Was it wood or Marble? WBTS stuff or insanity? or both?

[Damascus]

I just got off the phone with my Jw mom.

I told her is it not interesting Christ was placed in an ugly wooden manger at birth and died on wood (in her speak torture stake, in mine Cross)

She told me “we just dont know and at that time it could have been MARBLE”

???

Has anyone heard this WBTS thought before or is this my mom going insane?

She claims a cross would not have been possible due to “the shortage of wood at the time”?



Okay, now I never heard this Marble thing before. Mind you she has been a JW a LONG time. So is this WBTS stuff or is my Mom loosing her bleeping mind?

 

[yessisan]

Hey Damascus, you know, that is the first time I ever hear this too, and I have been studying the JWs for over a year, you know that from previous posts. I can talk to my DH tonight and will give you an answer tomorrow. I’ll have his sister who is also a JW ask the pioneer who lied to me about the Vatican and the literature. See what she has to say about this.

Sounds strange to me that your mom would say such a thing… marble?? strange… but I don’t think it’s a WBTS teaching, she probably heard it somewhere and believed it.

 

[Valke2]

I thought there were allegedly pieces of the cross preserved somewhere and that the smart money is on “pine”.

 

[Mirdath]

If, as a first-century innkeeper in small-town Judea, I had enough money to afford a marble manger, I’d have sold the place and headed for Caesarea and thence to some nice country house way before I started decking out the barn with classical sculpture

 

[LilyM]

If, as a first-century innkeeper in small-town Judea, I had enough money to afford a marble manger, I’d have sold the place and headed for Caesarea and thence to some nice country house way before I started decking out the barn with classical sculpture

We’re talking a feed trough for animals here - no way would it have been marble! May possibly have been some more modest natural stone though.

 

[Damascus]

If, as a first-century innkeeper in small-town Judea, I had enough money to afford a marble manger, I’d have sold the place and headed for Caesarea and thence to some nice country house way before I started decking out the barn with classical sculpture

That is almost what I said, except you are toooo nice. I said something like bleepity bleeeppity bleep off !

How insane are you?

So she will call me tonight to see if I am still mad at her as usual, and I will feel bad but not really.

 

[Damascus]

We’re talking a feed trough for animals here - no way would it have been marble! May possibly have been some more modest natural stone though.

With the WBTS or an aging female JW - Anything is possible. She can argue about … Anything. You dont know her.
God forbid you ever do, I dont wish it on anyone.

 

[yessisan]

You know, I went onto the falsetower site and I searched for marble, nothing about Jesus came up. I searched for marble manger, nothing came up. I searched for manger, and none of the articles that came up say the manger was made of marble… so I don’t know where you mom got this from Damascus… I’m still going to ask my DH though.

 

[lak611]

I don’t think they would have used marble for an animal feeding trough back in Bible times. Too expensive!

And St. Peter, in his First Epistle (1 Peter 2:24) says that Christ bore our sins in His body on the tree, which means the Cross was definitely wood!

 

[LilyM]

With the WBTS or an aging female JW - Anything is possible. She can argue about … Anything. You dont know her.
God forbid you ever do, I dont wish it on anyone.

Make that ageing female period - I dare say I’ll get more argumentative the older I get too. And I have my very own Catholic version in my mother. She holds to all sorts of quite interesting improvements on the faith (nothing doctrinally wrong though)

 

[puzzleannie]

I have no idea what JWs teach about the manger, I always thought they claim the cross was really either a tree or a wooden stake.

I did see a documentary, probably on DSC or PBS or someplace not too long ago, anyway a secular production, not religious like EWTN, about Christmas, the nativity story, Bethlehem, shepherds etc. and it showed examples of stone mangers fixed in place. These were in the type of dwelling, apparently common in the Holy Land, that are made out of caves or carved into a hillside, where the family sleeps on a platform above the animals. There were stone mangers for straw or other feed, and stone water troughs, each somewhat different in size and shape. So I suppose it is not too far-fetched that the manger in which the Christ Child was laid could have been stone, but unless it is shown marble occurs in the vicinity naturally it would be hard to prove that claim. but it is something that could probably be supported with historic and archeological evidence if you think it matters.

I too am an ageing female, who finds it increasingly difficult to find energy to debate non-essentials. Real apologetics is exhausting enough. After that slam, I will go on to say what I was going to originally, but had second thoughts about in the name of charity. Heck, as an ageing female I can say anything I please. I was going to observe that what I find far more troubling about the exchange recorded in OP was the fact that one person offered an observation about details in the life of Christ with a devotional intent, and another person jumped on his comment, riding right over the intention of the comment. If this is a mother-child confrontation, it speaks volumes about a relationship sadly in need of healing, which we can certainly pray for.

 

[Mirdath]

That is almost what I said, except you are toooo nice. I said something like bleepity bleeeppity bleep off !

‘Nice’ is all in the tone. Though I admit I’d have a hard time keeping from laughing if I were saying it slowly, loudly, and angrily

How insane are you?

I’m the most normal person in my family – for what that’s worth

 

[Damascus]

The funniest thing was that this all came up in a conversation about what she was sending my toddler for “no special reason” to be UPS’d to us…

An easy bake oven started all this nonsense.

 

[jonfan]

The funniest thing was that this all came up in a conversation about what she was sending my toddler for “no special reason” to be UPS’d to us…

An easy bake oven started all this nonsense.

Right. So she is sending ‘just because’. It had nothing to do with Christmas.

 

[Damascus]

‘Nice’ is all in the tone. Though I admit I’d have a hard time keeping from laughing if I were saying it slowly, loudly, and angrily

I’m the most normal person in my family – for what that’s worth

Sorry Mirdath, I asked her that - did not imply you were insane.

Sorry.

She insists we “just dont know do we”?

URRRGH.

I need a historian on the Cross and wood and if there was a shortage or not and marble experts now!

Help!

 

[Damascus]

Right. So she is sending ‘just because’. It had nothing to do with Christmas.

She always sends my little one TONS of stuff on her birthday (day early or late) and Easter!!! and her Birthday!!! and even has been to my house for Thanksgiving!!! Come on. And I have to be really PC about it all and you guys know me here, it aint my gig.

 

[lak611]

I need a historian on the Cross and wood and if there was a shortage or not and marble experts now!
Help!

What about the Bible? It says “tree”. I have a science degree, and all trees are made of wood. Marble is a rock. Rocks are NOT trees!

 

[mommyof4]

If, as a first-century innkeeper in small-town Judea, I had enough money to afford a marble manger, I’d have sold the place and headed for Caesarea and thence to some nice country house way before I started decking out the barn with classical sculpture

I have a very tough time believing that a lowly innkeeper could have a marble trough. Even in this day and age, we do not make such luxuries for our farm animals (in Iowa, anyways! )

 

[Damascus]

I have a very tough time believing that a lowly innkeeper could have a marble trough. Even in this day and age, we do not make such luxuries for our farm animals (in Iowa, anyways! )

Maybe the Pagan Santa will one day get them one?

“we just dont know”

 

[lak611]

She always sends my little one TONS of stuff on her birthday (day early or late) and Easter!!! and her Birthday!!! and even has been to my house for Thanksgiving!!! Come on. And I have to be really PC about it all and you guys know me here, it aint my gig.

So she’s really not a true JW then! Because if she was, birthdays and Thanksgiving are also paganistic holidays!