The Watchtower — September 15, 1950

Turning to the Peoples a Pure Language

“For then will I turn to the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of Jehovah, to serve him with one consent.”—Zeph. 3:9, AS, Da, Yg.

1. What is Jehovah turning to the peoples? With what effect?

JEHOVAH God’s language is as pure as truth. It is the only pure language. Now is the time to be speaking it. Mastered by the peoples of whatever nationality, his language is a mighty unifying force amid a divided, war-menaced world. It does away with religious error and false worship and unites all persons who speak the language in a pure worship of the living and true God. In an era when the 2,796 listed languages and dialects of the world act as a great barrier to people’s understanding of one another and when hundreds of religious sects confuse and prejudice mankind on the vital matter of worship, Jehovah God is turning to the many peoples of today a “pure language”. This is in fulfillment of his ancient prophecy by one of his witnesses, Zephaniah: “For then I will turn the speech of the peoples into a purified speech; so that all of them may call upon the name of the LORD [Jehovah, AS], and serve him with one accord.”—Zeph. 3:9, AT.

2. Why now learn this language, call on God’s name and serve him?

² Many persons will ask: “Why should I learn this language in order to call upon the name of Jehovah and serve him?” The answer is, Because our rescue from destruction depends on our pure worship and service of the Most High God. It is the prime requirement of our salvation. When we speak of destruction, we mean not merely a destruction of individual persons, but a destruction of nations, all the nations of this world. Are we meaning a world destruction? Yes! and this, not with the atomic and hydrogen bombs and chemical and germ warfare in mind, but with the execution of God’s purpose in mind: “‘Therefore wait for me,’ is the oracle of the LORD [Jehovah], ‘against the day when I arise as a witness. For it is my decision to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, that I may pour out my wrath upon them, all the heat of my anger. For in the fire of my zeal, all the earth shall be consumed.’”—Zeph. 3:8, AT, Ro, LXX.

3. How has God now gathered nations and kingdoms? Why is it a timely mercy that he now turns a pure language to the peoples?

³ That oracle of Jehovah, though uttered twenty-six centuries in the past, was especially spoken for our crucial day. Ancient Jerusalem, to whom it was first spoken directly, was just the prototype of modern Christendom, which professes to hold to the sacred Bible. Our day, since A.D. 1914 and its first world war, is the day of the gathering of the nations and the assembling of the kingdoms. Not by all the means of communication man has invented, however. No; but by the great witness which Jehovah has risen up to give, and by which he has brought them all together under his attention and has stirred them up to combine in united opposition to his purpose. In the very nick of time he mercifully turns the pure language to the peoples. With it all people seeking life in a new world may sound forth his name and may unite in serving him before ever this earthly international organization is consumed by the fiery expression of his wrath at the battle of Armageddon. In none of Christendom’s wars, from the days of Roman Emperor Constantine onward, has Jehovah God ever fought or aided either of the warring sides. But in the battle of Armageddon, which he has foretold, he will fight, outclassing all the fission and fusion bombs of Christendom, and he will win! Happily for those persons who have taken up his language and called upon his name and united in worshiping him, Jehovah will protect them during the heat of that world disaster. In safety he will bring them into the new world where only the pure language will be on every lip.—Rev. 16:13-16; Zeph. 2:1-3.

LANGUAGE TEXTBOOK

4. Who now talk this language? Where is the textbook for it?

⁴ Today in more than a hundred nations, as far as we have record, this “pure language” is being spoken. Regardless of their national or mother tongue hundreds of thousands are now speaking this “purified speech” in unity as one people; and the nations are hearing them talk it. Of course, the nations, with their national and religious traditions, do not like it. But they cannot prevent it any more than they can prevent Almighty Jehovah from turning the “pure language” to the peoples now that his fixed time for it has come. By now you are asking “What is this language, and where is the textbook on it?” The answer to this is very evident. Since it is the Lord Jehovah that turns the pure language to the peoples, we must turn to his written Word, the Holy Bible, for that is what he wants us to talk.

5. What is the language this textbook teaches?

⁵ The Bible is the textbook which teaches this language of the righteous new world. By that we do not mean the Hebrew, A·ra·maʹic and Greek in which the inspired Scriptures were originally written. Neither do we mean the mere written words of the Scriptures which a person may memorize and quote without knowing the right meaning of his quotation. We mean the pure message of God’s written Word, which he as its Author alone can make clear by his spirit. That message reveals who He is, what his name is, what his unchangeable purposes are concerning his friends and his enemies, now and in the new world. It is the message of the New World government, his kingdom in the hands of his anointed King, Jesus Christ. People who declare Jehovah’s purpose according to the revealed Scriptures and who announce his now established kingdom are speaking that pure language, declaring his name and serving him with one consent.

6. Why, then, are Christendom’s religionists not speaking it?

⁶ Jehovah God gave us the one original Bible. But despite this the hundreds of religious sects of Christendom are not speaking the “pure language” or calling upon Jehovah’s name and peacefully serving him in heart harmony. All together, these religionists have no harmonious message based on the Bible. Why? Because they place religious traditions, worldly philosophy and party loyalties above the pure, simple Word of God. They scorn the name of Jehovah God, they split over political and national issues and even fight violent wars of bloodshed and costly destruction, Catholic against Catholic and Protestant against Protestant. Their methods, purposes and hopes are all of the old world, and their language is of the old world. There is a fundamental need of purifying the language of sincere persons who want to worship God in spirit and in truth and to call upon his holy name and serve him in oneness.

7. Against whom, and why, did Jehovah say he would rise as witness?

⁷ When we consider the preceding words of the prophet Zephaniah, we see how well they find their final fulfillment in religious Christendom and we can appreciate the need for a “purified speech”. Referring to unfaithful Jerusalem of old and her modern counterpart in Christendom, Zephaniah says: “Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted! to the oppressing city! She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in Jehovah; she drew not near to her God. Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they leave nothing till the morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons; her priests have profaned the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law. . . . they rose early and corrupted all their doings.” (Zeph. 3:1-7, AS) Therefore Jehovah declared he would rise up against the hypocritical religionists as a witness and would deliver his testimony and execute his fiery judgment.

8. That not all may be consumed, what is it necessary to do?

⁸ But in order that not all the people on earth may be consumed in the execution of his wrath against disobedience, hypocrisy and wickedness it is necessary for Jehovah to purify the speech or language of persons to be saved. When we hear him describe the religious leaders as they really are, the prophets or preachers as reckless, untrustworthy men and the priests as profaning really holy things and doing violence to God’s law by wresting it out of its true meaning and application, we can see how the language of the people has been corrupted in respect to the most sacred and vital thing, their knowledge, understanding and worship of God. Little wonder that Jehovah finds grounds for wrath and has purposed to destroy the entire system of things.

INFILTRATION OF IMPURITIES

9. What corruption has taken place for centuries, as foretold?

⁹ This twentieth century represents the culmination of this corruptive process. During the nineteen centuries since the days of Christ’s apostles there has been a great departure from “the faith that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones”. (Jude 3, NW) The faithful apostles, and the Hebrew prophets before them, and, in fact, the typical history of the nation of Israel, foretold unitedly that there would be a great “falling away” from the original pure faith and its practice. About the middle of the first century the apostle Paul declared that the “mystery of this lawlessness” was already at work in his day, and he gave repeated warnings against what to expect. (2 Thess. 2:3, 7, NW) The prophecies of these things have proved to be inspired, for they have come true, as all the facts of history show.

10. Who took the lead then in the corruptive work, and how?

¹⁰ Men who accepted or seized the responsibility of teaching and leading the Christian congregation disregarded the apostolic warnings. They fell for the very things warned against, the philosophy of this world, particularly the Platonic philosophy of the Grecian culture which made a great show of worldly wisdom; and also the religious traditions of men which contradict, nullify and displace the Bible teachings. They slyly worked these religious traditions and worldly philosophy into the Christian congregations and infected their religious belief. Just as the apostle Paul had forewarned in his farewell letter: “Wicked men and impostors will advance from bad to worse, misleading and being misled.” (2 Tim. 3:13, NW) Only a small minority followed the instruction to “put up a hard fight for the faith” that was originally delivered by Jesus Christ and by his apostles and disciples who wrote under inspiration of God’s spirit of truth.

11. How did corruption reach out for the Bible’s original text even?

¹¹ Thus the perversion of Bible teaching reached up into the highest religious circles. It even made attempts upon the written text of the Holy Scriptures. The original writings of the Hebrew prophets and of the apostles and their associates were inspired, but till the fifteenth century A.D. their writings had to be copied by hand. Mistakes due to human imperfection crept into the making of these copies. As the original autographs of the inspired writers disappeared or were not at hand, it became impossible to compare the copies with the inspired originals so as to make perfect copies, to correct errors and to weed out all additions and interweavings of worldly philosophy and uninspired religious traditions. One such addition, which was worked into the original Greek text of the Scriptures to support the doctrine of a trinity, was that at 1 John 5:7, 8, namely, the words “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth”. This uninspired religious addition appeared first in a Latin translation of the fifth century. The Bible had threatened a punishment and had warned against thus adding to God’s Word or taking away from it.—Deut. 4:2; Prov. 30:5, 6; Rev. 22:18, 19.

12. How has it been possible to reconstruct something close to that text?

¹² Generally, however, there was a reverential regard for the text of the Scriptures itself, and hence an endeavor to keep it as free as possible from corruption. The writings of Christ’s disciples, with the exception of the gospel account by the apostle Matthew, were at first written in the common Greek spoken then throughout the regions of the Mediterranean sea. Of more than 4,000 Greek manuscript copies which are at hand today there are no two exactly alike. Yet by means of a careful study and comparison of these, especially with the most ancient manuscript copies and papyri fragments which have been discovered and brought to light in the last several centuries, it has been possible to construct a text of the Christian Greek Scriptures which closely resembles the original inspired writings of Christ’s disciples. Such a text makes for truth.

