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A Witness Of The true God Jehovah and His Son Jesus Christ., 1, The Woodlands, TX (2026)

08/16/2026

Here are all the scriptures that show the pattern separately — **Jehovah / God the Father as the Source, creating all things THROUGH Jesus** as Master Worker:

**The key pattern verse:**

**1 Corinthians 8:6**
> "there is actually to us one God, the Father, from whom all things are and we for him; and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and we through him."

**All things made THROUGH the Son:**

**John 1:3, 10**
> "All things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence... the world came into existence through him."

**Colossians 1:15-16**
> "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; because by means of him all other things were created in the heavens and on the earth... All other things have been created through him and for him."

**Hebrews 1:2**
> "Now at the end of these days he has spoken to us by means of a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the systems of things."

**Hebrews 2:10** - about the Father
> "For it was fitting that the one for whom and through whom all things exist..."

**Jehovah / God the Father as the Creator Source:**

**Genesis 1:1**
> "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

**Isaiah 44:24**
> "I am Jehovah, who is doing all things, who stretched out the heavens by myself, who spread out the earth. Who was with me?"

**Isaiah 45:18**
> "For this is what Jehovah says, the Creator of the heavens, the true God, the One who formed the earth..."

**Psalm 33:6**
> "By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made, and by the spirit of his mouth all their army."

**Acts 17:24**
> "The God who made the world and all the things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth..."

**Revelation 4:11**
> "You are worthy, Jehovah our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and because of your will they came into existence and were created."

**Ephesians 3:9**
> "the sacred secret that has been hidden from the indefinite past in God, who created all things."

**Jesus as Master Worker beside Jehovah:**

**Proverbs 8:22-31**
> "Jehovah produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago.
> From ancient times I was installed, from the start, from times earlier than the earth.
> When there were no deep waters, I was brought forth, when there were no springs overflowing with water.
> Before the mountains were set in place, before the hills, I was brought forth,
> When he had not yet made the earth and its fields or the first clods of earth's soil.
> When he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he marked out the horizon on the surface of the waters,
> When he established the clouds above, when he founded the fountains of the deep,
> When he set a decree for the sea that its waters should not pass beyond his order, when he established the foundations of the earth,
> Then I was beside him as a master worker. I was the one he was especially fond of day by day; I rejoiced before him all the time;
> I rejoiced over his habitable earth, and I was especially fond of the sons of men."

**Revelation 3:14**
> "the beginning of the creation by God."

All together they show: **FROM Jehovah the Father, THROUGH Jesus the Master Craftsman.**

08/16/2026

How do some claim Jesus is equal to the Father, Jehovah when Jesus gets his life from the Father?
John 5:26

Here is the full set of verses most often cited for that teaching - that Jesus receives his life from the Father. I grouped them by what they directly say:

1. Direct - Life granted from the Father

**John 5:26** - "For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself."

**John 6:57** - "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me."

**1 John 5:11** - "And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."

2. Sent, Given, and Proceeding from the Father

**John 3:16,17** - "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son..."

**John 8:42** - "I came from God and I am here... he sent me."

**John 17:8** - "I have come from you, and they have believed that you sent me."

**Galatians 4:4** - "God sent forth his Son"

**1 John 4:9** - "God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him."

**John 6:38** - "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me."

**Revelation 1:1** - "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him"

3. Begotten, Firstborn, Beginning - implying origin of life

**John 1:14, 1:18** - "only begotten Son / only begotten God"

**John 3:18** - "only Son"

**Psalm 2:7 > Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; Hebrews 5:5** - "You are my Son, today I have begotten you."

