The Watchtower — May 15, 1978

Page Two

‘If Possible, Be Peaceable with All Men’ 3

Why Christians should avoid involvement with a violent world

What Draws You to God? 5

Is it fear? Or are you drawn by God’s magnificent qualities?

Where Did Those Verses Go? 11

An examination of alterations made by scribes in the original Bible text. Do we have the authentic Scriptures today?

Creation Tells of God’s Glory 16

But we are privileged also to preach “Christ impaled”

Christ Impaled, “The Power of God” 18

To the Jews, Jesus appeared weak; he was not the kind of “messiah” to free them from Rome’s yoke. But as the ransom he became God’s “power” for saving all mankind

Christ Impaled, “The Wisdom of God” 23

We preach also God’s “wisdom,” highlighting the resurrection hope based on Jesus’ sacrifice. How superior to Jewish tradition and Grecian philosophies of immortality and evolution!

‘If Possible, Be Peaceable with All Men’

THE many factions, religious, political, national and ethnic, do not leave much room for peace in the earth today. However, Christians are commanded: “If possible, as far as it depends upon you, be peaceable with all men.” (Rom. 12:18) This sometimes proves to be very difficult. But Christians know that the way to enjoy peace with God is to obey this commandment, which means that they must be neutral as to the divisive factions in the world and, additionally, must obey Jesus’ words to seek ‘friends of peace’ by telling all men about the peace that God’s kingdom will bring to the earth.​—Luke 10:5, 6.

In maintaining this peaceful neutrality, true Christians have not run away from their duty. They have suffered, but have experienced the fulfillment of the apostle’s words: “Live peaceably; and the God of love and of peace will be with you.”​—2 Cor. 13:11.

In some countries where there has been a bitter struggle for power, many of Jehovah’s Witnesses have been sentenced to imprisonment because of their refusal to become involved in the political issue. Some have served as many as three and four successive sentences. Others, including women, have been severely beaten. However, none of those sentenced or maltreated have ever sought revenge in any way whatsoever. While in the prisons they have found some ‘friends of peace,’ who listened to the good news of the kingdom of God and who began to conform their ways to please him. In many cases the peaceful conduct of these Christians has moved their jailers to treat them with kindness and respect. In other ways they have experienced Jehovah’s protection. In some instances they received no kindness from men, but they had the joy that the apostles had, “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy to be dishonored in behalf of [Jesus’] name.”​—Acts 5:41.

One man serving as an overseer in a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses realized that he might have to face a prison sentence in the near future because of his stand on neutrality. He could have moved from the country and so avoided the issue altogether, living elsewhere comfortably with his family. But he and his family prayerfully considered the matter and decided that his Christian responsibilities and the work that needed to be done, helping others to learn more about the Bible, indicated that it would serve the Kingdom interests better for them to remain, even if it was more dangerous. Preparations were made so that, should he be imprisoned, his wife and four children could work together to care for the material needs of the family. No matter how dark things might appear, they trusted that Jehovah would care for them.

In a certain land torn by political strife, Jehovah’s Witnesses, as in all countries, remain neutral as to the warring factions. As one of the Witnesses was on his way to a Bible meeting he was arrested by soldiers. When the book bag that he was carrying was emptied out and found to be full of Bibles and Bible literature, one of the soldiers said: “We’re sorry. We don’t want Jehovah’s Witnesses.” This developed into a discussion of the Bible. The Witness was released with the words: “We understand your position as to political affairs​—you witnesses of Jehovah.”

In another country where there is much border violence and guerrilla activity, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses who is in the police department was reassigned to a police post in guerrilla territory. Although he worked in the fingerprint section, he was asked to take up a gun during a guerrilla attack. He refused to break his neutrality, and for this he was imprisoned. Soon, the guerrillas made another sortie and completely wiped out the police post. Though still a prisoner, this Witness was happy that his stand in obedience to Bible principles had resulted in his protection. He is glad that he is still alive and that he may continue to live peaceably with all men.

Though Christians themselves are peaceable, they need to be very careful that their position of Christian neutrality is clearly understood, and they should keep out of situations that might cast doubt on their stand. The importance of being ever alert in this matter was emphasized by an incident that occurred in a small village. A congregational elder and his family were living in the home of a fleshly brother who was not one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Guerrillas attacked and arrested the two men, together with several other villagers. The Witness protested that he was a Christian neutral, but the guerrillas answered that they had found him in the same house as a person (his fleshly brother) who was suspected of antiguerrilla activity. They then ordered his wife and children, along with other villagers, to run for their lives, while they shot and killed the elder and four other men. The Witness had done nothing unchristian, and his death is indeed regrettable. However, this hard experience underlines the need for the Witnesses to make their Christian neutrality clearly known and to be wide-awake in avoiding situations and circumstances that could cast their neutrality in doubt.​—Matt. 10:16.

While it cannot be expected that all men will be the friends of Jehovah’s Witnesses, many people have great respect for one who is conscientiously and sincerely serving God. It is as the inspired writer of the Bible proverb said: “When Jehovah takes pleasure in the ways of a man he causes even his enemies themselves to be at peace with him.”​—Prov. 16:7.

What Draws You to God?

THERE are many of us who some time in our lives have walked into a warm room on a cold night and seen an open fire crackling on the hearth. The glowing fire seems to attract us to it involuntarily, without any conscious thought or decision on our part. Or, are we not drawn irresistibly toward the kitchen when, hungry after a day’s work, we come in and smell the titillating aroma of our favorite dish simmering on the stove? How readily, too, we react to the kind word or the warm tone of voice of a loved one or friend, especially if it is spoken at a time that we are feeling dejected or depressed.

Such spontaneous reactions are not accidental. They are part of our Creator’s design​—an inborn capacity to be drawn to others and to be attracted to appealing comforts and pleasures. This God-originated quality of “attraction” is such a wonderful gift that it gives pleasure both to the one initiating the action and to the one being drawn. It is a fact of life, because we are made in the image of God. It also enables us to understand more clearly another facet of his matchless personality.​—Gen. 1:27.

Do we approach God with the thought of avoiding punishment or destruction uppermost in our minds? Or, is it because of our appreciation for God’s many acts of goodness to us? It should not surprise us to learn that the way of God is to draw his creatures toward him in a positive way. Never does he resort to forcing his creatures to serve him. The word “draw” means to attract, and it is God’s goodness and his magnificent qualities that draw persons of honest heart to him. Jesus Christ used the same expression when he promised that he would “draw men of all sorts” to himself. (John 12:32) He gave abundant evidence of his Father’s goodness toward his creatures in an endeavor to awaken in their hearts a desire to come into a relationship with Jehovah. The Sermon on the Mount is a fine example of this. (Compare Matthew 5:45-48.) However, the Lord was quick to point out that it is God who is the principal cause in drawing his creatures to himself. Jesus said to the Jews: “No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him.”​—John 6:44.

Jesus’ encouragement toward positive rather than negative thoughts to draw us to God was nothing new. At the time of great rejoicing when the ark of God was carried by the Levites to Jerusalem, King David highlighted the fact that Jehovah is a positive God, a God of goodness, when in his song of thanks he sang: “Give thanks to Jehovah, you people, for he is good, for to time indefinite is his loving-kindness.” (1 Chron. 16:34) Later, when King Solomon gave his prayer of dedication, following the completion of the temple and the bringing of the ark of God to a more permanent resting-place, all the sons of Israel prostrated themselves and cried out spontaneously concerning God’s goodness. (2 Chron. 7:3) Yes, from early times God’s people have thought in terms of “the good hand of our God upon us.”​—Ezra 8:18.

Right from the time of man’s creation, God appealed to Adam’s recognition of His goodness as a basis for serving Him. He provided every needed thing for him. (Gen. 2:9) Calling attention first to his loving-kindness to Adam, God proceeded to say: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.” (Gen. 2:16, 17) Adam was already in a relationship with God like that of a son to a father. Disobedience to God would break that relationship and was therefore something rightly to be avoided.

This information was for the guidance of Adam and his offspring, not in any way a hardship. The commandment designated the line of demarcation​—the limit of Adam’s authority, which truth Adam needed to know, and also the inevitable consequences of passing that limit. Recognizing God’s sovereignty was essential.

AVOIDING A NEGATIVE ATTITUDE

Today we are some six thousand years from the original perfection enjoyed by our first parents. In our imperfect state, with its unavoidable prospects of sickness and death, along with the pressures of this evil system of things that crowd in on us, we are not surprised to observe that at times negative factors do cause people to think about God. Death itself could certainly be described as negative. The Word of God describes it as an “enemy,” which will eventually be brought to nothing. (1 Cor. 15:26) The negative, sorrowful experience of losing a loved one in death and subsequently the positive experience of learning about the wonderful hope of the resurrection of the dead may cause a person to be drawn to God.