CORRUPTION THROUGH TRANSLATION

13. In what field was coloring of the message more possible? Why there?

¹³ But it was in the field of translating the original Scriptures into foreign languages that the Devil’s greater opportunity lay for perverting or coloring the sacred teachings of God’s Word. It was not the divine purpose that the good news of God’s Word should be held down to those who could read the original Hebrew, A·ra·maʹic and Greek of the Holy Bible. Jehovah is a God of salvation for all humankind of whatever race, color, nationality or language. In fulfillment of sacred prophecy, Christ Jesus was a Jew and all his apostles were Jews. Yet salvation by the sacrifice of his Jewish flesh was not for Jews only, but for all those of mankind who should believe on him. (John 3:14-17) So Jesus gave full width to the vision of our Christian work when he said to his disciples before parting, “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19, 20, NW) This meant translating the message of salvation into as many languages and dialects as the people of all such nations spoke. If the message was not translated, they could not understand it and act upon it in faith and obedience.

14. Was the first translation by Christians inspired? How so?

¹⁴ The first translation of the message of salvation by Christ’s disciples was inspired by God’s spirit. This was on the first day of Pentecost at Jerusalem after Jesus had ascended to heaven, and he poured out the spirit upon his 120 disciples there. So they “started to speak with different tongues, just as the spirit was granting them to make utterance”. The big crowd, representing fifteen or more lands, that assembled to witness this strange manifestation of God’s spirit said: “We hear them speaking in our tongues about the magnificent things of God.” (Acts 2:1-11, NW) There is historical testimony that the apostle Matthew first wrote his “book of the history of Jesus Christ” in the Hebrew for Jewish readers, but that later he made his own translation of this gospel account into the common Greek to reach a larger reading public. In that way he could transfer his inspiration to his translation into Greek, so that his written translation was inspired. (Matt. 1:1, NW) But the other disciples wrote directly in the common Greek; so their writings needed translation into A·ra·maʹic, Hebrew, Latin, etc.

15. Why should no written translation since be venerated as some are?

¹⁵ Aside from Matthew’s own translation into Greek, no written translation of the Scriptures down to this day is inspired. Moreover, being made from imperfect copies of the original Scriptures, the translation in a foreign language is often made more incapable of presenting perfectly the original thought or shade of meaning. So no recent translation of the Holy Scriptures should be venerated as inspired, not even the most popular Bible translation, the King James Version, nor the Latin Vulgate or Martin Luther’s Version.

16. How may translators be hindered from speaking the pure language?

¹⁶ Up till the beginning of the year 1950 the Scriptures had been translated, in whole or in part, into 1,118 languages and dialects. New translations are being turned out on the average of about one a month. For the most part these are being made by religious clergymen and missionaries of Christendom’s sects. Naturally the translations made by such religious men and women will be influenced, colored, worded and phrased according to the pagan philosophies and unscriptural traditions which their religious systems have inherited from the past. Their honesty, sincerity and religious zeal will fire them on to weaving these things into the translation as far as possible. And when they make their translation, not from the original Hebrew, A·ra·maʹic and Greek, but from a mere translation that already contains this particular religious coloration, it tends all the more to corrupt the translation. This hinders the users of the translation from speaking the pure language of God’s message of salvation.

17. How can a reader safeguard himself against a colored translation?

¹⁷ Just as the Bible students of ancient Beroea, Greece, searched the Scriptures daily to see whether the things preached by even such a person as the apostle Paul were Scriptural and thus true, so the reader of a modern translation can safeguard himself against religious coloration of a translation. How? By cutting through religious tradition and digging down to the original sources by means of all the modern helps that he has for this purpose, such as ancient language dictionaries, Bible concordances, the latest grammars on ancient tongues, etc. He can detect error by comparing Scripture verse with Scripture verse to note any inconsistencies in translation and then searching back to the original text, if possible.

18. So what does a translator need to serve God for salvation?

¹⁸ So a Bible translator needs more than mere religious fervor and honesty. He needs freedom from the religious traditions of influential, popular systems and from generally accepted pagan philosophies of this world. He needs to take the original writings of the inspired writers for what they say, in an effort to find, not the proof of modern religious teaching, but the “faith that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones”. Especially must he remember that the original Scriptures were inspired by God’s active force or spirit. He should therefore pray for that same spirit, not to inspire him, but to help and guide him in translating. For that spirit is “the spirit of the truth”, and God is more willing to give it to his spiritual children than an earthly father is to give good gifts to his natural children. (John 16:13, NW; Luke 11:13) The translator should not have in mind making a name for himself by having his name attached to the translation. He should be swallowed up in the desire to present the “pure language” of God’s truth in order that readers of his translation may call upon the name of God, whose name is Jehovah, and may join with people who speak other tongues and dialects in serving this one true God with one consent. In that way the translator serves God’s purpose and he works for his own salvation and that of those using the translation.

New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures

1. How was the first written translation of Scripture accomplished?

THE first written translation of the Holy Scriptures was from the Hebrew canon into the common Greek and came to be known as the Greek Septuagint Version (LXX).a The disciples of Christ, who wrote in Greek, quoted from this version in their inspired writings. The Greek Septuagint began to be made in the beginning of the third century before Christ at Alexandria, Egypt, a large percentage of which was then Greek-speaking Jews. The Hebrews at Jerusalem had developed a prejudice against written translations of the sacred canon of the Scriptures, thinking them too holy to suffer from misinterpretation which was naturally to be expected in a foreign translation. However, despite such Hebrew prejudice, the translation was carried on during three centuries, evidently by Alexandrian, and not Palestinian, Jews and with the patronage of the Egyptian ruler, and from Hebrew rolls possibly imported from Palestine. Though one religious tradition maintains inspiration for the Septuagint, there is no inside or outside evidence to prove that claim. This translation formed what may be called the pre-Christian Greek Scriptures. It proved very valuable to the Greek-speaking Christians of the first-century congregation and to translators of the Hebrew Scriptures themselves. This Greek translation, and not the Hebrew Bible itself, was the Scripture collection that was used in the march of Christian missionary work westward through Europe.

2. When was the Bible canon completed? When and how were its books collected and published?

² By the end of the first century A.D. the official catalogue or canon of the inspired writings of Christ’s disciples was finished. As they were written in Greek, they form what may rightly be called the Christian Greek Scriptures. They are on an equality with the Hebrew (A·ra·maʹic) Scriptures as to inspiration, and they fill out those ancient writings, to compose the complete Bible. Thus the canon or official collection of inspired books of the Holy Bible was completed by the end of the first century A.D.b Written translation of the Holy Scriptures followed in due course along with the missionary effort of the early Christians in obedience to Christ’s command to make disciples out of all nations. The books of the Hebrew canon had already been collected at Jerusalem prior to its destruction A.D. 70, and now during the second century the collecting of the books of the inspired Christian Greek Scriptures took place, and translations proceeded. Translations in the Old Latin appeared. Portions of the Scriptures, such as the four gospel accounts and the letters of the apostle Paul, were brought together in codex form like books of our day, for convenient handling and use. The casing-in of books between lids in this style proved to be a marked specialty of the Christian congregation in the bookmaking industry, in that early second century.

3. What was the first Bible printed? Who made that translation?

³ Toward the end of the fourth century Eu·seʹbi·us Jer·omeʹ, commonly known as “Saint Jer·omeʹ”, entered upon his work as a translator. In 383 he produced his new Latin version of the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and in 405 he completed his entire translation of the Bible from the Hebrew and Greek into Latin. Despite widespread objection Jer·ome’sʹ Latin Version won out and became the Bible of Western Christendom for the next thousand years. It became known as the Latin Vulgate or “common Latin edition”. The first Bible to be run off a printing press by Joʹhann Guʹten·berg at Mainz, Germany, was this Latin Vulgate.

4. When Latin died out, what translations were needed? How was the need met?

⁴ But in time Latin died out as the language of the common people, and popular languages of Latin extraction and also Teutonic languages developed. The need for Bible versions in the people’s language became more insistent, and there were many handwritten or manuscript translations that were produced. Before printing was invented, about 1456, there were several German translations of the Bible or parts of it. The first Bible to be printed in a modern language was a German translation by an unknown author, and which was printed at Strassburg by Jo’hann Men’tel in 1466. But time fails to tell or even make mention of Bible production in all other languages.

UNSECTARIAN BIBLE SOCIETY

5. From its beginning, to what has the Watch Tower Society been devoted? How and why has it made use of Bible translations?

⁵ From the time of its organization the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society has used the King James Version of 1611 as its basic version for Bible study. Our chief aim has been to make clear to the people the pure Bible teachings in the light of unfolding prophecy. We seek to advance with the brightening light of truth and to rid ourselves of all the bedarkening traditions of men and pagan philosophies of this world. When first formed in 1881 it was called the Watch Tower Tract Society, to indicate its purpose to spread the revealed truths of the Bible. (The Watchtower, April, 1881) In 1884 it became incorporated as Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society, but in 1896 it was called Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. True to its name, it has engaged in distributing Bibles as well as publishing books, tracts, and other papers for disseminating Christian knowledge based on the rock-bottom teachings of God’s Word. Its Bible education for the people has been unsectarian, and this type of education alone allows a Christian the freedom to cut through religious tradition and worldly philosophy and get back to the “faith that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones”. So from the time of publication of the magazine The Watchtower in 1879 the English publications of the Watch Tower Society have till now quoted, cited and referred to more than seventy different Bible translations in English and other languages. Thus the Society has recognized the value of them all and has made use of the good in them all as needed for setting forth God’s true message and clearing away religious confusion.