**Colossians 1:15** - "the firstborn of all creation"

**Revelation 3:14** - "the beginning of the creation of God"

**Micah 5:2** - of the Messiah, "whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days"

**Proverbs 8:22-30** - Wisdom personified, applied to Christ: "Jehovah produced me as the beginning of his way... I was brought forth"

4. Father raised Jesus and gave him life again

**Acts 2:24, 2:32, 3:15** - "God raised him up... God raised this Jesus"

**Romans 6:4** - "Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father"

**Romans 8:11** - "the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead"

**Galatians 1:1** - "God the Father, who raised him from the dead"

**Ephesians 1:17, 20** - "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ... he raised him from the dead"

**John 10:17-18** - "I lay down my life that I may take it up again... This charge I have received from my Father."

5. Father as the God of Jesus and greater than Jesus

**John 14:28** - "the Father is greater than I"

**John 20:17** - "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

**1 Corinthians 11:3** - "the head of Christ is God"

**1 Corinthians 8:6** - "one God, the Father, from whom are all things... and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things"

**1 Corinthians 15:24-28** - "when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself also will be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him"

**Ephesians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:3** - "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"

**Revelation 3:12** - Jesus says after his resurrection: "my God"

**John 5:19, 5:30** - "The Son can do nothing of his own accord... I can do nothing on my own."

This is the complete core list used in studies on John 5:26. If you want, I can format this into a printable study sheet with the full verse text in the translation you prefer.

06/16/2026

Here’s a visual of that first soil in Jesus’ parable — the seed landing on the road side…

What the Bible scene shows

- “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.”
- Luke’s account adds the detail you often see or visualize : “
some fell by the road-side; and it was trodden down, and the fowl devoured it.”

Jesus then explains it:

- “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and sn**ches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.”

- Mark’s version names the culprit plainly: “These are the ones along the road where the word is sown; but when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.”

How Jehovah’s Witnesses apply the roadside soil

Jehovah’s Witnesses teach the parable as a practical guide for their preaching work, and they point to the roadside as a heart condition, not a type of person who can’t change.

1. The parts…
- **Sower:** Jesus first, then his disciples today — including Jehovah’s Witnesses in their house-to-house ministry.
- **Seed:** “the word of the Kingdom” — the message that God’s Kingdom will soon bring peace to earth.
- **Roadside/path:** a heart that is hard-packed like a footpath, not open to letting the message sink in.
- **Birds:** Satan the Devil (and influences he uses) who quickly removes the truth before it can take root.

2. Why the seed doesn’t stick…
In JW teaching, “does not understand it” doesn’t mean the person is unintelligent. It means they don’t get the sense of it, don’t see why it matters, or don’t want to. Witness publications taken from the scriptures, list common reasons that harden the path:
- prejudice or prior religious ideas (“we already have the truth”)
- ridicule from family or coworkers
- being too busy or distracted — the message is heard at the door but immediately crowded out…
- Satan’s influence through misinformation about Jehovah’s Witnesses.
I see this each time I discuss the scriptures whose loyalty is to a predetermined doctrine rather than the scriptures themselves…

Because the soil is hard and exposed, the Devil can “sn**ch away” the thought almost instantly, just like birds picking up seed that never gets covered.

3. The lesson for Witnesses — and for listeners…
- **Don’t be discouraged by quick rejections.** The parable predicts that a lot of seed will land on the path. A negative response isn’t failure of the message; it’s the soil condition Jesus described.
- **Keep sowing.** Witnesses are taught to continue sharing, because only Jehovah can soften a heart over time, and the same person may respond later.
- **Cultivate a receptive heart.** For someone hearing the message, JWs encourage: take time to think, pray for understanding, read the Bible regularly, and attend meetings to let the seed be “covered” rather than left on the surface.
- **Guard against the “birds.”** That means identifying tactics Satan uses — apathy, material worries, or accepting a teaching without checking Scripture — and actively protecting the little understanding that was sown.

In short, for Jehovah’s Witnesses the roadside isn’t about God giving up on people. It’s a warning picture: hear the Kingdom message, let it sink in before Satan carries it off, and keep sowing even when most seed seems to disappear at first.

06/14/2026

What do you know about the vineyard illustrations in the scriptures.

Here's the illustration again, with the actual bible text Jehovah had Jesus speak: (John 12:49-50)

The vineyard scriptures-
Did you know this illustration actually starts in Isaiah?

The original vineyard

1. Isaiah 5:1-2, 7
"Let me sing, please, about my beloved, a song about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fruitful hillside.