So, we definitely have to admit to some negative factors in life today, and these can have a bearing on our relationship with God. However, the point to note is that even these initially sad, negative thoughts can lead to positive results in the mind and heart of the person learning of the compassion, help and comfort that God offers in time of sore trial. This, in turn, draws us to Jehovah “the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort.”​—2 Cor. 1:3.

In outstanding contrast to the way of God, which is to draw his creatures toward him, the way of Satan the Devil is to force others into submission to him and his ways of corruption. From the time when he began as a manslayer, liar and opposer of all that is good and wholesome, this archfoe of Jehovah God has used coercion and fear of suffering in order to induce submission to his godless ways.​—Heb. 2:15.

In his subtlety, the Devil has caused the negative way of thinking to permeate every form of false religion. For example, the unscriptural teachings of hellfire and torment after death are widespread in Christendom. Also, religions outside Christendom convey the same fearful thoughts of punishment of a fiendish kind.a

The result of this infiltration of demonic thinking in worship has been that millions of sincere people think in terms of a forced approach to God, feeling that they must serve him in some way​—appease him—​to avoid suffering some frightful punishment. The degree of fear may run the entire gamut​—from the extreme of abject terror on the one hand, to the other extreme of avoiding religion altogether because of this idea that God is angry, fierce, unrelenting, hard to please.

True Christians are grateful that this punishment-oriented approach to God is one of the things from which they have been set free by the truth of God’s Word. Yet there is the ever-present danger that any one of us could become infected with similar negative thoughts in a more subtle way. How so? Perhaps we could begin to allow our reason for serving God to be overly influenced with thoughts of punishment for our failures and shortcomings.

Hence, there is need to remind ourselves constantly that “we all stumble many times,” that ‘if errors were what Jehovah watched, who could stand?’ (Jas. 3:2; Ps. 130:3) This will help us to keep a balanced view of ourselves and others as we continually work to “put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty.” (Eph. 4:24) This balanced view enables us to realize that, although each of us should manifest progress in putting on the new personality, none of us reaches the stage where he does not sin and need forgiveness daily for his shortcomings.​—1 John 2:1, 2.

If our failings and shortcomings began to dominate our thinking, the joy that we experienced when initially drawn to God could become impaired, even to the point of our no longer serving for the pure motive of love for Jehovah, his qualities, and all that he has done on our behalf. Therefore, it is good to ask ourselves, Do positive or negative thoughts cause me to keep on serving God? Am I doing so with a willing and happy heart? Or, is it possibly with the thought of avoiding destruction at the fast-approaching day of Har–Magedon?​—Eccl. 12:13; Rev. 16:15, 16.

BEING DRAWN BY POSITIVE THOUGHTS

Allowing positive rather than negative thoughts to draw us to God and then impel us to continue serving him with a happy heart, does not take away the need for effort on our part. The apostle Paul is a fine example of one whose constant good spirit and happiness give evidence of serving God with a positive frame of mind and with deep inward joy. Nevertheless, he said of himself that it was necessary for him to ‘pummel his body and lead it as a slave.’ (1 Cor. 9:27) While in the imperfect flesh, each one of us needs to ‘fight the fine fight of the faith’ in many different ways.​—2 Tim. 4:7.

Often ‘the ability to wish is present with us, but the ability to work out what is fine is not present’ and although we really delight in the law of God, we sometimes find ‘another law warring against the law of our mind and leading us captive to sin’s law.’ (Rom. 7:14-25) But the surpassing excellence of allowing positive thoughts of God’s goodness to motivate us is that joy, happiness and delight predominate in our lives. This more than compensates for whatever self-discipline is required.​—Gal. 5:22, 23.

DRAWING CLOSER TO GOD

What, then, can we do to build and ensure a positive frame of mind and spiritual outlook? First, we have to be conscious of the need to eradicate from our minds negative, weakening thoughts and the fear of failure, replacing them with the upbuilding, positive, heartening promises of God found in his written Word, the Bible. Reading and studying the Bible must be a definite part of our daily life. We should have as our aim a more in-depth study, allowing the powerful wisdom of Jehovah God to fill our minds and hearts as we meditate on the things we read.

Efforts should be made to make our prayers more meaningful and specific, and perhaps to pray more often during each day. Do we open our hearts to God? Do we thank him daily for his magnificent qualities and for the many blessings we receive? Then, too, do we sometimes “persevere in prayer”?​—Rom. 12:12.

These are basic things. Yet they are simple, unfailing ways to ensure that positive, not negative, thoughts draw us to God. They will also assure us that once having been drawn to him, we will be able to continue serving him with a happy heart, now and for all time to come.​—Jer. 9:24.

[Footnotes]

Spiritual Refreshment Comes to Curaçao

INHABITANTS of the Caribbean island of Curaçao know how refreshing a glass of cool water can be. The average temperature of the island is a warm 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius). Furthermore, the ever-present trade wind blows constantly from the east, usually at 16 miles (26 kilometers) an hour, and dries up the moisture. Consequently the island, for most of the year, looks quite dry. During its wet season, between October and February, Curaçao gets 65 percent of its light rainfall of only 23 inches (58 centimeters) a year. Nevertheless, the island is quite beautiful, and has been called a “paradise for nature lovers.”

The water supply for the island has been a problem. Water from the wells is salty or brackish. Nonetheless, Curaçao has one of the purest water supplies in the world, because distilled water is obtained from a distillation plant that was first built in 1929. The lack of water has also affected agriculture. In modern times it has not been possible to grow sufficient food for the inhabitants. Therefore, most of the food must be imported. Meat and butter are shipped in from New Zealand; cheese, potatoes and powdered milk from Holland. Canned goods and cereals are obtained from the United States; wheat from Canada, sugar and fruits from Venezuela. Economically, Curaçao is quite sound, because it boasts one of the largest oil refineries in the world, which handles petroleum from Venezuelan fields. Also, the tourist trade has flourished within the past 10 years.

Curaçao is a sort of crossroads of the Caribbean. It is located about 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of Puerto Rico and some 40 miles (65 kilometers) off the coast of Venezuela along what used to be called the “Spanish Main,” where pirates roamed and all kinds of trade and smuggling were carried on. Curaçao is a relatively small island about 40 miles (65 kilometers) long and four to eight miles (6.5 to 13 kilometers) wide, having less than 200 square miles (520 square kilometers) of land area. The population is about 160,000 persons, made up of many nationalities and languages.

For about 135 years, during Spanish rule, the Indian population was converted to Catholicism. In the year 1634, the Dutch conquered the island and sent many Catholic priests and the majority of the Indians to the mainland of South America. After this, slaves were brought in to work the plantations. Conditions were very bad for them, but a little relief was afforded by Jewish slave owners, who allowed their slaves to rest on their weekly Sabbath day. Catholicism, however, has the most adherents in the island (about 90 percent).

Just as the island’s dryness and the brackish water have made the water supply a problem, so the doctrines that have long been taught in Curaçao​—Trinity, hellfire, purgatory—​have not quenched spiritual thirst. But when the truth came to the people about God’s loving-kindness expressed toward mankind through his Son​—that he is not a God of torment nor a grotesque ‘God in three persons,’ but is one God, whose name is Jehovah—​then the spiritual thirst of Curaçao’s inhabitants began to be satisfied. Now many have progressed to understand the deeper things of God’s Word and the way of Christian living in love of neighbor.

At present 711 active witnesses of Jehovah are taking this water of truth to the people, each one, on the average, having 220 of the population to serve. And many more are accepting this refreshment and manifest it by studying and associating with the Witnesses. A total of 964 Bible studies is being conducted regularly in the homes of truth-seeking persons. Thus a greater number of mature teachers will soon be available.

BIBLE TRUTH REACHES TO REMOTEST CORNERS

Since the year 1930 the Watchtower and Awake! magazines have become known in every household in Curaçao. In fact, there are persons who receive these magazines in Papiamento, Dutch, Spanish, English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese and in some other languages. This reflects the cosmopolitan makeup of the population. Through the Witnesses’ diligent efforts, the refreshing news about God’s kingdom and its blessings for mankind has penetrated into every corner of the island. Until recently, however, there was one place​—the prison—​that proved impenetrable. When efforts were made to visit the inmates, the warden replied: ‘The priest is taking care of the Catholics in here and the parson is looking after the Protestants. You people don’t have anyone in here.’ So permission to visit was denied.

