"They took no note" - ?

Greetings!

A friend and I talked on the phone recently, and he read Matthew 24:36-38 from 3 different versions of the Bible. The various renderings indicated that the citizenry were not aware of a coming judgment nor did they suspect anything, giving rise to the thought: what did Noah preach (if anything)?

Likewise, were people in areas far removed from Noah's alleged ark building apprised of his monumental feat? That this is all a tall tale I recognize. Just trying to get inside the box of fundie thinking ...

Thanks.

CoCo

IMHO...... Fundamentalists have bait to hook and land fish who wont think and have belief in themselves, so as to gain control of fishes lives and use them up to the point of death.  Unfortunately more then many people have this in their makeup. They think they need to be led.

People who seize power & control over others in any facet of life are fundamentalists.

JW's

Jim Jones

Waco........and the beat goes on

L'n'T......woz

Good thoughts, there, Wizard. Control without the benefit of logic and reason is an underlying premise.

Thanks much.

CoCo

There is nothing in Genesis to suggest that Noah had instructions to recruit anyone to join his family on the ark.

Even 2 Peter 2 doesn't say Noah had an instruction to preach, just that he was a preacher of righteousness.  This is a reason being given for Noah and his family being chosen, nothing more.

Well, Black Sheep, there goes the hammer hitting the nail on the head ... excellent!

Many thanks.

CoCo

The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures (published by WT) renders the Greek text of Matthew 24:39 literally as: "and not they knew until came the cataclysm."  Just as you discovered, the Greek shows that the people of Noah's time simply did not know the deluge was coming until the day it arrived.

However, in the same reference material WT translates the verse: "and they took no note until the flood came".  The implies something different -that the people were warned but ignored the warning.

It seems taking "no note" is a rendering that better agrees with the WT ministry.  Imagine that!

In reality, Jesus was simply teaching that people would not know the day and the hour until it arrived. He clearly stated this three verse earlier at Matthew 24:36.  If only the WT learned that lesson.

This is a great example of WT molding the scripture to match its belief, rather than allowing its belief to be molded by the scripture.  Hmmmm.... what did Peter say about those "twisting" the Scriptures?  (2 Peter 3:16)

Black Sheep , Darth Rutherford

So the runner-up to Noah may have been righteous, too, but it was curtains for his family. When I was young, I thought these Bible heroes were so admirable and true heroes. Actually reading the text, rathern than Witness lit, they are a tarnished lot. Their God is evil.

Good morning, Darth, BroMac and Band on the Run:

It was nice to awake to your replies and get an answer to my question. Will share this with my friend.

Many thanks. Have a good day.

CoCo

The sumerian tablets have an interesting version of the flood episode very different than the biblical account. The question is how do you really know which one is correct the tablets were found in the 1800's and were translated at a later date and everyone just assumed that whatever they said was pagan. They are in stone and are older than any known copy of the bible. If they are not true than whoever wrote them was an incredible sci fi writer.

So the concept of "they took no note" has vastly different implications depending on whose version you accept now most people today will immediately head towards the bible because that's what they have been raised with but does that make it so. If you investigate these tablets it will change everything and I'm not saying absolutely they're right but just that they deserve a fair and unbiased consideration.

CoCo & Darth Rutherford  > >   Judge for yourselves the various translations in the KIT (1969).

                                                                                                                             Mt 24:39

                                                                                                                                  Lk 2:43

                                                                                                                                 Jn 8:27

                                                                                                                                 Jn 10:6

                                                                                                                             Jn 12:16

                                                                                                                               Jn 16:3

                                                                                                                              Ro 3:17

                                                                                                                              Hb 3:10

                                                                                                                            Re 2:24

                                                                                                                             Mt 24:39

Look what I just found in my laptop.

See, jayhoover doesn't like poeple who pass notes, like us apostates, 'cause Noah took no note.

It is likely that there were around a billion people on earth by the time of Noah, taking into account that it was 2000 years since the creation of Adam, that they lived up to 1000 years, and the size of the families listed in the Bible. There is no way that Noah preached to even the smallest fraction of them. Yet fundies, like JWs, say that they won't get a resurrection!

@bats: That is incredible! What a list of scriptures to prove a point! Love it!  Going to mark that.  Can't wait to show others! 

Thank you very much! 

I always had a hard time picturing Noah going door to door.

Thanks, everyone, for your posts and, bats, for the interlinear scans.

A good day to all.

CoCo  

Now that we have seen what the Bible said, what did the Watchtower say?

Did Noah Preach?

WT 12/15/2010, No
WT 1/15/2000, Yes
WT 10/15/1997, "likely" yes
WT 11/15/1996, Yes
WT 2/1/1983, Yes
WT 3/15 1971, Yes
WT 5/1/1963, Yes
WT 1/15/1961, Yes
WT 1/1/1959, Yes
WT 10/1/1955, Yes, assumed using self contradicting logic.
WT 10/15/1952 yes, "Just as Noah learned of the coming flood and was a preacher of righteousness and preached the saving news in his day...." LOL.

He preached "the saving news", but for all those years of preaching he conscripted less followers than Charlie Manson.  Not a single soul was saved by his preaching efforts.  Maybe if he had given his kids publisher cards to fill out so they couldn't skive off to Mackers he could have saved someone?

Included in the list of people who "took no note" were the following well-established cultures and civilizations:

Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, Egypt, the Minoans, and the Chinese.

Not only did these cultures "take no note" of Noah's warning, they also "took no note" of the flood itself, since we can see through archaeological records that their civilizations proceeded uninterrupted right through the time when they should have been wiped out by Noah's flood.

The flood myth is one of the funnest bible stories to pick apart because it's probably the most ridiculous story ever, when you take it literally.