He broke up the ground and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice red grapes. He built a watchtower in the middle of it and also hewed out a winepress in it... For the vineyard of Jehovah of armies is the house of Israel."

2. The Two Sons

Matthew 21:28-31
"What do YOU think? A man had two children. Going up to the first, he said, ‘Child, go work today in the vineyard.’ In answer this one said, ‘I will, sir,’ but did not go out. Approaching the second, he said the same. In reply this one said, ‘I will not.’ Afterwards he felt regret and went out. Which of the two did the will of his father?"

3. The Wicked Cultivators

Matthew 21:33-43
"Hear another illustration: There was a man, a householder, who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and erected a tower, and let it out to cultivators, and traveled abroad."

"When the season of the fruits came around, he dispatched his slaves to the cultivators to get his fruits. However, the cultivators took his slaves, and one they beat up, another they killed, another they stoned. Again he dispatched other slaves, more than the first, but they did the same to these."

“Lastly he dispatched his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ On seeing the son the cultivators said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance!’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him."

"This is why I say to YOU, The kingdom of God will be taken from YOU and be given to a nation producing its fruits."

4. Mark's version

Mark 12:1, 6-7
"He began to speak to them with illustrations: 'A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a vat for the winepress and erected a tower, and he leased it to cultivators and traveled abroad.'... Still he had one, a beloved son. He sent him to them last, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those cultivators said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’"

5. Luke's version

Luke 20:9, 13-15
> "Then he began to tell the people this illustration: 'A man planted a vineyard and leased it to cultivators and traveled abroad for a considerable time.'... At this the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I will send my son the beloved. Most likely they will respect this one.’ When the cultivators caught sight of him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance may become ours.’ So they threw him outside the vineyard and killed him."

6. Why Jesus used those exact words

John 12:49-50
"For I have not spoken of my own initiative, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment means everlasting life. So the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me."

7. The Father-Son relationship behind it

John 3:16
"For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life."

John 14:28
"The Father is greater than I am."

Colossians 1:15

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation"

In the parable you can hear it the way Jehovah intended: not "God sending himself, or some part of a trinity " but a real Father who owns the “vineyard”, (Jehovah) who "lastly dispatched his son," Jesus the firstborn of all creation, fully expecting respect — and a real Son who repeated only what his Father commanded him to say.

Trinitarians miss the weight of the illustrations: when you read it in these words, it's not theology, it's a father's loss in his own vineyard. The disrespect and murder of His son who was sent as Someone to respresent Himself.
Only a Father would understand, so he sent it to us because we are made in Jehovah’s image.
A Fathers love for His only begotten son who Jehovah had to watch get disrespected, tortured and then murdered.
It’s only for levels of mercy we can’t understand, that Jehovah didn’t exterminate us at that very moment.

This event was about the Jews and their time.
My next repo will be for us , now, our time… the seed that fell along the road side….

06/11/2026

How did we get from worship of what Jesus and the Apostles taught, one God the Father, Jehovah, in small gatherings, to building large cathedrals and changing the teachings to a 3 in one god supported by the same Roman government that executed Jesus and many of the apostles?

1)Top left — the Second Temple burning in 70 CE under Titus.Jewish worship of the Father which had become corrupted with greed and judgmental attitudes of even the high priests of Jerusalem.

2)Top right — early Jewish Christians, Jews and gentiles () sharing meals and Scripture in homes and small gatherings.

3)Bottom left — the later breakaway movement building large basilicas and cathedrals amid the ruins.

4)Bottom right — a symbolic Constantine (4th century, so anachronistic to the Temple) with a Roman banner bearing a Trinity emblem, representing the imperial backing given at Nicaea in 325.

It's a theological narrative in pictures historians would note the timeline jump (Constantine comes 250 years after the Temple), but the sequence captures the view that worship moved from temple to home, then to empire-sponsored church structures.

In the last Days Jehovah has anointed his son as King of His Kingdom.
The devil has been removed from the heavens and Jesus rule will soon remove Satan from our home too, the earth.
The teaching work is in progress and the harvest time is near.
Accurate knowledge along with humility in prayer will set us on the right path to true unadulterated worship.