But, in 1976, a United States citizen from New York was apprehended with drugs while passing through Curaçao and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. One day this man was sitting in the prison reading a Bible when a guard who was studying the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses saw him and asked him if he understood what he was reading. The prisoner said that he was reading the book of Ezekiel. The guard brought to his cell the book “The Nations Shall Know that I Am Jehovah”​—How? that discusses Ezekiel’s prophecy. By the time that the prisoner had read half the book he recognized it as the truth, so he wrote a letter to the Watch Tower Society asking for more information. A missionary from the Society’s branch office in Curaçao took the letter to the prison, asking for permission to visit the prisoner and to hold a Bible study with him. Permission was granted and the study went well for about a year.

In the interim, the prisoner had been talking to his fellow inmates about the Bible, and now 17 of them sent a petition to the warden asking him to allow them to study the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. The request was denied. When the Witness went to the prison for the weekly study he was told by the guard at the desk that his permission to see his student had been canceled. He went home and phoned the warden and arranged to have an interview. At the interview the warden was quite upset. He said that both the missionary and the prisoner had been talking to others in the prison and had caused a problem, because the policy of the prison is that anyone coming into the prison with a certain religion has to leave with the same religion. But the Witness was not content to let the matter drop there. He got in touch with two members of the prison board, both of whom have been subscribers to The Watchtower and Awake! for years, and with the Minister of Justice, an Awake! subscriber. The result was that permission was granted for the study in prison to continue.

The Bible says: “The word of God is alive and exerts power and is sharper than any two-edged sword and pierces even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of joints and their marrow, and is able to discern thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12) With this powerful Word at work now in every corner of the island, we look for an outpouring of even greater spiritual refreshment from God upon Curaçao’s populace.

Where Did Those Verses Go?

A woman recently wrote:

“Dear Watch Tower Society,

In studying the Bible I came across some verses that are left out but that are in the King James Version, such as Matthew 18:11; 23:14; Luke 17:36. No one that I asked could explain why they are missing. Could you clear it up for me?

Sincerely, L.G.”

Do you not agree that this was a valid request? The book of Revelation warns: “If anyone takes anything away from the words of the scroll of this prophecy, God will take his portion away from the trees of life.” Yes, removing a true part of the Bible would be a serious matter. (Rev. 22:19) But had this happened? Let us see.

Some verses were missing from the Bible translation that this woman was using, but which version was it? It could have been any of a number of recent versions. For example, these verses are not in the Common Bible (an ecumenical edition for Catholics and Protestants), The New English Bible, the New World Translation used by Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Catholic Jerusalem Bible, to name a few.

Do you know why these verses are omitted? You might wonder, ‘Is my Bible lacking something?’

In a word, the answer is No. These verses actually do not belong in the Bible even though many older translations included them. For some persons it may seem shocking to hear that certain words, phrases and even whole verses appearing in widely used Bibles are not authentic. So, some explanation is in order.

At the outset let us assure you that there is abundant evidence showing that the text of the Bible is reliable. It is, for instance, far more reliable and accurate than accepted writings of Tacitus, Thucydides or Herodotus.

The evidence consists of many thousands of ancient Greek manuscripts that can be checked to prove that the basic text of your Bible is precisely what was originally written. The most ancient of these manuscripts also provide the solid reason for the omission of certain words, expressions and verses from more recent translations. It is most interesting to examine that reason.

COPYING MANUSCRIPTS

As you may be aware, the originals of the “New Testament” books (the Christian Greek Scriptures) are not available today for use by translators. No one has discovered a Bible book “autographed,” as it were, by the apostles Paul, John, or others. Yet it is evident that soon after the originals were written, copies began to be made for use by the early Christians.

The copyists generally used extreme care to make sure that their work exactly duplicated the originals. Many proofreaders today exercise similar care. But you likely have seen that in modern newspapers and books typographical errors do occur, such as a misspelling of a word or an omitting or the repeating of a line. If such small misprints occur despite our present technical advances, you can appreciate that they could occur when entire Bible books were being copied by hand. The later copies, those farthest from the originals, tended to have more mistakes.

Consider how this might develop. A scribe who was very familiar with Matthew’s Gospel might, when copying the Gospel of Mark or Luke, tend to use the wording he knew so well from Matthew. Or, he might note that a sentence Matthew used was not in Mark’s or Luke’s parallel account. So he might add the sentence in the margin. A later copyist, however, might move that sentence into the main text of Mark or Luke, believing it to have been there originally since it made the accounts agree more closely. For example, in Luke’s account of the Lord’s Prayer some manuscripts add “Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth.” Yet, the weight of evidence suggests that this was interpolated from Matthew’s account, and it is omitted from Luke 11:2 in modern translations of the Bible. (Matt. 6:10) As you can see, such sincerely motivated scribal harmonizations tended to add material.

Now let us move our attention down to the 16th century, just before some of the more widely known English translations were made. The invention of printing from movable type permitted the making of books in quantity and more cheaply, and it stimulated interest in the Bible. Rather than have the Scriptures only in the Latin translations long used in the Roman Church, scholars began to clamor for copies in Greek, the language in which the “New Testament” was written. In 1515 a Swiss printer, sensing a fine business opportunity, sent word to Desiderius Erasmus, a leading Dutch scholar, asking him to rush through for printing a copy of the “New Testament” in Greek.

Herbert Dennett’s Graphic Guide to Modern Versions of the New Testament explains what happened:

“The task, however, was undertaken at short notice, and executed in haste. Erasmus used but half a dozen manuscripts, only one of which was moderately old and reliable. None of his manuscripts contained the whole of the New Testament, and some verses which were not in any of them were actually retranslated by Erasmus [back] into Greek from the Latin. This published text was later revised with the help of a few further manuscripts, but the result affected the work but little.”​—P. 119.

Now why should you be particularly interested in this seeming footnote in scholastic history? What difference could it make to us today that Erasmus’ text of 1516 was based ‘chiefly on two inferior twelfth-century manuscripts,’ as one professor recently put it?

The reason that this is significant is that basically Erasmus’ Greek text led directly to what has become known as the “received text” (textus receptus). From this text many translations were made, including the King James or Authorized Version. But Sir Frederic Kenyon made this observation about the “received text”:

“The result is that the text accepted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to which we have clung from a natural reluctance to change the words which we have learnt as those of the Word of God, is in truth full of inaccuracies, many of which can be corrected with absolute certainty from the vastly wider information which is at our disposal today.”​—Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts, p. 162.

REFINING THE TEXT

In the 16th century, Erasmus had only a few late Greek manuscripts from which to work. But this has not been the case in the 19th and 20th centuries. During this period thousands of ancient Greek manuscripts and fragments have been discovered. By 1973, the total of known Greek handwritten manuscripts was 5,338, and more keep coming to light. A number of the major Bible manuscripts in Greek, such as the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus, go back to the 4th century. Some are even much older. For example, a fragment of John’s Gospel dates back to about 125 C.E.

As the trickle of newly discovered ancient Greek manuscripts turned into a virtual flood, scholars were able to compare them critically. This textual criticism should not be confused with “higher criticism,” which tends to lessen respect for the Bible as the Word of God. Textual criticism involves a careful comparison of all known manuscripts of the Bible in order to determine the true or original reading, eliminating any additions.

To illustrate how this works, imagine what would happen if you asked 200 persons to make a handwritten copy of a longhand manuscript. Most of them would make errors, some minor and others more significant. But they would not all make the identical mistakes. If, then, an alert individual took all 200 copies and compared them, he could isolate the errors. An error in one or two would show up because it would not be in the other 198 having the correct reading. Thus, with effort he could come up with an exact script of the original document even if he never saw it.

Though others had previously worked at thus refining the text of the “New Testament,” in the late 19th century two Cambridge scholars, B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort, produced a refined text that has been widely accepted. It was published in 1881; yet a professor recently said:

“Westcott and Hort did their work so thoroughly and with such exceptional skill that textual work since then has been either in reaction to or in implementation of theirs. . . . What is significant is that even those who tended to disagree with Westcott and Hort’s [method] published Greek texts that differed very little from theirs.”​—Christianity Today, June 22, 1973, p. 8.

This refined text by Westcott and Hort has been used as a basic text for a number of recent translations, including the New World Translation.

SOME “MISSING” VERSES

With the above information as a background, we are in a better position to examine some of the verses that at first might have appeared to be missing from recent Bible translations.