6. When did the Society first become a Bible-printing Society? How?

⁶ In 1902 the Watch Tower Society came into possession of its first plates of a Scripture edition and could become a Bible-printing society. These were the plates of an emphasized translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures known as “The Emphatic Diaglott”. This had first been published by its author, Benjamin Wilson, a newspaper editor of Geneva, Illinois, in 1864, and who was never associated with the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. This emphatic translation had some notable features that made for a better understanding of the truth. However, it was not until December 21, 1926, that The Emphatic Diaglott was printed on our Society’s own presses and cased in at a printing plant of its own.

7. How did the Society come to print the whole Bible and release it?

⁷ This led eventually to the desire of the Society to print the complete Bible on its presses. World War II made the need for independent publication of the Bible itself even greater. In the throes of that global conflict the Society succeeded in purchasing plates of the complete King James Version of the Bible. On September 18, 1942, the New World Theocratic Assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses opened up, with its key convention-assembly at Cleveland, Ohio. There the Society’s president spoke on the subject “Presenting ‘The Sword of the Spirit’” and as a climax he released this the first complete Bible printed on our presses. In its appendix it had many helpful features added for use in Bible study. In America 35,000 copies were disposed of immediately, since which beginning 700,000 copies of this Watch Tower edition have been distributed in many lands.

8. Of what other Bible version did the Society next print and release an edition, and how?

⁸ An excellent Bible translation of the twentieth century is the American Standard Version. Besides being a great improvement over the King James Version it has the remarkable and commendable feature of rendering God’s name “Jehovah” at the 6,823 places where it occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures. After long negotiations and by a financial arrangement the Watch Tower Society was able in 1944 to purchase the use of the plates of the complete American Standard Version of the Bible for printing this version on its presses with a specially prepared Appendix of Bible-study helps. On August 10, 1944, at Buffalo, New York, the key city of 17 simultaneous assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses linked together by private telephone lines, the Society’s president delighted his vast audience by releasing the Watch Tower edition of the American Standard Version. Already 252,000 copies have been produced, and it has proved an additional instrument in sounding abroad God’s holy name and publishing the grand news of his kingdom of the new world of life and peace.

PREPARING AND RELEASING THE NEW

9. After use of all the various translations what need was felt? Why?

⁹ We acknowledge our debt to all the Bible versions which we have used in attaining to what truth of God’s Word we enjoy today. We do not discourage the use of any of these Bible versions, but shall ourselves go on making suitable use of them. However, during all our years of using these versions down to the latest of them, we have found them defective. In one or another vital respect they are inconsistent or unsatisfactory, infected with religious traditions or worldly philosophy and hence not in harmony with the sacred truths which Jehovah God has restored to his devoted people who call upon his name and seek to serve him with one accord. Especially has this been true in the case of the Christian Greek Scriptures, which throw light and place proper interpretation upon the ancient Hebrew Scriptures. More and more the need has been felt for a translation in modern speech, in harmony with revealed truth, and yet furnishing us the basis for gaining further truth by faithfully presenting the sense of the original writings; a translation just as understandable to modern readers as the original writings of Christ’s disciples were understandable to the simple, plain, common, lowly readers of their day. Jesus reminded us that our heavenly Father knows the needs of his children before they ever ask him. How has he made provision for us in this need which we now keenly feel?

10. How was another translation committee announced at a directors’ meeting, and what had it done?

¹⁰ Particularly since 1946 the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society has been in quest of such a translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. On September 3, 1949, at 8 a.m., at the Brooklyn headquarters (Bethel) the Society’s president convened a joint meeting of the boards of directors of the Pennsylvania and New York corporations, only one director being absent. After the meeting was opened with prayer the president announced to these eight fellow directors the existence of a “New World Bible Translation Committee” and that it had completed a translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. This it had turned over to the possession and control of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, Pennsylvania corporation, just the preceding day. He read the committee’s document by which it assigned the translation manuscript to the Society in recognition of the Society’s unsectarian work of spreading the sacred Word of God and of promoting the knowledge and understanding of its teaching among the people of every nation, kindred, people and language, and in order that the translation might be a new means toward the expanding of its Christian educational activities throughout the world.

11. What was done with the translation assigned? When and where was work on it begun for publication?

¹¹ The president himself had read the manuscript of the entire translation, and on request he read to the meeting several entire chapters to let the directors see the nature of the translation. This reading was followed by favorable comments by all the directors present. One of the Pennsylvania corporation directors then moved the Society’s acceptance of the gift. This was seconded. The motion was unanimously adopted by all the directors of the corporation, and thus the translation became legally the property of the Society’s Pennsylvania corporation. But it had to be printed at the plant of the New York corporation here in Brooklyn, N. Y. On September 29, 1949, the president turned over the first of the manuscript to the Brooklyn factory force to start working on it.

12. How did the translation progress to publication and release?

¹² With all the other work to be turned out by the factory and with all the features that the committee produced to accompany the translation, an immense amount of labor was involved to produce the completed publication. A group of 40 members of the Brooklyn headquarters (Bethel) family was organized to do extra proofreading and checking to insure accuracy of the publication’s features. On February 9, 1950, the New World Bible Translation Committee submitted to us its important Foreword of the translation. It long appeared a problem whether the work could be accomplished on schedule for the outstanding event in the summer of 1950. But Wednesday afternoon, August 2, 1950, when delivering his speech “Turning to the Peoples a Pure Language” at Yankee Stadium, New York city, the Society’s president had the extreme pleasure of releasing to the international Theocracy’s Increase Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. The translation was received with the greatest of enthusiasm and appreciation by the vast throng of many thousands drawn from 72 lands of earth. Tens of thousands of copies were eagerly taken up by the conventioners that very afternoon and many thousands more by the close of the assembly on August 6.

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES

13. What about its name, the Greek text used, the style of language?

¹³ This new translation is a complete departure from the religious traditions of creed-bound Christendom. This is indicated even by its very name, as a translation of the “Christian Greek Scriptures”, instead of a traditionally so-called “New Testament”. It is unscriptural and misleading to call these 27 Christian books of the inspired Scriptures a “New Testament”. The translation is not a revision of any previous work, but is a brand-new rendering from the original Greek text, using the standard text prepared by the two recognized British scholars, Westcott and Hort. But Greek texts by scholars of other lands have also been consulted by the translation committee, with a sincere endeavor to give a translation in agreement with the teachings of the Scriptures in the original Greek. A literal translation has been striven for as far as the modern English idiom has made this possible without awkwardness. All old-fashioned or out-of-date style of spelling has been eliminated, even as the original Scriptures were written in the people’s natural way of talking to one another at the time. This makes for a better understanding and hence enjoyment of the translation.

14. What outstanding feature should stir up great controversy? What pronunciation have we followed, and why?

¹⁴ One outstanding feature that is bound to stir up great controversy among modern translators and religious leaders of Christendom is the use of God’s own given name in this English rendering of the Christian Greek Scriptures. The divine name is represented by a four-lettered Hebrew word, called a “tet·ra·gramʹma·ton” by the Latin translator Jer·omeʹ. The name occurs 6,823 times in the old Hebrew Scriptures, and, as far as the records show, this name has been read as “Jehovah” since the fourteenth century and has been popularized in that form in Christendom. Exactly how the name was pronounced is not now known. But, while recognizing the merits of the pronunciation “Yah·wehʹ”, the translation committee has used the form “Jehovah” because of its familiarity and because it preserves the four original letters of the Hebrew name. In God’s own time when He reveals the correct pronunciation of his holy name, we will gladly make the accurate correction.

15. In what way is the translation first to use the divine name thus?

¹⁵ The committee does not claim to be the first to render the sacred name in an English translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Almost a hundred years ago the author of The Emphatic Diaglott published his translation of Matthew’s gospel account and in it he used “Jehovah” 5 times, and the completed Diaglott (1864) contains the name 18 times from Matthew to Acts, but without any explanation for its use. But, to our knowledge, the New World Translation is the first to render the divine name consistently from Matthew to Revelation, 237 times all together in the main reading text, not to speak of 72 additional times where it occurs only in the marginal readings at the bottom of the page.

16. How did Matthew put the divine name in the Christian Scriptures?

¹⁶ “But you can’t do that!” said one critic to whom the manuscript of the translation was read for his comments. The committee, in its Foreword of twenty-nine pages, shows how it can be done on valid grounds; and it does so. English Bible translators have assumed that the divine name never occurred in the inspired writings of Christ’s disciples. But Jer·omeʹ, for one, informs us: “Matthew, who is also Levi, and who from a publican came to be an apostle, first of all the Evangelists, composed a Gospel of Christ in Ju·daeʹa in the Hebrew language and characters, for the benefit of those of the circumcision who had believed. . . . wherever the Evangelist makes use of the testimonies of the old Scriptures he does not follow the authority of the seventy translators [the Greek Septuagint], but of the Hebrew.” (Catal. Script. Eccl.) Hence where Matthew quoted in Hebrew from the inspired Hebrew Scriptures, he must have faithfully quoted the divine name and thus have put it in his Gospel account. The apostle Matthew was one of the men concerning whom Jesus said in prayer to God: “I have made your name manifest to the men you gave me out of the world. . . . I have made your name known to them and will make it known.” (John 17:6, 26, NW) Matthew would therefore know the name from Jesus and would have no conscientious qualms about using it properly in his history of Jesus’ life. If Matthew translated his own Gospel account from Hebrew into Greek, then he would follow the ancient practice of inserting the four Hebrew letters of God’s name into his Greek text where it belonged, possibly 18 times as it occurs in the New World Translation.

17. How did the Greek Septuagint warrant the disciples’ putting the divine name in their Greek writings? Why was tradition no deterrent?