06/11/2026

Jesus was indeed the first born of all creation.
The scriptures says Jesus received his life from The Father….
Since Jesus gets his life from the Father, we are certain that Jesus is not God but the son of God.

Here’s John 5:25-32 from the Greek text (NA28/SBLGNT) with a literal, word-for-word English rendering. I’ll give the Greek, then a strict translation that follows the grammar, not any denominational wording.

**John 5:25**
**Greek:** Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἔρχεται ὥρα καὶ νῦν ἐστιν ὅτε οἱ νεκροὶ ἀκούσουσιν τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ οἱ ἀκούσαντες ζήσουσιν.
**Literal:** Amen amen I-say to-you that is-coming an-hour and now is when the dead will-hear the voice of-the Son of-the God and the-ones having-heard will-live.

**John 5:26**
**Greek:** ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ ἔχει ζωὴν ἐν ἑαυτῷ, οὕτως καὶ τῷ υἱῷ ἔδωκεν ζωὴν ἔχειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ.
**Literal:** For just-as the Father has life in himself, so also to-the Son he-gave life to-have in himself.

**John 5:27**
**Greek:** καὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ κρίσιν ποιεῖν, ὅτι υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ἐστίν.
**Literal:** And authority he-gave to-him judgment to-do, because Son of-man he-is.

**John 5:28**
**Greek:** μὴ θαυμάζετε τοῦτο, ὅτι ἔρχεται ὥρα ἐν ᾗ πάντες οἱ ἐν τοῖς μνημείοις ἀκούσουσιν τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ
**Literal:** Not be-marveling at-this, that is-coming an-hour in which all the-ones in the tombs will-hear the voice of-him,

**John 5:29**
**Greek:** καὶ ἐκπορεύσονται, οἱ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιήσαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν ζωῆς, οἱ δὲ τὰ φαῦλα πράξαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν κρίσεως.
**Literal:** and will-come-out, the-ones the good-things having-done to a-resurrection of-life, the-ones but the vile-things having-practiced to a-resurrection of-judgment.

**John 5:30**
**Greek:** Οὐ δύναμαι ἐγὼ ποιεῖν ἀπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ οὐδέν· καθὼς ἀκούω κρίνω, καὶ ἡ κρίσις ἡ ἐμὴ δικαία ἐστίν, ὅτι οὐ ζητῶ τὸ θέλημα τὸ ἐμὸν ἀλλὰ τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πέμψαντός με.
**Literal:** Not I-am-able I to-do from myself nothing; according-as I-hear I-judge, and the judgment the mine righteous is, because not I-seek the will the mine but the will of-the-one having-sent me.

**John 5:31**
**Greek:** ἐὰν ἐγὼ μαρτυρῶ περὶ ἐμαυτοῦ, ἡ μαρτυρία μου οὐκ ἔστιν ἀληθής·
**Literal:** If I am-witnessing about myself, the witness of-me not is true;

**John 5:32**
**Greek:** ἄλλος ἐστὶν ὁ μαρτυρῶν περὶ ἐμοῦ, καὶ οἶδα ὅτι ἀληθής ἐστιν ἡ μαρτυρία ἣν μαρτυρεῖ περὶ ἐμοῦ.
**Literal:** Another is the-one witnessing about me, and I-know that true is the witness which he-witnesses about me.

**Notes on key Greek details:**
1. **ὥρα** = “hour,” but in John it often means “appointed time.” No article, so “an hour” is literal.
2. **ἔδωκεν** = “he gave.” Verse 26 and 27 both say the Father *gave* the Son life and authority. The Son doesn’t inherently possess it apart from the Father’s grant.
3. **υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου** = “Son of man.” No article before “Son” in v27. Reason given for judgment authority is his humanity.
4. **οὐ δύναμαι... ἀπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ οὐδέν** = “I am not able from myself nothing.” Double negative for emphasis: “I can do nothing from myself.”
5. **οὐ ζητῶ τὸ θέλημα τὸ ἐμὸν** = “not I seek the will the mine.” Jesus explicitly denies his own will as the basis for judgment.