We mentioned earlier that a scribe might add from elsewhere a sentence or verse to an account that he was copying. You can readily see that in Mark 9:43-48. In many newer versions Mr 9 verses 44 and 46 are omitted, sometimes with a dash being added to indicate the omission, as in the New World Translation. The text of those two verses reads, “where their maggot does not die and the fire is not put out,” exactly the same as in Mr 9 verse 48. Whereas some Greek manuscripts contain Mr 9 verses 44 and 46, a number of older, authoritative manuscripts do not. The evidence suggests that a scribe or scribes merely repeated Mr 9 verse 48, perhaps even by accident. So omitting Mr 9 verses 44 and 46 from a modern Bible in no way involves leaving out part of God’s Word, for the same sentence is there in Mr 9 verse 48 of the same account. But what is accomplished by omitting the two doubtful verses? The account is refined and set forth as Mark was inspired to write it.

In other instances the “missing verses” evidently have come from other Bible books. Some editions of the Bible help the reader to see this, for they print in a footnote the text of the omitted verse, such as was done in certain large-print editions of the New World Translation. If you do not have this aid, you can compare your modern Bible with the King James Version or a similar older translation. By such a comparison you can confirm for yourself that what is omitted may be just a verse repeated from another place or book.a For example, note Romans 16:24 and compare it with Ro 16 verse 20 and concluding passages in almost any of the books written by the apostle Paul. You will see that, at Romans 16:24, some copyist evidently added a closing expression such as Paul included in almost all of his books.b

Perhaps the most controversial passage that has been taken out of recent translations that are faithful to ancient manuscript evidence is part of 1 John 5:7. In the past, this text was often appealed to in support of the unscriptural Trinity doctrine. Regarding the spurious passage, the Catholic Jerusalem Bible says:

“The words in italics [in heaven: the Father the Word and the Spirit, and these three are one; and there are three witnesses on earth:] (not in any of the early Greek MSS, or any of the early translations, or in the best MSS of the Vulg[ate] itself) are probably a gloss that has crept into the text.”

Because this verse comes from a period that is so much later than the time of the Bible writing and its nature is so clearly spurious, many modern translations do not even treat it as they do other omitted verses.

Finally, we can mention a couple of longer portions of the Bible where the manuscript evidence seem to scholars to be inconclusive. The ending of the book of Mark, from Mr 16 verse 9 on, is one of these. Another is John 7:53–8:11, about the woman caught in adultery who came to Jesus. This account first appeared in some Old Latin versions, and, in later Greek manuscripts, it is in three other locations in the Gospels. In many translations these two portions are included but separated from the main text, such as by being put in brackets or being set in smaller type.

TRUSTING THE BIBLE

This consideration of some isolated verses that clearly are no part of the inspired Bible should not leave anyone with doubts about the authenticity of God’s Word. Rather than undermining confidence in the Scriptures, it should serve to underscore the fact that God has preserved his Word in a remarkably pure state.

After his thorough investigation, scholar F. J. A. Hort reached this conclusion:

“It is not superfluous therefore to state explicitly that the great bulk of the words of the New Testament stand out above all discriminative processes of criticism, because they are free from variation, and need only to be transcribed. . . . The whole area of variation between readings that have ever been admitted, or are likely to be ever admitted, into any printed texts is comparatively small; and a large part of it is due merely to differences between the early uncritical editions and the texts formed within the last half-century with the help of the priceless documentary evidence brought to light in recent times.”

He added:

“In the variety and fullness of the evidence on which it rests the text of the New Testament stands absolutely and unapproachably alone among ancient prose writings.”

Sir Frederic Kenyon was in full agreement, stating:

“It is reassuring at the end to find that the general result of all these discoveries and all this study is to strengthen the proof of the authenticity of the Scriptures, and our conviction that we have in our hands, in substantial integrity, the veritable Word of God.”

[Footnotes]

Insight on the News

Reaching the People

● Japan’s “Daily Yomiuri” recently carried an article entitled “Foreign Missionaries Here Changing Ideas, Tactics.” The article showed that after over 100 years of activity less than 1 percent of the 113 million Japanese profess Christianity. One reason the missionaries gave for not using a direct approach was: “Not even salesmen go door-to-door. ‘It’s considered impolite.’” So the article disclosed that most of Christendom’s missionaries no longer have the goal of converting large numbers of people and they no longer go door to door. They “work with already-converted Christians and wait for others to come to them.” The result? Churches have closed; one was “converted” into a coffee shop. One large university closed its theology department.

But Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan have long carried on vigorous door-to-door preaching of the Bible. Since 1949 when the first Witness missionaries arrived till now, Japan has seen phenomenal growth. Today there are over 43,000 Witnesses preaching the “good news.” Yes, some missionaries have changed their tactics. But Jehovah’s Witnesses still heed the Founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ, who did not wait for people to come to him and who commanded: “Go therefore and make disciples.”​—Matt. 28:19.

Hope for Good Government

● For many decades the world has been dominated largely by whites. White rule has not been perfect and has left much to be desired, as is evidenced by wars, violence and oppression in many areas. In recent years black rule has made considerable advances; it also appears to be experiencing similar problems. The former first black president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, recently expressed disappointment with what has gone on in many African countries since their independence. Dr. Azikiwe, described as the “doyen [elder statesman] of Nigerian nationalist struggle,” is quoted in Nigeria’s “Sunday Times” as saying: “I used to believe that the black race has a capacity for good government, other things being equal. . . . Judging from what obtains throughout Africa since the attainment of independence by over 50 African states, I am now having second thoughts. I am disenchanted and disillusioned.”

No doubt there have been areas of improvement in some of these countries. But however one might view Dr. Azikiwe’s comment, it does reflect further evidence that human rule, whether black or white, has failed to satisfy mankind’s hopes for a world of peace and security. This is not surprising, since the Bible acknowledges that man cannot, on his own, direct his own ways successfully. (Jer. 10:23; Eccl. 8:9) What is needed is perfect government from a source higher than what humans provide.​—Dan. 7:13, 14.

Ignoring God out of Arrogance?

● A self-described agnostic who heads the U.S. Institute for Space Studies has come to the conclusion that God’s existence is far more scientifically believable than formerly. Speaking on “God and the Astronomers,” Robert Jastrow said that astronomers seem to be finding more circumstantial evidence of God’s existence. The gist of the developments, he said, is that the universe began at a specific time, so it had “a beginning in the Judeo-Christian sense.” In view of this, Jastrow finds it troublesome that most scientists do not even concede the possibility that God created the universe. Why? Often, he said, it is out of arrogance. “Science cannot bear the thought that there is an important natural phenomenon which it cannot hope to explain even with unlimited time and money.” He added that “our colleagues like to trivialize the whole matter (of the beginning of the universe) by calling it the Big Bang, talking about it in firecracker terms.”

God’s Word, the Bible, shows that man, with the eye of reason, can discern His existence and invisible qualities through the things He has made. It then describes those who refuse to so recognize the Creator as being “empty-headed in their reasonings.”​—Rom. 1:19-21.

Creation Tells of God’s Glory

“Nevertheless I ask, They did not fail to hear, did they? Why, in fact, ‘into all the earth their sound went out, and to the extremities of the inhabited earth their utterances.’”​—Rom. 10:18.

WITHOUT speech or words or voice, Jehovah God’s creative works are declaring his glory. Psalm 19:1-4 testifies to this: “The heavens are declaring the glory of God; and of the work of his hands the expanse is telling. One day after another day causes speech to bubble forth, and one night after another night shows forth knowledge. There is no speech, and there are no words; no voice on their part is being heard. Into all the earth their measuring line has gone out, and to the extremity of the productive land their utterances.” The starry heavens indeed reflect the glory of God.

But his creations on earth also declare his wisdom and power: “How many your works are, O Jehovah! All of them in wisdom you have made. The earth is full of your productions. As for this sea so great and wide, there there are moving things without number, living creatures, small as well as great.” (Ps. 104:24, 25) Human inventors note this divine wisdom and copy the fish that generates electricity, the wasp that makes paper, the barnacle that produces adhesive, the gull that desalinates seawater, the bee that air-conditions its home, the octopus that uses jet propulsion, the bat that uses sonar​—on and on the list could go.

The apostle Paul referred to creation as a preacher of God’s glory: “His invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable.” (Rom. 1:20) The atheist is inexcusable. All persons who refuse to acknowledge the existence of an all-wise, all-powerful Creator are inexcusable. The evidence is everywhere around us, day and night. Without speech or words or voice, this preaching is continuous. But Paul also referred to preaching that does make use of speech and words and voices. He illustrated its wide coverage of earth by the universal preaching of the starry heavens.