¹⁷ Under inspiration Christ’s disciples quoted copiously from the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. In this translation the practice of old was to insert the Hebrew “tet·ra·gramʹma·ton” into the Greek text to correspond with where it occurred in the Hebrew Scriptures. Even in the fourth century Jerome tells us that in his day there were still copies of the Greek translation which contained the Hebrew “tet·ra·gramʹma·ton” where the divine name occurred in the text. What would the apostles writing in Greek do when they quoted from such a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures? Jesus did not follow Jewish tradition and he taught his disciples not to do so. The tradition of the Jewish religious leaders who opposed Jesus to the death was to substitute the title “Lord” for the divine name, a name which they professed not to take in vain by not pronouncing it but which they did profane in practice. The inspired Christian writers were not bound by Jewish tradition to substitute the titles “God” and “Lord” for the divine name, and the holy spirit that inspired those writers was not under any fear that the divine name would be profaned by causing it to be written in Hebrew characters in the Christian Greek Scriptures. The disciples were free to follow the practice of inserting the Hebrew letters of the divine name in their Greek text. Their original autograph writings have disappeared.

18. What were recent Hebrew translators obliged to do about the name?

¹⁸ Since the fourteenth century translations of the Christian Greek Scriptures have been made into the Hebrew tongue for the benefit of Jews. The committee in its Foreword lists 19 of such Hebrew translations, and all these together contain the divine name in 307 distinct instances. Where Jesus’ disciples quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures in verses where the tet·ra·gramʹma·ton occurs, these Hebrew translations were simply obliged to enter the divine name exactly as it is in the inspired original Hebrew text, the same as the apostle Matthew was obliged to do. Thus all these Hebrew translations have entered the divine name Jehovah in the Christian writings from Matthew to Revelation; and all modern translators are powerless to object. The lower marginal references of the New World Translation show where it has backing from all these 19 Hebrew versions.

19. In what other recent translations does the divine name appear?

¹⁹ More than that, the divine name is found, not only in such Hebrew translations, but also in vernacular form in many translations made by missionaries during the past two centuries. The committee’s Foreword lists 38 such translations of the Christian Greek Scriptures in which the name Jehovah occurs in twenty vernacular forms aside from the Hebrew and English translations. And as far as all these translations have the backing of the Hebrew Scriptures, they are correct in using the divine name Jehovah (Yah·wehʹ) instead of the indefinite title “Lord”, as is the practice of the King James Version.

20, 21. (a) Is this making the Divine Being a tribal God? (b) Why would modern translators reduce him to a nameless God? Why should not we?

²⁰ This is not making the Divine Being a tribal God of the Jews in whom the people of the Gentile nations have no part. One modern Bible translator, who favors eliminating the name “Jehovah” or “Yahwehʹ” from translations of even the Hebrew Scriptures, is on record this year as saying: “Thus the tradition of the Jewish synagogue favors the practice of the King James Version, to which we are returning . . . There is an even stronger present reason. Neither Jews nor Christians worship merely a tribal deity, who has to have a proper name to distinguish him from other gods. We worship the one and only God of the universe.” Now how do you relish having a man of such views for your Bible translator, even though he is a university professor? Under the seemingly broad-minded idea of making the Supreme Person an international God he, like many others, would make him a nameless God.

²¹ But the Most High God has not chosen to remain nameless to the human family. He has given himself a name full of meaning to us. When asked by man what God’s name is, he gave it, and said to his prophet Moses: “I am Jehovah.” Through his prophet Isaiah he says: “I am Jehovah, this is My name.” (Ex. 3:13-15; 6:2, 3 and Isa. 42:8, Yg) Jesus Christ is the Greater Prophet foreshadowed by both Moses and Isaiah, and his very name “Jesus” means “Jehovah is salvation”. Jesus said: “I have come in the name of my Father.” He taught his disciples to pray: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified.” (John 5:43 and Matt. 6:9, NW) No, this Jesus, who sent the spirit helper by means of which the Christian Greek Scriptures were inspired, did not reduce his heavenly Father to a nameless God.

22. What does restoring the name to the Christian Scriptures accomplish?

²² The divine name restored to the Christian Greek Scriptures gives the heavenly Father a personality that distinguishes him from his Son Jesus Christ. Instead of following the King James Version, for instance, at Acts 2:34, where that version reads, “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,” the New World Translation, reads, in full harmony with the Hebrew Psalms: “Jehovah said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand’”; and at Ac 2 verse 21 it reads: “And then anyone that calls upon the name of Jehovah will be saved.” Oh, how much this valid translation makes the Bible text clearer to our understanding and subject to correct explanation at once! What a revealing light it throws upon Christendom’s traditional doctrine of the trinity! In like manner the New World Translation by its direct and consistent renderings exposes false religious traditions about the human soul, hell, earth’s destiny, God’s kingdom, and other doctrines of importance. But we must reserve it for articles in a later issue of this magazine to discuss the illuminating features of this translation of 1950.

SPREAD THE LANGUAGE

23. (a) What gathering now nears its final stage, and why? (b) What has Jehovah done in behalf of the language of the new world?

²³ What shall we do now? Or what shall we say? The beginning of world sorrows in 1914 and all the fulfillments of Bible prophecy since then testify that we are certainly in the world’s “time of the end”. God’s approval and blessing are not upon this doomed world in any of its political, commercial and religious efforts for perpetuating this old system of things; but, instead, his righteous wrath and indignation. The gathering of the nations and the assembling of the kingdoms, with their United Nations and political blocs and pacts within the framework of that U.N. organization, are nearing the final stage. The time for the entire earthly system of things to be consumed in the fire of Jehovah’s zeal is drawing close. But not without warning from the God of love and mercy. In this time of the end he has kept his promise and turned a “pure language” to the peoples who long for truth and righteousness. He has not left himself nameless, but has revealed his identity in order that the peoples may know to whom to turn through Jesus Christ. Through the Theocratic organization of his anointed witnesses he has been clearing up the Bible truth more and more and thus purifying their speech. So now they talk and live in harmony with the language of the approaching new world. And here, in this year of 1950, his providence brings forth this New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures as a further purification of the speech of his people. He has graciously provided it as a further powerful means for turning to the peoples a “pure language”.

24. (a) Whose name is this new translation issued to honor? (b) How will this English translation benefit people of many other tongues?

²⁴ Do not, then, let the prejudices, religious traditions and sectarian conceitedness of Christendom stumble you. Give this new English translation an openhearted welcome. It is issued to glorify or memorialize the names of no men. Therefore the men who compose the translation committee have indicated their desire to the Society’s boards of directors to remain anonymous, and specifically do not want their names to be published while they are in life or after death. The purpose of the translation is to exalt the name of the living, true God and spread the fragrant knowledge of his kingdom by Christ Jesus. Although published only in English, yet through publications of the Watch Tower Society which quote it and which are translated into upward of 90 languages, this translation will spread its spiritual help to millions of peoples of many tongues and nations. This translation, for its faithfulness, courage, and correctness, will commend itself to every honest searcher for the truth of the divine revelation.

25. What should those having this translation do with it, and in what work will they thus have a larger part?

²⁵ Take this translation. Read it through, a thing that will be done with enjoyment. Study it, for it will help you to better your understanding of God’s Word. Put it in the hands of others. Help others to study it and the Scripture publications based upon it. By this course you will be perfecting your mastery of the “pure language”, the speech which talks understandingly of the new world in which God’s kingdom by Jesus Christ will rule supreme and without a rival. By this course, too, you will be having a part as a coworker with God in turning to the peoples this “pure language”. This will enable them all to “call upon the name of Jehovah” and to “serve him with one consent”, gathered unitedly in support of his kingdom. This is the only way they will be shielded during the outburst of the fire of his wrath and indignation at Armageddon and be spared for joyous living in the endless new world.

[Footnotes]

“The books of the New Testament there is no hesitation about saying again, for they are these: Four gospels according to Matthew, according to Mark, according to Luke and according to John; and next after these Acts of the Apostles and seven so-called general letters of the apostles as follows: One of James, two of Peter, then three of John and after these one of Jude. In addition to these there are fourteen letters of Paul the apostle, written thus in order: The first one to the Romans, then two to the Corinthians, and next after these to the Galatians and thereafter to the Ephesians, then to the Philippians and to the Colossians and two to the Thessalonians and the one to the Hebrews; and then two to Timothy, but one to Titus. And one final one to Philemon; and again of John a Revelation.”

This is the first example of the catalogue of the books of the Christian Greek Scriptures as we have them today. This published list, known as “The Canon of A·tha·naʹsi·us”, preceded thus by 30 years the list published by the Council or Synod of Carthage, Africa, in 397 (A.D.).

Ancient Patterns for the Present

MANY church-going people day regard three-fourths of Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures which they call the “Old Testament”, as a mere historical record of the dusty past. In this they greatly err. For many centuries God dealt with the Israelites in a special way and he caused their experiences, and the history of other ancient people before them, to be written down as patterns: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.”—Rom. 15:4, RS.

A type is an image or representation of something that will come to pass at some future time. The antitype is the reality of the thing which the type represents. The type may properly be called a shadow; the antitype, the reality. Dramatic episodes and experiences serve as types, a study of which will give a person a reasonable facsimile or picture of the reality, and therefore they are called prophetic pictures. A type is also a pattern that serves as a guide in understanding the reality.

Having the proper view of this matter, Paul the apostle appreciated the importance of Israel’s dramatic history. This is why in his letters he so often called up those past events and showed how they pictured, typified and cast a shadow of greater realities. For example, Paul says that the quenching of Israel’s thirst by the water that issued out of the rock was merely a pattern or type of the “living water” that issues forth out of the great Rock, Christ Jesus.—1 Cor. 10:1-4.

“Now these things,” Paul continues, “were our examples [figures, margin], to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they [the ancient Israelites] also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written [Ex. 32:6], The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us make trial of the Lord, as some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents. [Num. 21:5, 6] Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. Now these things happened unto them by way of example [“by way of type,” Rotherham]; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.”—1 Cor. 10:6-11, AS.