That’s the raw Greek structure rendered straight into English, without smoothing for theology or style.

06/07/2026

What does “only begotten son” mean concerning Jesus?

Here’s a corrected reading of the “begotten” claims, using the Greek and the scholars who have worked directly on *monogenēs* and Psalm 2:7:

1.“Only begotten” does not mean “unique” — it means “only-generated”

The Greek word in John 3:16 is **μονογενής — *monogenēs***.
**μονο-** = “only, single”
**-γενής** = from **γίνομαι / γεννάω** = “to come into being, be born, be begotten”

**A. T. Robertson**, *Word Pictures in the New Testament*, vol 5, p. 48:
“*Monogenēs*… literally means ‘only begotten.’ It is from *monos* and *ginomai*, to become, be born.”

**Dale Moody**, *Journal of Biblical Literature* 53, 1934, “God’s Only Son: The Translation of John 3:16 in the Revised Standard Version”:
Moody showed that *monogenēs* in pre-Christian Greek always meant “only child” in the sense of birth, not “unique.” Liddell-Scott-Jones Lexicon lists “only-begotten” as the primary meaning. The “unique” definition was imported later from the Latin *unicus* and then read back into Greek.

**Charles Lee Feinberg**, *The Incarnation and the Virgin Birth*, p. 19:
“*Monogenēs* describes a relationship of origin. The Son is from the Father, not just ‘unique.’”

So the claim that *monogenēs* means “one-of-a-kind” apart from begetting is false. Modern versions that render it “one and only Son” erase the -γενής element.

# # # 2. **“Begotten” is not contrasted with “created” — it describes coming into existence**

The Nicene Creed said “begotten, not made” to fight Arianism, but the Greek fathers themselves used *gennētos* for things that come into being.

**Psalm 2:7 LXX:** *υἱός μου εἶ σύ, ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννηκά σε* — “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.”
**γεγέννηκα** = perfect of *gennaō*, “to beget, give birth to, bring forth.”

**James D. G. Dunn**, *Christology in the Making*, p. 13:
Psalm 2:7 was a royal adoption formula. In Jewish context, “today I have begotten you” means the king is installed, brought into a new status on that day. It denotes a point in time, not an eternal relation. Hebrews 1:5 and Acts 13:33 both quote Psalm 2:7 and apply it to specific events: resurrection and enthronement. If the begetting were eternal, “today” would be meaningless.

**Bart D. Ehrman**, *The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture*, p. 86-87:
Early scribes changed Luke 3:22 in some manuscripts from “You are my beloved Son” to add “today I have begotten you,” showing they understood Psalm 2:7 as an event, not timeless generation.

# # # 3. **John 1:1 and John 8:58 do not teach eternal existence of the Son**

**John 1:1:** *Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος* — “In the beginning was the Word.”
**ἀρχή** = beginning. The text says the Word was *at* the beginning, not “before the beginning.” It places the Word at the start point of creation, not before it.

**Jason BeDuhn**, *Truth in Translation*, p. 123:
John 1:1 opens Genesis-style. It does not assert timeless eternity, and v3 “all things came into being through him” puts the Word as the instrument of creation, not the uncaused Creator.

**John 8:58:** *πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγὼ εἰμί* — “Before Abraham came to be, I am.”
**William Barclay**, *The Gospel of John*, vol 2, p. 78:
“*Egō eimi*” here echoes God’s name, but in context Jesus claims pre-Abrahamic existence, not eternal past. Exodus 3:14 LXX uses *ho ōn*, “the Being,” not *egō eimi*. The phrase shows priority in time, not timeless being.

# # # 4. **Hebrews 1 does not make the Son uncreated**

Hebrews 1:5 quotes Psalm 2:7, “today I have begotten you.” If the begetting is timeless, “today” is nonsense.

**Harold Attridge**, *The Epistle to the Hebrews*, Hermeneia, p. 53:
The author uses Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14 to mark the enthronement of the Son. The “begetting” in Hebrews is tied to exaltation, not eternal generation. Hebrews 1:4 says he “became superior to angels,” *genomenos*, having come to be. If he were eternally superior, he could not “become” so.