Paul quotes from Joel 2:32 when saying, “everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved,” and then continues: “However, how will they call on him in whom they have not put faith? How, in turn, will they put faith in him of whom they have not heard? How, in turn, will they hear without someone to preach? How, in turn, will they preach unless they have been sent forth?” (Rom. 10:13-15) After stressing the need for human preachers to be sent so that people might call on Jehovah’s name and be saved, Paul says: “Nevertheless I ask, They did not fail to hear, did they? Why, in fact, ‘into all the earth their sound went out, and to the extremities of the inhabited earth their utterances.’” Paul here quotes the fourth verse of Psalm 19, about the earthwide coverage of the testimony of Jehovah’s visible creations in the heavens above.​—Rom. 10:18.

It is true that even without human preachers mankind has not failed to hear about the power and majesty of Jehovah God. His visible works testify to this. The psalmist and the apostle Paul call this fact to our attention. In Romans chapter 10 it seems that Paul is saying that the “good news” concerning Christ reached the ears of the many to whom it was preached, just as the preaching of the visible creation covers the earth. “They did not fail to hear, did they?” “Israel did not fail to know, did they?” Moses said Israel would be incited to jealousy by Gentiles joining themselves to Jehovah’s worship, and Isaiah foretold that Gentiles would come to Him but that stubborn Israel would refuse His invitation. (Rom. 10:18-21; Deut. 32:21; Isa. 65:1, 2) Natural Israel in Paul’s day had preachers of the gospel of Christ sent to them, not only to the Jews in Palestine, but also to those scattered in the Dispersion. Just as the visible heavens preach to all those on earth, so human preachers proclaimed the Gospel first to Jewry and then to the Gentiles.

The starry heavens, along with the rest of the visible creation, reflect Jehovah’s wisdom to a certain extent, but it is not this reflected wisdom alone that gives life. His works declare his supreme power and majesty, his inventive genius as a designer. But even if it were possible for us to fathom all the amazing complexities of his creations, it would still not impart to us the wisdom and power needed for us to gain everlasting life. It takes a different wisdom and a different power. It takes “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” The speechless, wordless, voiceless heavens preach in general of God’s glory, “but we preach Christ impaled.” “There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is not another name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved.” How Jews and Greeks in Paul’s day reacted to this preaching of “Christ impaled” is the subject matter of the two following articles.​—1 Cor. 1:22-24; Acts 4:12.

[Blurb on page 16]

“But We Preach Christ Impaled”

Christ Impaled, “The Power of God”

“The Jews ask for signs and the Greeks look for wisdom; but we preach Christ impaled, to the Jews a cause for stumbling but to the nations foolishness.”​—1 Cor. 1:22, 23.

1. (a) What conditions in the Christian congregation in Corinth caused Paul to stress Christ impaled? (b) What points did Paul make at 1 Corinthians 1:17-25 that now concern us?

IT WAS to the Christian congregation at Corinth that Paul wrote the above words about “Christ impaled.” The Corinth of Paul’s day was a cosmopolitan city, with Romans, Greeks, Orientals and Jews. In the Christian congregation there, some divisions existed because certain groups aligned themselves with prominent individuals. As a result of this, Paul said: “The Christ exists divided.” (1 Cor. 1:13) There also may have been a tendency for some of the Jewish Christians to cling to certain features of the Law, or for some of those of other races to be impressed with the eloquent ways of the Greek philosophers. But the Gospel was not to be preached with lofty words, nor was it to be adulterated with the wisdom of religious traditions or philosophical speculations. Whatever the case was there in Corinth, the apostle Paul saw fit to bear down hard on the need to limit preaching to “Christ impaled.” His words at 1 Corinthians 1:17-25 did this, and they form the basis for this article and the one that follows. He wrote:

“Christ dispatched me . . . to go declaring the good news, not with wisdom of speech, that the torture stake of the Christ should not be made useless. For the speech about the torture stake is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is God’s power. For it is written: ‘I will make the wisdom of the wise men perish, and the intelligence of the intellectual men I will shove aside.’ Where is the wise man? Where the scribe? Where the debater of this system of things? Did not God make the wisdom of the world foolish? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not get to know God, God saw good through the foolishness of what is preached to save those believing. For both the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks look for wisdom; but we preach Christ impaled, to the Jews a cause for stumbling but to the nations foolishness; however, to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because a foolish thing of God is wiser than men, and a weak thing of God is stronger than men.”

2. What marked Jesus’ anointing, and in what activity did he engage?

² As shown by this quotation, ‘the Jews asked for signs.’ Were not ample signs provided by Jesus? He came to the Jordan River in 29 C.E. and presented himself for baptism. As he came up out of the water, God’s spirit in the form of a dove descended upon him, and Jehovah’s voice from heaven said: “This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved.” After spending 40 days in the wilderness and successfully resisting the Devil’s temptations, Jesus began preaching the kingdom and performing miracles. Matthew records the effect of this activity: “He went around throughout the whole of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom and curing every sort of disease and every sort of infirmity among the people. And the report about him went out into all Syria; and they brought him all those faring badly, distressed with various diseases and torments, demon-possessed and epileptic and paralyzed persons, and he cured them. Consequently great crowds followed him from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from the other side of the Jordan.”​—Matt. 3:13-17; 4:23-25.

“WE WANT TO SEE A SIGN”

3. What signs did Jesus perform, yet what request did the scribes make?

³ So astounded were the people by his miraculous works that they viewed him as the promised Messiah. “When the Christ arrives,” they asked, “he will not perform more signs than this man has performed, will he?” Jesus turned water into wine, walked on water, calmed the winds and quieted stormy seas, miraculously fed thousands on a few loaves and fishes, cured the sick, made the lame walk, opened the eyes of the blind, cured lepers and even raised the dead. Who could ask for more than this? The religious leaders of the Jewish nation could and did. They had been eyewitnesses of many of these signs by Jesus, and had received reports of many more of them. But in spite of that, the scribes and the Pharisees came to Jesus with what seems like an appalling request: “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”​—John 7:31; Matt. 12:38.

4, 5. In view of their profession, what should these scribes and Pharisees have known that should have convinced them of Jesus Messiahship?

⁴ Of all men to ask for additional proof of Jesus as Messiah, these religious leaders should have been the last! The scribes spent their lives poring over the Hebrew Scriptures. They were meticulous in their study of them, and debated long and tediously with one another to come to right conclusions as to their application. They had accumulated a vast array of oral tradition that purported to explain and clarify the Hebrew Scriptures in all their minute details. And in their studies they surely knew of the prophecies foretelling the coming of the promised Messiah.

⁵ They knew, did they not, that Messiah was to be of the tribe of Judah, of the family of David, born in Bethlehem, that his coming was to be heralded by one likened to Elijah, that he was to carry the sicknesses and pains of the Jewish people? Over 300 Hebrew prophecies concerning the Messiah’s first coming were fulfilled in Jesus​—many of them already fulfilled when they came to ask Jesus for a sign. Jesus reminded them that because of their study of the Scriptures they should know about him: “You are searching the Scriptures, because you think that by means of them you will have everlasting life; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me.”​—John 5:39.

6. How did Jesus reply to their request, and why not scornfully?

⁶ So, did the Son of God answer with withering scorn when they said: “We want to see a sign from you”? Let us see: “In reply he said to them: ‘A wicked and adulterous generation keeps on seeking for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” (Matt. 12:38-40) No, Jesus reply did not berate them for ignoring the many miraculous signs already given, or for their failing to be convinced by Messianic prophecies already fulfilled in him. He understood them, their desire, their error, and his reply came to grips with such a situation.

THE SIGN THEY WANTED

7, 8. What sign did the Jews want to see, and what was the only one they would get, and why?

⁷ Jesus knew the sign that they wanted to see. It is recorded at Daniel 7:13, 14: “I kept on beholding in the visions of the night, and, see there! with the clouds of the heavens someone like a son of man happened to be coming; and to the Ancient of Days he gained access, and they brought him up close even before that One. And to him there were given rulership and dignity and kingdom, that the peoples, national groups and languages should all serve even him. His rulership is an indefinitely lasting rulership that will not pass away, and his kingdom one that will not be brought to ruin.”

⁸ This signified the Messiah’s second coming, when the Messianic kingdom will replace all oppressive human governments and will bring in permanent peace and tranquillity earth wide for Jehovah’s worshipers. The Jewish rulers were wanting the Messiah to come in kingly power, break the oppressive yoke of Rome from off their necks, and exalt them with political power. They were running ahead of Jehovah. This was the first coming of the Messiah, when he was to suffer and die as a ransom and be in the grave for parts of three days. That sign of the first coming was all they would get.