TABERNACLE SHADOWS

Could it be that all those regulations, ordinances and commandments given Israel regarding their tabernacle services and sacrifices were pictorial of greater things to come? Most assuredly! And Paul makes this very clear by explaining the reality of many of those things. “For while the Law foreshadowed the blessings that were to come, it did not fully express them.” (Heb. 10:1, AT) The priesthood under the old Law covenant was only a shadow or pattern of the greater and heavenly and spiritual things, as it is written: “the service they engage in is only a shadow and imitation of that in heaven.” (Heb. 8:5, 6, AT) Yes, the ceremonial ordinances involving the keeping of holy days, new moons, sabbath days, meat and drink offerings, etc., the apostle tells us, were “all only the shadow of something that was to follow; the reality is found in Christ.”—Col. 2:16, 17, AT.

Not leaving the subject, Paul again refers to those tabernacle sacrifices as only “a figure for the time present”, and continues: “But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. And according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission. It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us.”—Heb. 9:9, 11, 12, 22-24, AS, margin.

Now “Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants”. (Gal. 4:22-24) What could be plainer than this statement, that these historical happenings were prophetic pictures, allegories, of things to follow?

OTHER POWERFUL EXAMPLES CITED

Other writers of the Greek Scriptures, the so-called “New Testament”, also recognized in the Hebrew Scriptures patterns and profitable examples for Christians to follow. Sarah, in her meekness and obedience to her husband Abraham, is a good model for wives in the Christian congregation to imitate, the apostle Peter tells us. (1 Pet. 3:1-6) The disciple James calls up Abraham and Rahab as good patterns for those to follow who would prove their faith by their works. (Jas. 2:20-26) Or if it is a question of enduring affliction and persecution at the hands of the Devil and his agents, then one finds some of the finest examples in the accounts of the old Hebrew prophets. “Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.” That righteous man Job, James says, is an outstanding example of patient endurance and steadfastness in integrity under stress.—Jas. 5:10, 11.

On the other hand, Jude in his short but powerful letter, in which he exhorts Christians to earnestly contend for the faith, says that they should be on guard against wicked men who would sneak in among the Lord’s people. Jude then tells us that Cain in his wickedness is an example of such ones. Also Balaam’s error pictured the mischief of this wicked class. And yet a third example is cited by Jude, when he shows that Korah in his rebellion was a picture of those that endeavor to pollute Christian congregations.—Num. 16:1-35; 22:7; 1 John 3:12; Jude 3, 4, 11.

John the Baptist and his work were further proof that the lives and work of the Hebrew prophets were pictorial of events to come to pass in the future. Malachi had foretold that one would come of whom Elijah the prophet was a picture, and while John the Baptist gave assurance that he was not Elijah, he freely admitted that he was doing the work pictured by the prophet. (Mal. 4:5; John 1:21-23) Jesus also testified that, if we are ready to accept the idea, John the Baptist was the one foreshadowed by Elijah.—Matt. 11:13, 14; 17:12, AT; Mark 9:12, 13.

CHRIST, REALITY OF MANY TYPES

Many men of old, in their special service to God, pictured in a typical way Christ Jesus and his ministry. The anointed Jesus, then, became the reality of those prophetic pictures. As the root of Jesse, the Lion of the tribe of Judah in whom good-will people of all nations must hope, Christ is the Greater David. (Rom. 15:8, 12; Rev. 5:5; 22:16) Pointing to himself as the Greater Solomon, Christ declared: “Behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” (Luke 11:31; 1 Ki. 10:1-9; 2 Chron. 9:1-8) The apostle Peter and Stephen, a servant in the early church, recognized Christ as the Greater Moses, of whom Moses was a type.—Acts 3:20, 22; 7:37; Deut. 18:15.

When that generation asked for further proof that Jesus was Messiah, Christ cited the prophet Jonah as a fitting picture or type, in more ways than one, of himself, saying: “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet: for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:39, 40, AS, margin; Jonah 1:17) “Behold, a greater than Jonah is here,” declared Jesus. “For even as Jonah became a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.”—Luke 11:30, 32, AS; Matt. 12:41; Jonah 3:1-10.

Isaiah, in declaring that “the spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek”, etc., was really prefiguring Christ Jesus. Hence, Christ was fully justified in reading this passage from the book of Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth and applying it to himself. “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”—Isa. 61:1, 2, AS; Luke 4:16-21.

The young male passover lamb, free of all blemishes, that was slain in Egypt was in truth a picture or type of the perfect young man Jesus, “a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (Ex. 12:5; 1 Pet. 1:18, 19) It is the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, that validates the new covenant. “For our Passover lamb is already sacrificed; it is Christ himself.” (1 Cor. 5:7, AT) As the redeemer and purchaser of all that Adam lost, Christ takes the place of Adam as the father, “The everlasting Father,” of the new world’s population. Hence Adam, as Paul tells us, “foreshadowed the one who was to come,” namely, Christ Jesus.—Isa. 9:6; Rom. 5:14, AT.

Paul in writing to the Hebrews is very explicit that Christ as the high priest of God, ordained to offer greater sacrifices than those offered by the Aaronic priesthood, was pictured by Melchizedek. Melchizedek’s name and the name of his kingdom were significant, and the fact that there was no record of his beginning or ending made him “like no one but the Son of God” who continues as priest forever. “The point is still more clear in view of the fact that the appointment of the new priest [Christ Jesus] resembles that of Melchizedek, for he is appointed not for possessing any legal physical qualifications, but by virtue of a life that cannot end.”—Heb. 5:1-10; 6:20; 7:1-3, 15, 16, AT.

PRACTICAL PICTURES FOR OUR DAY

It would be a great mistake to think that all the prophetic pictures that God had recorded in the holy Hebrew Scriptures had their fulfillment in the days of Christ and the apostles. Rather, one should view such fulfilled pictures as tangible evidence that other prophetic pictures foretelling events in our day will likewise come to pass. In this world’s crisis, thoughtful persons will therefore diligently consider the pictorial events of long ago.

In his great prophecies on the end of the present devilish system of things, Christ said this: “In the time of the Son of Man it will be just as it was in the time of Noah. People went on eating, drinking, marrying, and being married up to the very day that Noah got into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:26, 27, AT; Matt. 24:37, 38) Plainly, then, the events of Noah’s time, the destruction of that wicked generation, and the preservation of righteous Noah and his household, were a graphic and dramatic picture of world events in this day.

“Or as it was in Lot’s time; they went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building, but the day Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be like that on the day when the Son of Man appears.” Thus spoke Christ in solemn warning! And calling forth this picture of Lot’s escape and the failure of some to heed the warning, he added: “Remember Lot’s wife!”—Luke 17:28-30, 32, AT.

Sodom and Gomorrah, wicked cities beyond reform! It was from such that Lot fled for safety. And it was such cities that the Lord used to picture the present wicked world under Satan’s rule, which is likewise beyond repentance or reform. No, this is not some private assertion. God’s own Word makes this interpretation. It was in the thoroughfares and concourses of this world, of which Christendom is very much a part, that the work of God’s witnesses was killed in 1918. As lifeless as dead bodies they lay “in the street of the great city which is allegorically [“figuratively,” AT] called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified”. (Rev. 11:8, RS) Isaiah’s prophecy, in its greater and final fulfillment, is addressed to Christendom, that “sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters” and whose rulers are as the “rulers of Sodom” and whose people are as the “people of Gomorrah”. (Isa. 1:4, 10) Jude warns that those wicked individuals who try to sneak into God’s organization are like those of Sodom and Gomorrah, “filthy dreamers” who “defile the flesh”.—Jude 7, 8.

Nor should the truth-seeker in this time of the end mistakenly think that the prophecies foretelling Babylon’s doom were completely fulfilled in the year 539 B.C. Especially in view of the fact that more than 600 years later a vivid description of “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH”, was given in Revelation, chapters 17 and 18. The judgment of doom entered against antitypical Babylon, ‘the great whore with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication and who has made the inhabitants of the earth drunk on the wine of her fornication,’ will shortly be carried out.—Rev. 18:9, 10. From the foregoing it is clear that the Hebrew Scriptures are not mere ancient history, but contain types and shadows of things now coming to pass upon this twentieth-century generation. The entire Bible is profitable for our study, and none have authority to chop off as useless three-fourths of its instruction.—2 Tim. 3:16, 17; Rev. 22:19; Deut. 4:2.

God’s Blessed Family

THE sacredness of the human family is being violated, flouted and mocked as never before. Parents are unfaithful to children. Children are disobedient to parents. Marital relations are insecure. Homes are broken up because of separations and divorces. As a result hopes for peace and security are dashed to the ground and the happy condition of love, joy and prosperity is shattered. Sorrow, disappointment and despondency overshadow many a household today. In view of such dreadful conditions it is well to consider the blessed lot of God’s big, happy family over which Jehovah himself presides as Head and Father. Though assailed from all sides by the enemy from without, the Lord’s blessed family holds together in the perfect bond of peace and unity.

Not in all the universe, in millenniums past or in endless ages to come, is there anyone to compare with the heavenly Father. His name alone is Jehovah. A God of purpose is he. From everlasting to everlasting, without beginning and without ending, this great First Cause is the Creator of heaven and earth and all things therein, both visible and invisible, animate and inanimate. The very lives of his children depend on this Fountain of Life. They are the clay; he is the Potter. His glory and majesty are unmeasurable; his qualities, supremely perfect; his personality, altogether lovely. In wisdom he is unsurpassed, in justice he is unequaled, in love he is infinite, in power he is unlimited. Now with attributes like these what human father, please tell, can compare with Jehovah?—Ex. 3:14, 15; Ps. 90:2; Isa. 40:12-18, 21-26; Ps. 36:9; Rom. 9:21; Deut. 32:4.