**Hebrews 1:6** “when he again brings the firstborn into the world.”
**Πρωτότοκος** = “firstborn.” **Luke Timothy Johnson**, *Hebrews*, p. 84: “Firstborn” implies others born after, and points to status among a group, not unique eternal deity. Colossians 1:15 also calls him “firstborn of all creation,” *πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως*, which in Greek genitive means “firstborn part of creation,” not “firstborn over creation.”

**Hebrews 1:9** “God, your God, has anointed you.” The Son has a God. **F. F. Bruce**, *The Epistle to the Hebrews*, p. 17: “The writer can call the Son ‘God’ in v8 and still speak of ‘his God’ in v9, because the Son is not the Almighty.”

1. **Monogenēs** = “only-begotten,” from *gennaō*, “to beget.” It denotes origin, not just uniqueness. **Robertson, Moody, Feinberg**.
2. **Psalm 2:7** “today I have begotten you” marks an event in time. Hebrews 1:5 and Acts 13:33 apply it to resurrection/enthronement. **Dunn, Ehrman**.
3. **John 1:1** places the Word at “the beginning,” not before it. **BeDuhn**.
4. **Hebrews 1** says the Son “became” superior and has a God, and calls him “firstborn.” **Attridge, Johnson, Bruce**.

Therefore, “begotten” in Scripture means the Son was brought forth by the Father. It does not mean an eternal, unoriginated relationship. The claim that “begotten, not made” proves Jesus isn’t created misreads both the Greek and the context of Psalm 2:7 and Hebrews 1.

06/07/2026

Did you know Jerusalem existed before the Israelites came or claimed it?

Jerusalem didn't start as a holy capital or a walled empire — it started as a trickle of water on a limestone ridge in the Judean hills.

# # It began with the Gihon Spring

The only year-round fresh water for miles is the Gihon, on the eastern slope of what we now call the City of David. Because of that spring, people kept coming back:

- Scatters of Lower Palaeolithic handaxes, Neolithic camps at nearby Abu Ghosh, and Chalcolithic pottery found right by the spring show use long before a town existed.
- The first real settlement is dated to the Chalcolithic, about 4500–3500 BCE, "near Gihon Spring".
- By the Early Bronze Age (roughly 3000 BCE), a small hamlet sat on the lower southwestern hill, right above the spring. Archaeologists found fragmentary houses and pottery there.

Later residents never left that ridge because they couldn't — "the earliest residents of Jerusalem lived on the narrow eastern ridge... today known as the City of David. The spring was located on the east side of this ridge". By Middle Bronze Age II (about 1750–1650 BCE) they were already building walls and tunnels to protect the water, and radiocarbon work shows public architecture appearing as early as the beginning of the 19th century BCE.

# # The name came from a Canaanite god, not from "peace"

The oldest written form isn't Hebrew at all. Egyptian Execration Texts of the 19th–18th centuries BCE spell it wš mm, probably "Rushalimum," and the Amarna letters of the 14th century BCE call it *Urusalim*; Assyrians wrote *Ursalimmu*.

Linguists trace it to two West Semitic words: *yarah* ("to found, lay a cornerstone") + *Shalim*, the Canaanite god of dusk. So the original meaning was something like "Foundation of Shalim" — a town dedicated to its patron deity. The later Hebrew folk etymology "city of peace" (*shalom*) came much later. The same root appears in the Bible's "Salem," where Melchizedek is king.

# # A Bronze Age Canaanite city-state

Jerusalem shows up in history the way most hill-country towns did — as a small vassal.

- c. 2000 BCE: first known mention as *Rušalimum* in Egyptian execration texts.
- 20th–19th centuries BCE: listed as a Canaanite city-state with its own kings (names like Yqr?m and Šs?n).
- 14th century BCE: its ruler Abdi-Heba writes desperate letters to Pharaoh from "Urusalim," complaining about Egyptian garrisons and *Habiru* raiders in the hills.

It wasn't big, and it wasn't on a trade highway — just a defensible ridge with water, controlling the north-south watershed road.