9. What did the Jews of Jesus’ day fail to discern, and what yearning of theirs blinded them to the recognizing of Jesus as Messiah?

⁹ Not only did those Jews not get the sign they wanted from the Messiah; they got what stumbled them completely, namely, an impaled Messiah! Paul wrote: “The Jews ask for signs and the Greeks look for wisdom; but we preach Christ impaled, to the Jews a cause for stumbling but to the nations foolishness.” (1 Cor. 1:22, 23) What caused the Jews’ downfall was their failure to discern the two comings of Messiah. There were two sets of prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures concerning Messiah: one set for his first coming, the other set for his second coming. (See table on page 1148 of the book Aid to Bible Understanding for first-coming prophecies and their fulfillment; a few of those relating to the second coming are Daniel 7:13, 14; 2:35, 44; Psalms 2:1-9; 110:1-6.) The Jews, however, failed to discern two comings. They believed in one only. Yearning for their Messiah to come in power and break the Roman yoke from off their necks, they blinded themselves to his coming as a suffering, persecuted, rejected, impaled Messiah. Actually, their views of Messiah were confused. Many Messianic prophecies they did not discern as such. Some Jews did not even believe in a personal Messiah. Others selfishly did not want him to come and antagonize Rome. (John 11:47, 48) But many clamored for his coming as a militarist to deliver them from Rome.

“A WEAK THING OF GOD”

10. (a) Why did the Jews view Jesus as “a weak thing of God,” and how did he differ from false messiahs of that first century C.E.? (b) As disclosed by The Interpreter’s Bible, what state of affairs in Palestine at that time made Jesus unacceptable to the Jews?

¹⁰ This Jesus was weak in their eyes​—much too weak to fulfill their hope of a messiah to crush the Roman Empire. Did he not say that his kingdom was not of this world and that his servants would not fight? He flatly refused the kingship when it was offered. He advocated turning the other cheek! They were expecting their Messiah at this time​—but not this one! (John 18:36; 6:15; Matt. 5:39; Luke 3:15) The Book of Jewish Knowledge, under “Messiah,” says that there were several in the first century C.E. who claimed to be the Messiah, and then adds: “Now the extraordinary thing about these first-century claimants for Messianic distinction was that each served as a rallying point for Jewish revolt against Roman rule. Unlike Jesus, . . . the other ‘messiahs’ of that period were, without exception, militant firebrands and patriots.” These foregoing failures of Jesus to show himself a strong Messiah were bad enough in their eyes, but when he ended up dying ignominiously on a torture stake it made him totally unacceptable! Hence, at 1 Corinthians 1:25 the apostle Paul showed that the Jews viewed “Christ impaled” as “a weak thing of God,” and were completely stumbled. On this The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 10, p. 29, comments:

“Jewish religious hopes in the days of Paul were based on apocalyptic expectation of a dramatic, catastrophic deliverance from Roman oppressors: they looked for a deliverer who would make the nation supreme among the nations of the world. Part of their deep disappointment in Jesus in the days of his flesh is directly traceable to his refusal to give to the nation military leadership, after the style of the Maccabees. In Paul’s day Palestine was like a banked fire. Rome procurators were able to extinguish the licking flames of sporadic, local insurrection; but the banked fire was a different matter. Had Jesus at the height of his popularity but given the word, thousands of swords would have leaped from their scabbards, and Rome might have been hard put to it to contain the eruption of the pent-up religious idealism and fanatical nationalism of the Jews. To a people whose imagination and spirit were fired by such ideas and such apocalyptic hopes the sign of a ‘Christ crucified’ was an unspeakable offense. To them the word of the cross was an utterly repellent thing. They would have none of it.”

11. Under what misunderstanding did even the close disciples of Jesus labor, and on what basis do you so answer?

¹¹ Even the close associates of Christ Jesus did not understand until later about the two comings of the Messiah, and that this first coming would end with “Christ impaled.” In jail John the Baptizer heard of Jesus’ miraculous signs but seemed to expect more, for he sent this inquiry to Jesus: “Are you the Coming One, or are we to expect a different one?” (Matt. 11:2, 3) Peter identified Jesus as the Messiah, but still did not understand the signs in fulfillment of the first coming. (Matt. 16:16, 21-23) Even after Jesus’ death and resurrection his disciples still expected the establishment of an earthly kingdom at this first coming. They asked: “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”​—Acts 1:6.

TORTURE STAKE NOT MADE USELESS

12. Eventually, how did some Jewish religious leaders attempt to cope with the two sets of prophecies concerning two advents?

¹² After the outpouring of holy spirit at Pentecost in 33 C.E., Jesus’ disciples understood the two comings, and everywhere preached “things the Prophets as well as Moses stated were going to take place, that the Christ was to suffer.” (Acts 26:22, 23) Christian arguments from the Hebrew Scriptures and shattered Jewish hopes prompted later Jewish scholars to reinterpret Messianic prophecies. For example, Daniel 7:13 said that Messiah would come in the clouds of heaven, but Zechariah 9:9 said that he would come humbly riding on an ass. One opinion found in the Talmud sought to offset this problem by teaching only one coming​—that if Israel were worthy Messiah would come in the clouds, but if Israel behaved unworthily he would come on the ass. (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin, 98a) Another approach recognized the two sets of prophecies, for a first and a second coming, and said that there were to be two messiahs, one the son of Joseph and one the son of David, and between them they would fulfill both sets of prophecies. (Edersheim’s Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Vol. II, pp. 434, 435) However, both were to come at the same time.

13. (a) What Jewish beliefs eliminated Jesus as Messiah, in their view? (b) How did these Jewish beliefs make the torture stake useless?

¹³ They maintained, though, that Jesus could be neither of these messiahs. For Jesus did not follow the oral traditions of the scribes, and to go against them, the Talmud says, is more punishable than going against the Hebrew Scriptures. Also, Jesus said he would fulfill the Mosaic law​—thus ending it. But the Jews considered it to be eternal, never to be abrogated. Moreover, the Jews believed that they needed no messiah for salvation. They could gain the kingdom in three ways: by performing works of the Law, by giving alms to the poor, by having Abraham as their father. (Matt. 3:7-10; Rom. 3:20; 4:2, 3; 9:31, 32) Such wisdom of the scribes would make the torture stake a useless thing, not needed for salvation. Paul had this false wisdom in mind when he contrasted its futility with God’s power, Christ impaled. He did not declare as “good news” their “wisdom of speech, that the torture stake of the Christ should not be made useless. For the speech about the torture stake is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is God’s power.”​—1 Cor. 1:17, 18.

14. (a) Who taunted Jesus on the torture stake, and with what words? (b) What did the events at that time really confirm?

¹⁴ What if Jesus did go like a sheep to the slaughter, afflicted, despised, undesired, rejected? (Isa. 53:1-7) What if he did seem weak and impotent hanging up there on the torture stake, while some taunted: “Bah! You would-be thrower-down of the temple and builder of it in three days’ time, save yourself by coming down off the torture stake.” (Mark 15:29, 30) And “in like manner also the chief priests with the scribes and older men began making fun of him and saying: ‘Others he saved; himself he cannot save!’” (Matt. 27:41, 42) Rather than disqualifying Jesus, these events confirmed his Messiahship.​—Ps. 118:22; Isa. 8:14; 28:16; 1 Pet. 2:4-8.

15. How was “Christ impaled” viewed by those perishing and by those saved, and what fact remains true despite the scoffers’ taunts?

¹⁵ Paul is determined to stress the ransom provision of Jehovah as the only means of salvation. The Jews may want signs and the Greeks may crave wisdom, but Paul will preach “Christ impaled,” though it stumble Jews and seem like folly to Greeks​—“however, to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because a foolish thing of God is wiser than men, and a weak thing of God is stronger than men.” (1 Cor. 1:22-25) Let Jews and Greeks view “Christ impaled” as weak and foolish; it is still far stronger and wiser than Jewish traditions and Greek philosophies. Further reasons appear in the article that follows.

[Picture on page 19]

Although Jesus walked on water and performed many other miracles, the Jewish religious leaders wanted “a sign”​—additional proof that he was the Messiah

Christ Impaled, “The Wisdom of God”

“Where is the wise man? Where the scribe? Where the debater of this system of things? Did not God make the wisdom of the world foolish?”​—1 Cor. 1:20.

1. (a) What religious state of the Jews was upset by Jesus? (b) What changes ensued as a result of the preaching of his followers?