And yet, notwithstanding the lofty position of the heavenly Father, he is very near to his children. He hears the faintest cry of his little ones. His ears are constantly open to the prayers and petitions of those that may properly address him as “Our Father”. (Ps. 34:15; Matt. 6:9) “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” “Most truly I say to you, If you ask the Father for anything he will give it to you in my name,” is the assurance from God’s Anointed Son Jesus. (Matt. 7:11; John 16:23, NW) Every good and perfect gift is from the great Father, Jehovah.—Jas. 1:17.

Jehovah God is the Great Teacher to his devoted children, and to such he gives his law for their guidance and instruction. (Isa. 54:13; John 6:45) As the head of his household this righteous Lawgiver lays down the rules governing the entire family, and if any need correcting the Lord takes care of that too, as it is written: “‘My son, do not belittle the discipline from Jehovah, neither give out when you are corrected by him; for whom Jehovah loves he disciplines, in fact he scourges everyone whom he receives as a son.’ Furthermore, we used to have fathers who were of our flesh to discipline us and we used to give them respect. Shall we not much more subject ourselves to the Father of our spiritual life and live? For they for a few days used to discipline us according to what seemed good to them, but he does so for our profit that we may partake of his holiness.”—Heb. 12:5, 6, 9, 10, NW.

Blessed too in other ways, members of this happy family find in their Father one who is fully capable of defending them against all their enemies. Like the protective shadow of a hen over her chicks, so also is the shadow of Jehovah’s mighty hand over his little ones. (Ps. 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 63:7; 91:1; Isa. 51:16) His everlasting arms uphold them. (Deut. 33:26, 27) A never-failing help in every time of need, so is the ever-watchful Jehovah to his children. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear.”—Ps. 46:1, 2; 54:4; 121:2; Isa. 50:7-9, AS.

A faithful Father, a truthful Father who cannot lie, a covenant-keeping Father unto a thousand generations—such a one is the heavenly Father. (Dan. 9:4; 2 Thess. 3:3; Heb. 6:18) Moreover, Jehovah is merciful beyond measure, full of compassion and forgiveness toward his children that are weak, gentle and tender-hearted toward the downtrodden, the oppressed, the weary and sorrowful of heart. Truly the “Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort” is Jehovah toward those of his household.—2 Cor. 1:3, 4.

Having such a wonderful Father as this his household are admonished to honor and obey him, give heed to his counsel and instructions, and fear to do anything in violation of his commandments. “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.” (Ex. 20:12, AS) “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.”—Prov. 1:8.

THE MOTHER ORGANIZATION

The Scriptures identify God’s “woman” as his universal organization; and as in the human family, so also in God’s household, the mother serves an important function. “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: ‘Be glad, you barren woman who does not bear children; break out and cry aloud, you woman who does not have childbirth pains; because the children of the desolate woman number more than those of her who has the husband.’”—Gal. 4:26, 27, NW.

The apostle Paul was here quoting from Isaiah’s prophecy which tells how God’s organization was without children for a long time. Then in her old age she produces not only the promised “seed” Christ Jesus, as Sarah brought forth Isaac, but also has so many other children she has to enlarge her dwelling-place on all sides. This is because the great Father has made his organization very fruitful. “For thy Maker is thy husband; Jehovah of hosts is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is thy Redeemer; the God of the whole earth shall he be called. For Jehovah hath called thee as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, saith thy God.”—Isa. 54:1-6, AS; Ps. 113:9.

This prophecy tells of the blessed expansion and prosperity now enjoyed by the entire Theocratic family. Other scriptures speak of the bountiful provisions made for the household. The Father is the great Provider of spiritual food, and he delegates to his organization the duty of preparing and serving this life-sustaining “meat in due season”. The table is the Lord’s, he sits at the head, and the children seated at the table are waited on and served and helped by the mother organization.—Matt. 24:45; Ps. 23:5; Isa. 25:6.

God’s children on earth live in a delinquent world, though no part of it. (John 17:11, 14) They therefore need maternal guidance and direction in order to avoid entanglement with this sex-maddened generation now living in these perilous “last days”. (2 Tim. 3:1-5, 14-17) As a consequence, God’s children are commanded to honor and respect their spiritual parents and give heed and obey the Lord’s instructions coming to them by and through the mother organization.—Deut. 5:16.

DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS OF CHILDREN

No one will ever get life from the eternal Father Jehovah unless he has the meek and teachable disposition of a child. Christ Jesus, the “elder brother” in God’s family, illustrated this in his discourses. “So, calling a young child to him, he set it in their midst and said: ‘Truly I say to you, unless you turn around and become as young children you will by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens.’”—Matt. 18:2-4; 19:14, NW.

This childlike willingness to learn is required of all children in Jehovah’s household, and there are many. Some of the children are destined to be members of the ‘body of Christ, the church’, and live as spirit creatures in the heavens. (Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 12:27) To those destined for heavenly glory the apostles write: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” “The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” (1 John 3:1, 2; Rom. 8:15-17) Upon the “remnant” of such sons and daughters God’s holy spirit is poured out in a special way.—Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17.

Besides these spiritual sons that “shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years” there are many other children in this household arrangement. (Rev. 20:6; John 10:16) These, as earthly sons of Christ Jesus the Everlasting Father, will live eternally on the paradise earth. (Isa. 9:6) They also are being fed from the Lord’s bountiful and overflowing table. They too are being nurtured and cared for by the mother organization. They too have the meek and teachable disposition so necessary to escape destruction and get life.—Zeph. 2:3.

In this gloomy and dark day it is very easy to distinguish from others of the world those who are children of the “Father of lights”. “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thess. 5:5, 6; Eph. 5:8, 9) These children of God are awake, on the elevated watchtower, sounding the warning of Armageddon’s approaching storm. All Christendom recognizes these favored people are Jehovah’s witnesses, for they take their Father’s name, and as his ambassadors publish and declare his purposes throughout the earth. In a very real sense they are “for signs and for wonders” to this perverse generation.—Isa. 8:18.

There is no question as to whether an individual is or is not a child of God and a member of his beloved family, for John says: “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:10, 11, 18; 4:20, 21) Such implicit love and devotion, love for God and love for each brother and sister, is the distinguishing quality that sets the family of God off as separate and distinct from the organizations of this hateful old world.

CARING FOR THE FAMILY’S BABIES

Not all children in this great family of God are of the same age. Some are quite old, some much younger, and others are mere babes who must be looked after and cared for by the more mature brothers and sisters. When one of these young ones is found seeking after the truth, a publisher of the Kingdom message calls back and studies the Bible with that one. As “newborn babes” in the truth, these young ones at first must be nursed along on the simple “sincere milk of the word”. (1 Pet. 2:2; 1 Cor. 3:2) Care must be exercised to see that they do not choke on some doctrine too advanced, heavy and involved. Growing stronger, they are able to feed on the Lord’s meatier matters.

After playing in sectarian mud puddles these young ones have to be bathed with the pure water of truth to remove the soils of demon religion. (John 3:5; 15:3; Eph. 5:26; Heb. 10:22) Then they must be clothed in garments that identify such ones as belonging to God’s clean organization.

These young ones in the truth must not always remain undeveloped and helpless babies, needing constant attention by the mature members of the family. They must grow up, and show progress in learning new world methods. Paul, in condemning some in his day for failing to show spiritual growth, wrote: “Although you ought to be teachers in view of the time, you again need someone to teach you from the beginning the first principles of the sacred pronouncements of God, and you have become such as need milk, not solid food. For everyone that partakes of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to mature people, to those who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong.” They should have put away the “traits of a babe” and grown up.—Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Cor. 13:11, NW.

It is therefore the blessed privilege of the older members of God’s family to aid these young ones to develop and grow in knowledge, wisdom and understanding. Much training and instruction in the righteous ways of Jehovah is needed. At the Lord’s table these young children must learn how to dig the truths out of God’s precious Word by attending studies. They must learn to walk by going from house to house in the witness work. Learning to talk is easy when they begin to tell others about God’s glorious kingdom. Their new world education is greatly improved by attending the Theocratic ministry school held each week in the Kingdom Halls of Jehovah’s witnesses. Their reading they should improve. (1 Tim. 4:13) Writing clearly they will find useful.—Deut. 6:9; 11:20.

Truly the expansion of God’s great family is taking place on all sides! By the thousands lovers of righteousness are coming under the parental care of Jehovah God and his Theocratic organization, as shown by the actual figures. No housing shortage faces this family. No shortage of food plagues the Lord’s household. And what a blessed and happy atmosphere prevails! No family troubles. No parental neglect of the children. No juvenile delinquency. But instead, peace and unity, prosperity and contentment, joy and gladness, dwell here continually, all to the praise and honor and glory of the eternal God and Father whose name alone is Jehovah.

Child Remembers Her Creator

Each day in a large west coast city a medical doctor picks up five school children, gives them a little party and then interviews them over a national radio network for about eight or nine minutes. On this day a group of about seven or eight years of age were being interviewed, and among the questions he asked them was, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” One little girl was heard to answer: “Be a missionary with Jehovah’s witnesses.” The doctor replied, “I am sure you will be a fine missionary.”—B. S., New York.

Malachi Warns of Coming Judgment

IN THE early part of 1950 a Christian missionary was going from house to house in one of the poorer sections of Brooklyn, New York. Through the open window of a basement apartment he engaged in conversation a young woman, evidently of Italian extraction. She related how her priest had accused her of living in sin because her marriage had not been performed by a Catholic priest. And what was her reason? Was it because her fiancé was a Protestant? No, he too was a Catholic. Then why were they not married by the priest? Because they could not afford the fee that the priest charged for performing the ceremony.

Some 2,300 years ago similar conditions existed in Jerusalem. Then and there, too, selfish gain was the primary consideration of those who stood before the people and posed as the servants of God. At Jehovah’s command Malachi exposed those selfish, hypocritical religious leaders and warned them of coming judgment. Additionally Malachi foretold a cleansing work that would take place among those who served God in spirit and in truth.

