Understanding Jehovah's Witnesses: Why They Read the Bible the Way They Do

by Robert M. Bowman Jr. and Robert M. Bowman

Book Overview

In fact, writes Robert Bowman, Understanding Jehovah's Witness is equally for members of the church on the corner and their neighbors at the Kingdom Hall down the street.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801009952
• ISBN13: 9780801009952
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Baker Books
• Length: 165 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 15 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 10

Customer Reviews

Alarm Bells Ringing

Most everyone in America has had some contact with the Jehovah's Witnesses. From their appearances at your door to their street corner distribution of The Watchtower and Awake!, they are an ubiquitous though oft ridiculed part of modern American religious culture. Most Christians just ignore their doorstep invitations to discuss the Bible and those who do are often bewildered by the strange amalgamation of passages used to support their unorthodox doctrines. The closed system of interpretation they have developed over a century can seem impenetrable to an outsider and well meaning attempts to explain orthodox Christianity to them falls on deaf ears as the two participants talk past each other. Robert M. Bowman is well versed in the exegetical methods employed by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (the authoritative arm of the Jehovah's Witnesses) and has published his insights in Understanding Jehovah's Witnesses. The book, primarily aimed as a tool for dialogue between Evangelical Protestants and Jehovah's Witnesses, is a detailed critique of the Jehovah's Witnesses' use of Scripture backed up with extensive references. While vehemently disagreeing with the Watchtower organization's methodology, he does not resort to questioning the motives or sincerity of individuals in the organization. This is considerably different from many other critiques focusing on the alleged "cultic" elements of the Jehovah's Witnesses while paying scant attention to the underlying premises of their belief structure. Bowman begins with two introductory chapters setting the basis for the examination in terms agreeable to both parties. While admirably irenic in tone, this section is by far the weakest in the book as its subjective nature shows an implicit (albeit unintended) Evangelical Protestant bias. For example, in a list of "ground rules", Bowman includes as hypotheses positions held only by a minority of the world's Christians - primarily Evangelical Protestants. In so doing he asserts a selection of pseudo-scientific criteria to examine Scripture without realizing his assumptions are steeped in the traditions of modernity and have little connection with how Scripture was read in the early Church. Fortunately, little of his pretense at an impartial exegetical methodology has any bearing on what follows. It is when turning to his critique of the Jehovah's Witnesses exegetical techniques that Bowman finds his range. In successive chapters, he zeroes in on the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society's self-definition as God's chosen arbiter of Scripture and in successive chapters points out in detail their changing doctrine and failed eschatological predictions, the intentional and self-serving mistranslation of Scripture in their New World Translation, how Charles Taze Russell (founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses) was formed theologically by the conflagration of novel doctrines and eschatological ferment from the Adventist movement he had joined with the rigidity o

Getting to understand the JW mentality

One of the hardest things to do for a Christian attempting to share his/her faith with a JW is to understand from where the Witness comes. Bowman does an excellent job in this book giving the mindset of a Witness in a fair and even compassionate manner. He covers some hermeneutical issues, even spending an entire chapter on Luke 23:43 and analyzing it. This is probably not the only book a person should own--I might recommend Rhodes' "Reasoning from the Scriptures with a Jehovah's Witness"--but it's a good supplimentary volume that I believe the average layperson should be able to understand and even utilize.

Understand "why?" not just "what."

You open a Bible and examine it with a Jehovah's Witness and you get nowhere! What do you do? A beginning point is to get your hands on Bowman's book.Bowman explains some basic logical and interpretive principles and then digs into the differences between JW and Christian ways of looking at the same Bible passage. The JW's method of Bible interpretation is shown to be dictated by the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society.Bowman examines the New World Translation of the JW's, their belief system, and their use of "Jehovah" as their name for God. He offers a sample, technical case study of interpreting Luke 23:43. The book closes with appendices on the New World Translation and a word study on "stake" vs "cross." Bowman also includes an excellent annotated bibliography.Bowman's purpose is not to attack, but to help Jehovah's Witnesses find truth. Read his book and absorb his insights.