THE Jewish nation had been under the Mosaic Law covenant for more than 15 centuries. Their scribes had developed a great mass of oral traditions interpreting this law and explaining its application to their everyday lives. One idea behind this was to keep the Jews separate from the Gentiles, and thereby preserve their religion uncontaminated by pagan doctrines. But by now the man Jesus had come and claimed to be the Messiah, had denounced the oral traditions of their wise men and scribes, had said he would end the Mosaic law by fulfilling it, and had finally been impaled as a blasphemer. Thereafter his followers, called Christians, preached his resurrection and spread his teaching throughout Palestine and the Roman world. Not only Jews but also Gentiles flocked into their ranks by the thousands, and Christian congregations sprang up everywhere. The Law covenant was ended. It had served its purpose as a tutor to lead persons to Christ and had been nailed to the torture stake of Christ. Now Jehovah’s worshipers were under a new covenant. Law was no longer written on stone tablets but on human hearts.​—Gal. 3:10-25; Heb. 10:15-18.

2. What was difficult for Jews who became Christians, and with what arguments did Paul meet the threat?

² These momentous events were earth shaking, religiously speaking. It was difficult for some of the Pharisees and other Jews who became Christians to accept the fact that Jesus had fulfilled the Mosaic law and thereby ended the need of following it. They tried to bring some of its requirements into the Christian congregations. (Acts 15:1-19) Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, argued strongly against these efforts: “For such freedom Christ set us free. Therefore stand fast, and do not let yourselves be confined again in a yoke of slavery. See! I, Paul, am telling you that if you become circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Moreover, I bear witness again to every man getting circumcised that he is under obligation to perform the whole Law. You are parted from Christ, whoever you are that try to be declared righteous by means of law; you have fallen away from his undeserved kindness.” (Gal. 5:1-4; 3:10-14) Unconverted Jews were ‘making the torture stake of Christ useless’ by trusting in works of the Law, instead of discerning the need of “Christ impaled” as a ransom sacrifice. Some Jewish converts clung to parts of the Law, thus becoming subject to all of it, and in this way ‘made Christ impaled useless.’​—1 Cor. 1:17.

PAUL AND THE GREEK PHILOSOPHERS

3. (a) What was Paul’s reaction to the Greek philosophers? (b) How did those philosophers react to Paul in Athens?

³ Paul also cautioned against any efforts to copy the ways of the Greek philosophers. Rome had replaced Greece as the world power, but it was Greek culture and philosophy that characterized that civilization. Both Jews and Greeks of that system of things had their wise men, their scribes or men of letters, and their debaters. Paul asked: “Where is the wise man? Where the scribe? Where the debater of this system of things? Did not God make the wisdom of the world foolish?” The Greek philosophers as well as the Jewish rabbis were notorious as debaters, and Paul lumps both groups together: “Both the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks look for wisdom; but we preach Christ impaled, to the Jews a cause for stumbling but to the nations foolishness.” (1 Cor. 1:20, 22, 23) Paul had firsthand knowledge of the Greek philosophers and their love of debating, because of his experience with them in Athens. Acts 17:16-21 shows this:

“Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit within him came to be irritated at beholding that the city was full of idols. Consequently he began to reason in the synagogue with the Jews and the other people who worshiped God and every day in the marketplace with those who happened to be on hand. But certain ones of both the Epicurean and the Stoic philosophers took to conversing with him controversially, and some would say: ‘What is it this chatterer would like to tell?’ Others: ‘He seems to be a publisher of foreign deities.’ This was because he was declaring the good news of Jesus and the resurrection. So they laid hold of him and led him to the Areopagus, saying: ‘Can we get to know what this new teaching is which is spoken by you? For you are introducing some things that are strange to our ears. Therefore we desire to get to know what these things purport to be.’ In fact, all Athenians and the foreigners sojourning there would spend their leisure time at nothing but telling something or listening to something new.”

4. How did some of the philosophers view Paul, and what did Paul preach to them?

⁴ The philosophers referred derogatorily to Paul as a chatterer, a translation of the Greek word spermologos, meaning “seed picker.” It signified a crow or other bird that picked up seeds, and was applied to a man who frequented the streets and markets and picked up scraps that dropped off loads; hence, a hanger-on who lived at the expense of others. Figuratively, in Athenian slang, the expression referred to a man who picked up scraps of information and used them to impress others, but was actually an ignorant plagiarist. However, Paul was no idle babbler. He preached to them about “the God that made the world and all the things in it,” that “he himself gives to all persons life and breath” and that “he made out of one man every nation of men.” Concerning Jesus, Paul said that God “has resurrected him from the dead.” This caused some to mock, but others believed and joined themselves to Paul.​—Acts 17:24-26, 31-34.

PHILOSOPHERS TAUGHT SOUL IMMORTAL

5. (a) What teachings of the philosophers made resurrection seem foolish? (b) What teachings of Orphic theology predate current religious teachings on hell and indulgences?

⁵ Why did the mention of resurrection cause some to mock? Did it clash with some of their philosophical wisdom, and thereby cause them to view a resurrection as foolishness? Scripturally, resurrection makes sense. If, as the Bible says, a person dies as a beast perishes, is unconscious, returns to dust, is a dead soul, then resurrection is his only hope to live again. (Ps. 146:4; Eccl. 3:18-20; 9:5, 10; Ezek. 18:4) But resurrection made no sense to those Greek philosophers! It was foolishness! Many of the Greek philosophers taught that man had an immortal soul, and therefore needed no resurrection. The Stoics in Paul’s audience believed that the soul lived on after the body died. Long before, the Greek philosopher Thales (seventh century B.C.E.) taught that there was an immortal soul in metals, plants, animals and men. The vital power, he said, changes form but never dies.a In the sixth century B.C.E. the famous mathematician Pythagoras said that after death the soul went to Hades to be purged, then returned to enter a new body, and it continued this chain of transmigration until it culminated in a completely virtuous life.b “The soul plainly appears to be immortal,” Plato quotes Socrates (fifth century B.C.E.) as saying.c Orpheus, the source of a mystic cult of the seventh century B.C.E., gave rise to the Orphic theology, which taught that after death the soul went to Hades to face judgment. The account by Will Durant, in Part II of The Story of Civilization, pages 190, 191, continues:

“If the verdict was guilty there would be severe punishment. One form of the doctrine conceived this punishment as eternal, and transmitted to later theology the notion of hell. Another form adopted the idea of transmigration: the soul was reborn again and again into lives happier or bitterer than before according to the purity or impurity of its former existence; and this wheel of rebirth would turn until complete purity was achieved, and the soul was admitted to the Islands of the Blest. Another variant offered hope that the punishment in Hades might be ended through penances performed in advance by the individual, or, after his death, by his friends. In this way a doctrine of purgatory and indulgences arose.”

EVOLUTION TAUGHT BY GREEK PHILOSOPHERS

6. Why did Paul’s preaching about Jehovah God as Creator of all life also make them view his talk as foolishness?

⁶ When speaking to the philosophers in Athens, Paul declared that Jehovah God was the Creator of the world and of everything in it, including plants, animals and humankind. In so doing, he was once again at odds with the Greek philosophers. The Epicurean philosophers in his audience believed that life began by spontaneous generation and developed upward by chance through natural selection and survival of the fittest. (Durant’s The Story of Civilization, Part II, p. 647) Stoics believed in no personal creator. The thought of a Creator bringing into existence all living creatures on earth was foolishness to them. For centuries Greek philosophers had taught that life spontaneously generated itself, then, by chance, over long periods of time, changed and evolved upward by means of natural selection and survival of the fittest. The Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 10, page 606, says:

“The Greeks, taken altogether, suggested more or less crudely the idea of the gradual development of organisms, the idea of the elimination of mistakes in production, and therefore the idea of the survival of the fittest, the idea of the adaptation of parts or the fitness of certain structures to certain ends, the idea of intelligent design constantly operating in nature, as also the idea of nature being controlled by the operation of natural causes due in the beginning to the laws of chance.”

7. That evolution is not a modern theory is shown by what teachings of (a) Anaximander? (b) Anaxagoras? (c) Empedocles? (d) Aristotle?

