention of him in the wt online library.

i wonder if this is something barbara anderson would be familiar with?.

Bobcat

Hi Vidqun,

If you are referring to the end of the "Gentile Times," I agree. I am of the opinion that they end at Rev 11:15 and the 7th trumpet. (That is, still future. And that they started at Gen 11:1-9. Compare Deut 32:7-8) Curiously, the WT also believes they end at Rev 11:15. But they have a rather skewed view of when the 7th trumpet takes place. Rev 11:14 has the 3rd woe - i.e. the 7th trumpet - coming after the 5th and 6th trumpet. But the WT interprets the 5th & 6th to be post 1914, but the 7th to be at 1914. Go figure?!)

But I was curious if William Redding gained his viewpoint from associating with the Russellites or if it was the other way around, or if the ideas he expressed were something more widely thought of at the time.

15

William Redding

by Bobcat in

is anyone familiar with this person and his possible relationship with ctr or the wt?.

if you are wondering why i ask, take a look here and scroll down one page and start reading a little.. i could not find any mention of him in the wt online library.

i wonder if this is something barbara anderson would be familiar with?.

Bobcat

Is anyone familiar with this person and his possible relationship with CTR or the WT?

If you are wondering why I ask, take a look here and scroll down one page and start reading a little.

I could not find any mention of him in the WT Online Library. I wonder if this is something Barbara Anderson would be familiar with?

14

"The sun will be darkened, & the moon will not give its light." How do events like this affect superstitious humans?

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

the gospel of matthew's homily on the signs connected with the imagined return of christ, features an element of the sign that seems to really scare superstitious people.. matthew 24:29 reads: "immediately after the distress of those days "'the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;".

in the nineteenth century such an even occurred twice in the 19th century and apparently became part of charlie russell's conviction that the end of the world was nigh, charlie, of course, was a 'man of faith' accepting the bible as true and not willing to search for alternative explanation for such events.

if charlie r. had been the sort of person that continually asks why, his life and ours may have taken a different course.. i cannot quote where in his mass of writings he cites those 19th c events (its a long time since i've bothered to be interested in his writings), but mention them he did, and saw these events as proof of the imminent return of jesus christ.. so let's look at these two 19th c.natural occurrences, and compare them to another occurrence some 1400 years ago.. the 19th c events occurred in 1814-16 and again circa, 1883. the reason for the sun and moon being darkened was volcanic activity, easy for us to appreciate, but more difficult for religiously superstitious people.. the wikipedia encyclopedia notes the 1814-16 event: quote.

Bobcat

See this post and included links (on another site) that interprets Mt 24:29 and its counterpart in Luke (Luke 21:25-26) within the time frame that Jesus gave: He said that the events he referred to (in Mt 24:29) would occur "immediately after the tribulation of those days" and that "all these things" would occur before 'this generation passes away.' (Mt 24:34)

One of the links also attempts to fit the "time and times and half a time" of Dan 12:7 to these events.