This was contributed by one of the forum members by email, and I just had to share it with everyone.
“In the preface of his Bible, Webster wrote: “Whenever words are understood in a sense different from that which they had when introduced, and different from that of the original languages, they do not present to the reader the Word of God.” (w11 12/15 p. 13 Why Be Guided by God’s Spirit?)
So true.
Now consider that we have recently redefined the term “generation” found at Mat. 24:34 to ‘a sense different from that which it had when introduced, and different from that of the original language.’ [Or our current language for that matter. – Meleti] Wouldn’t that present to the reader something other than the Word of God?
We also do this with Mat. 24:31 where we change the meaning of “gather” to “seal”.
Thanks, again, Meleti, for a thought-provoking series of posts. Perhaps this topic will elicit a broad selection of terms that have been altered (even corrupted) in meaning to support non-Biblical understandings which undermine “Truth.” (there’s one now!) Consider the six occurrences of “temple [sanctuary]” in Revelation in the NWT in relation to scriptural descriptions of “sacred service.” Footnotes equate “temple [sanctuary]” with “the divine habitation (dwelling).” Gr., ton na?on?; J17,18,22(Heb.), heh?khal?, “palace (temple) of.” “God,” ?AVgSyh; J17, “Jehovah.” (Revelation 11:19) 19 And the temple [sanctuary] of God that is in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen… Read more »
With understanding what the writer originally wished to say to us we have a number of problems when dealing with texts written centuries ago, hence that vast number of commentaries etc , even on things written as recently as Shakespeare. We need to know what the chosen words meant at the time they were written, hence it is easy to fall into the etymology trap, I feel the WT has done this on a number of occasions, looking at the basic meaning and origin of a word or phrase and not how it was used when it was actually written.… Read more »