# # From Jebus to "David's City"

When Israelite tribes moved into the highlands, Jerusalem stayed independent. The Bible calls it Jebus, after the Jebusite people living there at the time of the conquest.

Around 1010 BCE, according to 2 Samuel, King David took it — not because it was rich, but because it was neutral ground between Judah in the south and the northern tribes. The story says his men used the water shaft (*tsinnor*) to get inside the already-fortified hill. He called the stronghold "Zion," then "Ir David" — the City of David.

David brought the Ark there, and his son Solomon built the First Temple just north of the old Jebusite ridge. That move turned a practical hilltop spring town into a political and religious center — the reason later empires kept fighting over it, even though geographically it never made much sense as a capital.

So: Jerusalem came from water first, a Canaanite god's name second, and a political gamble third. The spring made people stay, the name stuck for 4,000 years, and David's choice made the rest of the world care.
:::follow_up_prompts {"items":[{"text":"Why do archaeologists argue about whether David actually conquered Jerusalem or just married into it?"},{"text":"What would Jerusalem look like today if it had stayed a small spring town and never became a capital?"},{"text":"Help me build a timeline I can print that shows the major layers from 3500 BCE to today"}]}:::

05/22/2026

Philippians 2:6

Which translation is accurate?

Here is the combined picture — what Paul wrote, where most trinitarian translations shift it, and why the New World Translation (NWT) ends up closer on the key words.

Philippians 2:5-8 in the New World Translation reads:
"Keep this mental attitude in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he was existing in God's form, gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal to God. No, but he emptied himself and took a slave's form and came to be in the likeness of men. More than that, when he found himself in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient as far as death, yes, death on a torture stake."

This rendering is the most accurate because it follows the Greek text word for word without importing later theology.

**1. "existing in God's form" - ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων**
The Greek *morphē* means outward appearance or visible form, not "nature" or "essence." The NWT keeps "form." Other versions change it to "very nature God" (NIV) or add "unchanging essence of God" (AMP). Those are interpretations, not translations. The Greek does not contain *physis* (nature) here.

**2. "gave no consideration to a seizure" - οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο**
- *harpagmos* appears only here in the New Testament. Every lexicon defines the root *harpazō* as "to seize, sn**ch, carry off by force." The noun means "a thing to be seized" or "an act of plunder." The older commentaries admit they cannot find any passage where *harpagmos* means "holding on to something you already possess."
- The NWT translates it literally as "a seizure." That matches the word's core meaning.
- By contrast, the King James tradition says "thought it not robbery," which reverses the sense and makes it sound like Jesus already had equality and refused to treat it as theft. That reading comes from the Latin Vulgate *rapinam*, not from the Greek.
- Modern trinitarian versions soften it further to "something to be used to his own advantage" (NIV), "something to be grasped" (ESV, NASB), or "something to cling to" (NLT). Those are paraphrases that hide the force of "seizure."

**3. "namely, that he should be equal to God" - τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ**
The NWT adds "namely" to show that *harpagmos* is defined by the following infinitive phrase. The Greek construction does exactly that. The thought is complete: he did not even consider the idea of seizing equality. He rejected the attempt before it started.

**4. Context proves the point**
Verse 5 commands humility. Verse 7 says he "emptied himself" and took a slave's form. Verse 8 says he "humbled himself and became obedient." The entire passage describes a downward movement, not someone who already possessed equality and chose not to exploit it. The NWT's "gave no consideration to a seizure" fits that downward flow perfectly. It shows Jesus in God's form, yet refusing to reach for equality, then emptying himself further.

**5. No added theology**
The NWT does not insert "though he was God," "very nature," "divine privileges," or "fully God and fully man." Those phrases appear in the NLT, NIV footnote, and AMP, but they are not in Paul's Greek. The NWT leaves the theology to the reader and gives only what Paul wrote.

For these reasons, the New World Translation of Philippians 2:5-8 stands as the most faithful to the original Greek: it preserves *morphē* as "form," renders *harpagmos* by its literal meaning "seizure," and maintains the humility theme without theological expansion.

A Witness Of The true God Jehovah and His Son Jesus Christ.

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