Malachi’s prophecy appropriately closes the Hebrew Scriptures in the generally accepted Gentile versions, as doubtless it was the last of the Hebrew writings given under divine inspiration. The name “Malachi” (or Malachiah) means “messenger of Jah”, and the opinion is held by some that it was merely the name of the office rather than the personal name of the prophet. However, in the absence of any direct statement in the Scriptures to that effect, we will let it rest with the way it appears in the opening verse of his prophecy: “The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by the hand of Malachi.”—Mal. 1:1, margin.

There is not a single fact recorded regarding Malachi, his ancestry or personal history. The fact that Jehovah used him to give this message would indicate that he was devoted to God; and from the tenor of his prophecy it is quite evident that he was zealous for the name and pure worship of Jehovah and that he felt strong righteous indignation toward those who professed to serve God but who served only themselves.

Neither is there any direct statement as to the time of Malachi’s prophesying. But there are a number of clues in his prophecy that help us to at least approximate the time it was given. He speaks or the Jews as being under the civil administration of a governor. This would fix his prophecy as postcaptivity, as it was only after the seventy-year captivity and their return to Jerusalem that the Jews were under such governors. The fact that the temple service is mentioned but without any reference to the building of the temple would indicate that Malachi prophesied after the temple was completed and therefore also after the time of Governor Zerubbabel.

Nehemiah is the only other such governor mentioned in the Scriptures. And since nothing is stated in Malachi’s prophecy regarding the building of the wall around Jerusalem, it is not likely that this prophecy was given in the early part of Nehemiah’s rule. On the other hand, the conditions that Nehemiah found after his second return to Jerusalem (Nehemiah 13), which was sometime after 443 B.C., bear a striking resemblance to those against which Malachi prophesied. The circumstantial evidence, therefore, all seems to point to the latter part of Nehemiah’s governorship as the time when Malachi prophesied.

Malachi’s manner is direct and forceful. Rather than soaring to heights of eloquence we find him using an abrupt, strongly argumentative style. He reasons, makes comparisons, and gives animation to his prophecy, by continual questionings, much of which he puts into the mouths of his hearers as their objections, and then proceeds to answer them. His manner indicates that these were guilty of gross negligence and most blameworthy, and that they were ready to justify themselves.

His prophetic message opens: “I have loved you, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith Jehovah: yet I loved Jacob; but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation.”—Mal. 1:2, 3, AS.

Reproving the self-serving temple servants, he continues: “A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a father, where is mine honor? and if I am a master, where is my fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of Jehovah is contemptible . . . ye offer the blind . . . the lame and sick . . . Present it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee?”—Mal. 1:6-8, AS.

No wonder Jehovah says: “I have no pleasure in you . . . neither will I accept an offering at your hand.” But regardless of what they may do, “from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering.”—Mal. 1:10, 11.

Malachi sounds Jehovah’s warning: “If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, then will I send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.” And why should not Jehovah be angry with them? “The priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts,” but Jehovah tells them that, instead of doing that, they have turned aside from the right way themselves and caused others to stumble. (Mal. 2:1-8, AS) Similar conditions prevail today, even as they did in Jesus’ time.—Matt. 23:13.

Malachi next pleads: “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother? . . . let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.” And further reproving them he says: “Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? In that ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of Jehovah.” (Mal. 2:10-17, AS) Yes, how ready the clergy are to whitewash the wicked; be it a Franco, a Hitler, a Mussolini, a Stepinac, or just a common, ordinary political gangster!

Malachi next describes the coming judgment and its results: “Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple.” It will be a time of great testing: “Who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire . . . he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah offerings in righteousness.” But those who by their course of action show that they do not fear Jehovah will receive swift judgment. “For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.” The evidence has been presented in the columns of The Watchtower time and again showing that in 1918 this messenger, Christ Jesus, came to his temple for judgment and that as a result of his cleansing work there is a clean priesthood today that is presenting offerings to Jehovah in righteousness.—Mal. 3:1-6, AS.

Malachi next shows that those who withhold their offerings from Jehovah are impoverishing themselves. “Ye have turned aside from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts. But ye say, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? yet ye rob me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me, even this whole nation. Bring ye the whole tithe into the store-house . . . and prove me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”—Mal. 3:7-10, AS.

Today, as in Malachi’s time, many who profess to serve God are prone to think it time and money wasted and, comparing their lot with that of others, complain: “Now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.” But not so those who fear the Lord. Instead, such continue to encourage one another at the frequent gatherings of the Lord’s people. Jehovah will take note of these and, when he executes his vengeance on the wicked, will spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him. Then all will see who really serves God and who only claims to do so.—Mal. 3:14-18.

These judgments are sure, Malachi warns: “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up . . . it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” But upon those who fear God will the sun of righteousness rise with healing in his wings and they shall go forth in strength and with joy and they shall tread the wicked underfoot.—Mal. 4:1-3.

Malachi closes his prophecy with counsel to heed the law of Moses and with the warning announcement: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”—Mal. 4:4-6, AS.

Christ Jesus applied this prophecy to John the Baptist, in whom it had a miniature fulfillment. (Matt. 11:14) However, its greater fulfillment has awaited our day, and the facts show that for the past seventy-five years a similar work has been done: to convert the hearts of the fathers or leaders of Christendom to that of being children of God, and the hearts of the children, all people, to their fathers, Jehovah and Christ. Since few are heeding this message, it follows that God will smite the earth with the curse of Armageddon.

Malachi’s prophecy exalts the name of Jehovah of hosts by warning of coming judgment. Let each servant of God examine himself in the light of this prophecy and make sure that his service to God is done unselfishly and in the fear of Jehovah. Doing so he may rest assured that he will receive the blessings that Malachi foretold. Those who continue in the way of hypocrisy and selfishness will receive Jehovah’s curse. Now is the time of judgment!

Captives of Cyprus Learn of Liberty

IN THE first century of Christianity, and on the apostle Paul’s first missionary journey abroad, he and his companions stopped at the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. There, on the western coast of the island, they visited the important town of Paphos, where the worship of the sexy Greek goddess Aph·ro·diʹte, called Venus by the Romans, was centered. Immediately the proclamation of the gospel message encountered opposition from a fanatical religious sorcerer named Elymas. But by the power of God the apostle Paul denounced this fellow as a “child of the devil”, smote him with temporary blindness, and put him to open shame. As a result, honest-hearted people, including the deputy ruler of the island, were liberated from their pagan bondage and began to praise and worship the true God Jehovah and his beloved Son in the sweet liberty and freedom of Christianity. How their hearts must have rejoiced on that occasion!—Acts 13:1-13.

Today multitudes of sincere people in the vicinity of ancient Paphos are likewise rejoicing because of a similar deliverance from the snare of demon religion in the middle of this twentieth century. Last April hundreds of Jehovah’s witnesses moved into the captive town of Paphos for their semiannual circuit assembly and for three days these modern-day Christians beat down all opposition hurled at them by the Devil’s agents, and, by God’s grace, they too were able to open the religious prison-houses and free many captives of good will.

Special laws in Cyprus, presumably set up to curb the communists, prohibit the holding of any public meeting without first obtaining permission from the town council, who also charges a fee of 3 to 24 pounds tax. The place itself where the meeting is to be held must also be approved by the council. Because of such police-state regulations, Jehovah’s witnesses obtained permission to use the largest cinema in town only at the last minute. Their other sessions were held in a hall run by a coffee shop.

Though permission was granted, the council tried to force the witnesses to call off the assembly by limiting the number of people in the building to 150, and by slapping a heavy 15-pound tax on the witnesses. Both of these barriers failed. A large yard attached to the assembly hall provided plenty of room for the overflow, and the political racketeers were quickly paid their exorbitant fee.

PAPHOS HAS ITS MODERN “ELYMAS”

Like the ancient sorcerer of this town, the Orthodox bishop of Paphos, Kleopas, became excited over the presence of the Lord’s witnesses in his territory. So with all of his wonder-working ecclesiastical magic he sent out a leaflet “excommunicating” the two pioneer witnesses living in Paphos. This was quickly followed by another leaflet by the bishop, denouncing Jehovah’s witnesses as the “heresy known as Chiliasm”, which he said was “a Satanic invention of the unhealthy imagination of the last century”.

All of this shouting by the bishop only helped to awaken the sleepy people of Paphos. They began talking. The topic of the day was Jehovah’s witnesses. Then the situation became more exciting as transportation vehicles one after another halted in the main street to discharge happy-faced witnesses brought from other towns and villages on the island for this assembly. To the populace it seemed that something very strange had hit their normally quiet town.

Long before the opening session on Friday, April 28, the coffee shop was packed out, and both sides of the narrow street outside were filled with curious onlookers. This set the pace in attendance for all the other talks. The people of Paphos are noted for their curiosity, and this was particularly noticeable Saturday night. When a witness would give a comment all the strangers present would stand up to get a good look at the person commenting. It was indeed surprising how many strangers stayed to hear all the talks delivered.

But other things were happening at the coffee shop besides the scheduled program. Prominent people of the town were visiting the keeper and offering him large sums of money if he would but turn the witnesses out. However, he was an honest man, a freedom-loving individual, a believer in liberty for all, and he therefore refused to break his contract.

Paphos has a large Turkish population; hence the public talk was to be given in both Greek and Turkish. So Saturday morning the witnesses of Jehovah lined every street in the town, supplied with handbills and placards printed in both languages. Never had the people of this town seen such a spectacle! The ecclesiastics were frantic. Their two leaflets “exposing” the witnesses had proved a complete failure. The situation for them was desperate. Quickly they organized the young people’s association of the Orthodox Church and sent them out to do “street work” with still another leaflet.

