A major source of biblical error is reading more into a passage than God actually put there. Sire calls this “overspecification”, which occurs when “a more detailed or specific conclusion than is legitimate is drawn from a Bible text.”[1] Using this method of interpretation allows one to create new doctrines with little or no actual biblical foundation. Continue reading
Author: David Englund (page 64 of 106)
Using a reductio ad absurdum, Walter Martin demonstrated how, by collapsing contexts, we can make the Bible seem to teach anything:
- Matthew 27:5: “[Judas]… went and hanged himself.”
- Luke 10:37: “You go, and do likewise.”
- John 13:27: “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
The error of ignoring the immediate context is defined as follows: “A text of Scripture is quoted but removed from the surrounding verses which form the immediate framework for its meaning..”[1]
In my mind, the greatest example of this in Watchtower literature is its use of Ecclesiastes 9:5.
It latches onto one clause in the middle of the verse—“the dead know nothing at all” (NWT)—and turns those words into its doctrine concerning what happens after death. Continue reading
Imagine if the Watchtower simply asserted, “In order to please God, you must believe whatever we tell you whether you understand why or not.”
That statement would be outrageous!
Who would believe it?
So in order to convince people to believe what they say, the Watchtower frequently uses a “Biblical hook”. Continue reading
As I noted in the previous post, “twisted translation” can be defined as follows: “The biblical text is retranslated, not in accordance with sound Greek scholarship, to fit the preconceived teachings of a cult.”[1]
Last time, I looked at two of its mistranslations with regard to the identity of Jesus.
Today, I’m going to look at the fact that the Watchtower has inserted the name “Jehovah” into the New World Translation of the New Testament 237 times, despite the fact that the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) does not appear in any existing Greek New Testament manuscript. Continue reading
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