Rufus T. Firefly wrote:webenda wrote:Now, about seeing your own obituary while you are still sleeping in death, not possible. Open your bible and read Ecclesiastes 9:5.
Find a better and primary source to cite.
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
That's been re-written so many times that they've worn out the letter "e".
I understand about the Catholic bible. It has been changed to reflect Catholic beliefs. The Jehovah’s Witnesses bible has been changed to agree with the most ancient manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts. And both parties point at each other and accuse, "You changed the bible." I read them both and find the principles are generally the same in both.
As for a better and primary source to cite...
Ecclesiastes 9:5
Original writing by the apostles has yet to be found (or somebody is hiding them) so the primary source is not available.
One of the oldest extant fragments containing Biblical passages is the Nash Papyrus, found in Egypt and preserved at Cambridge, England. Evidently part of an instructional collection, it is of the second or first century B.C.E. and consists of only four fragments of 24 lines of a pre-Masoretic text of the Ten Commandments and some verses of Deuteronomy, chapters 5 and 6.
There are copies with more text as old as 175-150 B.C. found in Qumran Cave 4 (so called Dead Sea Scrolls.)
- Dead Sea Scroll Fragements.jpg (50.89 KiB) Viewed 2305 times
Unfortunately the fragments only have parts of Ecclesiastes 5:14-18; 6:1, 3-8, 12; 7:1-10, 19-20.
The oldest dated manuscript of the complete Hebrew Scriptures in Hebrew is the Leningrad Manuscript No. B 19A, preserved in the Public Library in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was copied in 1008 C.E. “from the corrected books prepared and annotated by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher the teacher.” Yeah, I know, 1,000 years of copying and correction.
Here is Ecclesiastes 9:5 from the Leningrad Codex:
כִּ֧י הַֽחַיִּ֛ים יֹודְעִ֖ים שֶׁיָּמֻ֑תוּ וְהַמֵּתִ֞ים אֵינָ֧ם יֹודְעִ֣ים מְא֗וּמָה וְאֵֽין־עֹ֤וד לָהֶם֙ שָׂכָ֔ר כִּ֥י נִשְׁכַּ֖ח זִכְרָֽם׃
I cannot read it. Google translates it this way:
And when they were alive, they knew that they knew that they were dead, and that they were not; they were not knowing; they were no more than a nation, and they were no more; and they were numbered among them, so that they might be forgotten, because they had forgotten their memory.
Makes no sense at all. The Jehovah's Witness' New World Translation (NWT) uses the oldest sources (including what is available from the dead sea scrolls) to attempt the best modern English presentation of ancient texts. The NWT states Ecclesiastes 9:5 this way:
5
For the living know* that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward,** because all memory of them is forgotten. * Or “are conscious.”
** Or “wages.”
Obviously I went in circles and failed to meet your request for, "Find a better and primary source to cite." Do you have something in mind?
I know because I've seen it on TV. It's a newer version. Tell me your home address and I'll show you in person which version I am. 