There they were Saturday afternoon, standing side by side, a witness for Jehovah and a young child of Orthodoxy, the latter holding out a leaflet stating that Jehovah’s witnesses do not believe in the trinity, etc. Naturally, passers-by were intensely interested; so it was a common sight to see a group of 10 or 15 gathered around a Kingdom publisher asking questions and getting answers from the Book of Freedom, the Bible. Thus another attack of the enemy only resulted in a greater witness to the honor of Jehovah God!

PRESS EXPOSES ORTHODOX CHURCH

The big guns of the newspapers lined up with the Orthodox prison-keepers and hurled heavy salvos against Jehovah’s proclaimers of liberty. Bewailing the fact that the activity of the Orthodox youth “looked wretched” compared with that of Jehovah’s witnesses, and urging that something “should be done today and not tomorrow” to stop this prison-breaking work, the New Political Review newspaper of Paphos declared:

“The followers of Jehovah already number hundreds in our district, though even yesterday they could be counted on the fingers of the hand. They will grow to thousands by tomorrow and will endanger the very existence of our Church. For these reasons it is necessary for our Holy Synod and our bishops to get on the move and to investigate immediately and without postponement or delay this terrible matter.”

Another newspaper, Paphos, in the confusion and darkness, endeavored to expose the reason why so many captives were fleeing to the ranks of Jehovah’s witnesses, but their volley backfired and uncovered the miserable condition of the religious prison-houses and the ones responsible for it. Notice how the truth in the following excerpt exploded in their own face.

“The condition of poverty and misery that holds sway in some villages, as well as the extensive property owned by the monasteries and the Church, all these things have created the right climate for the growth of the Chiliastic religious belief [meaning the belief of Jehovah’s witnesses]. We mention for example one village, namely Episkopi, where almost all the land belongs to the Church and its inhabitants work as slaves renting land or entering into partnership. It so happens that for years they have not been gathering a single seed from the land which they rented of the Church, due to heavy losses which they sustain from wheat disease existing in this locality. And yet, in spite of this, they are forced to pay their rents to the full, without any discount. No wonder then, if half of the population of this village became Jehovah’s witnesses. . . .

“From the above the Cyprus Church should understand that it will not prevail with a paper fight. The Chiliasts have found the Achille’s heel of clericaldom . . . It is not sufficient to fight them with leaflets.”

CAPTIVES LEARN WAY OF ESCAPE

Sunday was the big day. Early in the morning 200 assembled and heard a discourse on the meaning and purpose of baptism. Then a busload went down to the sea at Lower Paphos, the ancient town where Paul preached salvation and liberty, and there 19 persons symbolized their consecration by total immersion. “Liberty to the Captives” was the title of the advertised public lecture. Now the hour for its delivery drew near. There was much concern over how many would attend. Would the poor captives of Paphos obey their prison-keepers and remain away? Or would they come and learn the way of escape? The public themselves gave the answer when a total of more than 500 filled the cinema and listened with intense interest to the explanation on how they might find everlasting freedom from the oppression of their religious captors, as well as life in a new world.

The three-day assembly came to a close, and the witnesses left Paphos with hearts filled with gratitude to Jehovah for all his wonderful blessings and for the privileges they had had in proclaiming liberty to the downtrodden people of this district. They must have thought of Paul and his companions, and observed that in these “last days” Jehovah God has multiplied his gospel-preachers many times in number and sent them back on this return visit to Paphos for the purpose of proclaiming liberty to the modern-day captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound, and the exposing to the sight of all the fact that their clerical sorcerers today are as blind as ancient Elymas. Surely Jehovah’s power and spirit in behalf of his witnesses on this occasion was as mighty as it was nineteen hundred years ago!

The spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the year of Jehovah’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.—Isa. 61:1, 2, AS.

Questions From Readers

● What does Revelation 20:5 mean by the words, “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished”?—J. S., Kentucky.

This does not mean that “the rest of the dead”, those aside from the body-members of Christ who reign with him in heaven for a thousand years, have no resurrection till the end of the millennium. The word “again” is not in the ancient reliable manuscripts, as shown by the modern translations based upon the latest studies in this field. The New World Translation renders this part of the text, “The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.” In the past centuries mankind generally have been counted “dead in trespasses and sins”, under death sentence inherited from Adam, without right to life, and hence not having fullness of life in God’s sight. It is not until the end of the thousand-year reign, after the test brought about by the return of Satan for a short while, that the benefits of Christ’s ransom to those who will inhabit the earth reach their climax. Then it is that Jehovah God declares them righteous and registers their names permanently in the “book of life”, and they enter fully into everlasting life. Then, with Adamic death abolished, earth’s inhabitants for the first time “come to life” in the fullest meaning of life as Jehovah God views it.—Eph. 2:1; Rev. 20:7-9, 12, 15; 22:19.

● How could Jesus justly condemn and cause to wither the fig tree that had no fruit on it, in view of the fact that it was not the season for figs?—P. S., Oklahoma.

The account reads: “From a distance he caught sight of a fig tree that had leaves, and he went to see whether he would perhaps find something on it. But, on coming to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season of figs. So, in response, he said to it: ‘May no one eat fruit from you any more forever.’” Soon thereafter the tree withered and died. (Mark 11:12-14, 20, NW) Different Bible scholars seek to show that under certain conditions figs were on trees at that time of year, but their arguments do not seem too strong, and fail to offset the Scriptural explanation that “it was not the season of figs”. Why, then, condemn the tree? Because the appearance of the tree led observers to expect fruit on it. In the case of fig trees the fruit appears before the leaves, and when leaves are out one can expect to find fruit. This tree had leaves. Jesus saw this from a distance. He had a right to expect fruit on it, in view of the tree’s leafy appearance, so he went to get some figs to satisfy his hunger. When he found none, he condemned the tree. Granted that it was not the season for figs, but apparently this tree was exceptional, unusually early for some reason, and its leaves promised fruit. It reminds of the Jewish nation, in covenant with God, having his law, going through the forms of worship, giving outward appearances of bearing fruit to God; yet when Christ Jesus came to earth and inspected that nation he found its pretensions to fruit-bearing false, and he condemned that nation, saying, “Your house is left unto you desolate.” It withered and died as God’s holy nation, for he cast it off and thereafter the Romans came and desolated Jerusalem.—Matt. 23:38.

● Can it be said that Armageddon started in 1914 with the casting of Satan out of heaven and down to earth?—Connecticut reader.

When the Gentile Times ended and Jesus Christ was enthroned in 1914, Satan did not accept the new King, and war in heaven resulted, which ended with the ousting of Satan therefrom. That war was the beginning of “the time of the end” for Satan’s world, but it was not pushed to Satan’s destruction. The trouble was cut short to allow for the preaching of the Kingdom gospel and the gathering of the Lord’s other sheep on earth. When the witness has been given and sheep and goats separated, then will come the final end upon Satan’s world. That will be Armageddon, the battle of the great day of God Almighty, and it will rid the universe of Satan and his demons and his visible agents on earth.—Matt. 24:14; Rev. 12:7-12; 16:14-16; 19:11-20:3.

Experiences in Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom

Priest vs. Christ

In a discussion at the door by a minister of the gospel with the householder, the mention of Jehovah’s name called forth a priest who had been within listening. “I see your Jehovah has you pretty well posted, but those names like Moses, Isaiah, and others you continually quote mean nothing to me. If I want to know anything I can write to the pope or even telephone him for information.” After a few more of such observations the minister of the gospel replied, “You talk like the men Jesus spoke of in the 23rd chapter of Matthew.” “God damn the 23rd chapter of Matthew,” was the priest’s reply.—M. E., Illinois.

All Preaching Except “Preacher”

In working over our territory we found a group known as the “Church of God and Christ”. The first one we contacted was the clergyman. He received the message very favorably and invited us to return. In the meantime he told his congregation that he was going to take lessons so that he could the better preach to them and asked for them to pay for these lessons. They readily agreed. Seems that this preacher could not conceive of anything being free. As our work progressed in the territory we got to visit each of his members. They too received the message favorably and were glad to take part in a regular study. As a result the church has closed its doors and all its one-time members are now taking part in proclaiming Jehovah’s kingdom. The preacher is still studying but has not taken an active part as yet.—A. H., Alabama.

Announcements

“IT IS NEARER THAN THEY THINK” TESTIMONY PERIOD

The month of October has been designated “It Is Nearer than You Think” Testimony Period. Do you believe, as do the majority of the readers of The Watchtower, that the final end of all wickedness is very near at hand, much nearer than the uninformed think? If you do, you will undoubtedly desire to join with us in the activity to which this October Testimony Period is to be devoted, namely, the taking of subscriptions for the Awake! magazine. Awake! the companion magazine to The Watchtower, is issued on the 8th and 22nd of every month. It plays a very important part in awakening the people to the nearness of the expression of God’s wrath at Armageddon. You will want your friends and neighbors to have the timely information it presents, and you can aid them by offering a year’s subscription for Awake! at the regular rate of one dollar. We shall be pleased to send you instructions and also helpful forms on which to report your activity as well as to secure the essential information so that the subscriptions you obtain will be correctly addressed.

WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING OF CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP

The annual meeting of the members of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society will be held on Sunday, October 1, 1950, at ten o’clock in the forenoon. The place of the meeting will be at the registered office of the Society located in the Wabash Building, 410 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh 22, Pennsylvania. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society is a nonprofit Pennsylvania corporation, and at this, the 1950 annual meeting, regular business of the corporation will be transacted. Those who are members of the corporation will receive the regular notice of the meeting together with proxy forms by mail in the usual way, and this announcement supplements the letters of notification. As soon as convenient after receiving the regular notice and proxy form each member should fill out and mail his proxy to the office of the secretary of the Society, 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn 2, New York. This should be done by every member whether attending the meeting in person or not, and we should like to have all of the proxies in not later than September 15, 1950.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDIES

Week of October 22: Turning to the Peoples a Pure Language, ¶1-18; New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, ¶1-4.

Week of October 29: New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, ¶5-25.