The NWT and Equality
Submitted by J on 2002-09-22 03:48:11, Sunday
In reply to I've compared the NWT to Hebrew and Greek Coine' submitted by Spirit on 2002-09-22 01:45:36, Sunday
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Dear Spirit, Thanks for sharing – I’m perpetually single since I have no attraction to adults whatsoever and am only attracted to boys, so I’m about as hardcore BL as one can possibly be! :-) I had a copy of the NWT at one point but haven’t seen it in about three years, so my comparison comments about it are based purely on memories going back a few years. I’ll have to pick one up in order to participate fully in this discussion, but from what I recall, the NWT translation of ego eimi in John 8:58 as ‘I have been’ disqualifies the NWT as being superior in its close attention to verb tenses, since the verb ‘to be’ in this passage is in the present active indicative tense – properly rendered ‘I am’. As for Colossians 1:15-17 and other scriptures which talk about Jesus as the first born over all creation, I believe they are referring to His priority in being raised to an incorruptible body, something that the rest of creation still eagerly waits for: The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:19-23 see also 1 Corinthians 15 I believe Jesus’ equality with the Father is implicit in His unique claim to be the Son of God; the Jews certainly interpreted this claim as such: For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. John 5:18 Just as a human child is equal to his or her parent(s) in human nature, so is Jesus equal to His father in divine nature. Jesus is God and the Father is God, though Jesus is not the Father. I eagerly look forward to continuing this discussion with you, though I probably won’t be able to post again until next week. In Christ, J Come away, O human child, to the waters of the wild, with a fairy hand in hand, for the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand. A.I. |
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