⁷ Becoming more specific, the Greek philosopher Anaximander, of the sixth century B.C.E., taught as follows:

“Living organisms arose by gradual stages from the original moisture; land animals were at first fishes, and only with the drying of the earth did they acquire their present shape. Man too was once a fish; he could not at his earliest appearance have been born as now, for he would have been too helpless to secure his food, and would have been destroyed.”d

Concerning Anaxagoras’ teaching (fifth century B.C.E.), we read:

“All organisms were originally generated out of earth, moisture, and heat, and thereafter from one another. Man has developed beyond other animals because his erect posture freed his hands for grasping things.”e

Of Empedocles, we read:

“Empedocles (493-435 B.C.), for example, who has been called ‘the father of the evolution idea,’ believed in spontaneous generation as the explanation of the origin of life, and he believed that different forms of life were not produced simultaneously. Plant life came first and animal life only after a long series of trials, but the origin of the organisms was a very gradual process. [Here note is made of the many monstrosities produced.] But the unnatural products soon became extinct because they were not capable of propagation. After the extinction of these monsters other forms arose which were able to support themselves and multiply. Thus, if one cares to, one may see in the ideas of Empedocles the germ of the theory of the survival of the fittest, or natural selection.”f

The famous philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) wrote:

“Nature proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact line of demarcation. . . . Thus, next after lifeless things in the upward scale comes the genus of plants . . . There is in plants a continuous scale of ascent towards the animal. . . . And so throughout the animal scale there is a graduated differentiation. . . . A nail is the analogue of a claw, a hand of a crab’s nipper, a feather of a fish’s scale.”g

BLINDED BY THEIR OWN WISDOM

8. What wisdom of the Jews and Greeks blinded them to God’s wisdom?

⁸ The wisdom of both the Jewish scribes and the Greek philosophers blinded them to the wisdom of God, Christ impaled. Paul wrote: “Since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not get to know God, God saw good through the foolishness of what is preached to save those believing.” This preaching was foolishness to the Jews. Their wisdom taught them that they would be saved by works of the Law, by giving alms, and by the merit of their ancestors, especially Abraham. Moreover, they wanted no weak Messiah allowing himself to be nailed to a stake! The preaching was foolishness also to the Greeks. They needed no Jew dying like a despised criminal to save them​—they had immortal souls that were never going to die!​—1 Cor. 1:21.

9. (a) What would Paul not do to make his preaching more acceptable? (b) What did both Paul and Peter foresee, and what did they do about it?

⁹ So Paul wrote his warning to the Christian congregation in Corinth. Human wisdom, whether that of the Jewish scribes with its legalistic intricacies of oral tradition, or that of the Greek philosophers with its eloquent disputations and sophistries, would make the torture stake of Christ useless to them if they were persuaded by such wisdom. Paul would not adulterate the word of God to make it more palatable to Jewish or Greek Christians who wanted to bring in their former beliefs. He would not water it down with such impurities to make it more acceptable to a world whose wisdom was foolishness to God. (2 Cor. 2:17; 4:2; 11:13) Both the apostles Paul and Peter foresaw the time coming when false teachings from both Jewish and Gentile sources would contaminate the truth of Christ impaled, and they sounded warnings:

Acts 20:29, 30: “I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness, and from among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.”

2 Tim. 4:3, 4: “There will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, whereas they will be turned aside to false stories.”

2 Pet. 2:1: “However, there also came to be false prophets among the people, as there will also be false teachers among you. These very ones will quietly bring in destructive sects and will disown even the owner that bought them, bringing speedy destruction upon themselves.”

10. What proves that their warnings were not false alarms?

¹⁰ Subsequent history confirms that the warnings of the apostles were well founded. The Encyclopædia Britannica (1976 edition) states: “From the middle of the 2nd century AD, Christians who had some training in Greek philosophy began to feel the need to express their faith in its terms both for their own intellectual satisfaction and in order to convert educated pagans.” Also, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge points out: “Many of the early Christians, in turn, found peculiar attractions in the doctrines of Plato, and employed them as weapons for the defense and extension of Christianity, or cast the truths of Christianity in a Platonic mold.”

11. What facts show that the majority of Christendom’s churches today have ignored the warnings of Paul and Peter?

¹¹ Little has changed down to our day. The vast majority of the churches of Christendom still teach such doctrines as immortal soul, Trinity and others, which filtered into apostate Christianity from the second century C.E. from Greek philosophy. The Greeks, in turn, acquired them from older cultures, for they go all the way back to Egyptian and Babylonian religions. Many religions today are also teaching that God created by means of evolution, thinking to modernize their doctrines, but in fact embracing the error of Greek philosophy. They set aside the Bible truth that Jehovah God created life on the earth, that life reproduces “after its kind,” that Jehovah is from everlasting and is all-powerful and that Christ Jesus is his Son having a beginning and being subject to him. And some, like the Jews of the first century, no longer view Jesus as a ransom by which obedient mankind can gain life everlasting.

12. How do millions of faithful Christians today respond to Paul’s message to the Corinthian congregation?

¹² Happily, for millions on earth today, this religious and philosophical wisdom that views Christ impaled as foolish and weak is itself empty foolishness. They respond to Paul’s declaration to the Christian congregation in Corinth, namely: “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because a foolish thing of God is wiser than men, and a weak thing of God is stronger than men.” They raise this cry in all the earth for all who seek the wisdom that gives life: ‘CHRIST IMPALED, THE POWER OF GOD! CHRIST IMPALED, THE WISDOM OF GOD!’​—1 Cor. 1:24, 25.

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 24]

When Paul spoke to Athenian philosophers concerning the resurrection, some mocked but others believed him

The Sermon on the Mount​—Preventing Adultery and Divorce

AFTER discussing the deadliness of prolonged anger, Jesus turned his attention to the seventh of the Ten Commandments, saying: “You heard that it was said, ‘You must not commit adultery.’”​—Matt. 5:27; Ex. 20:14; Deut. 5:18.

Under God’s law the penalty for adultery was severe​—death for both guilty parties. This applied even to a betrothed woman who had relations with a man other than the one to whom she was engaged.​—Deut. 22:22-24.

Jesus’ comments, however, went farther than forbidding the act of adultery. “I say to you,” he declared, “that everyone [that is, every married man] that keeps on looking at a woman so as to have a passion for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:28) On another occasion, too, Jesus related adultery to immoral desires in a person’s heart: “From inside, out of the heart of men,” he said, “injurious reasonings issue forth: . . . adulteries.” (Mark 7:21, 22) This can be seen from the experience of David who looked at and became aroused by another man’s wife, leading to adultery.​—2 Sam. 11:2-4.

Jesus is not here speaking about an occasional immoral thought that a person quickly dispels. Rather, he is discussing the situation where the man “keeps on looking” at a woman, cultivating lustful desire for her. God, who “sees what the heart is,” knows that a married man who fully desires to commit adultery will do so if the opportunity presents itself. (1 Sam. 16:7) God views the act as already committed “in his heart,” the seat of affections, desires and motivation.

How can an individual avoid committing adultery? Using illustrative language, Jesus stated: “If, now, that right eye of yours is making you stumble, tear it out and throw it away from you. For it is more beneficial to you for one of your members to be lost to you than for your whole body to be pitched into Gehenna.” Also, if your right hand is making you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you. For it is more beneficial for one of your members to be lost to you than for your whole body to land in Gehenna.”​—Matt. 5:29, 30.

The Scriptures describe a righteous course of action as ‘walking with God.’ (Gen. 5:22; 6:9) What if the “right eye” (here representing one’s power of visual concentration) or the “right hand” (meaning what one does, as with one’s hands) were to cause a person to “stumble,” that is, to fall from the path of obedience to God? In such a case, one must take action similar to tearing the eye out or cutting off the hand. How so?

Since the eye is an important channel of communication to the mind, strongly influencing emotions and actions, a person must restrain his eyes from concentrating on improper sights. (Prov. 4:25; Luke 11:34) Job expressed the proper viewpoint when he stated: “A covenant I have concluded with my eyes. So how could I show myself attentive to a virgin?”​—Job 31:1.

Similarly, there is need to beware that what one does with the hands or other body members does not violate Biblical standards of morality. In this regard, the apostle Paul writes: “Deaden, therefore, your body members that are upon the earth as respects fornication, uncleanness, sexual appetite, hurtful desire, and covetousness.”​—Col. 3:5.

It is common for people to be willing to lose a limb literally in order to preserve their lives. Even more vital, according to Jesus, is the figurative ‘throwing away’ of eyes and hands so as to avoid immoral thinking and actions, for only in this way can persons escape the eternal destruction symbolized by the fiery Gehenna, “the rubbish-heap” near Jerusalem that burned day and night to consume its foul contents.​—Matt. 5:29, 30, J. B. Phillips.

“Moreover it was said,” continued Jesus, “‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’” (Matt. 5:31) God’s law through Moses permitted a man to divorce his wife “if she should find no favor in his eyes because he has found something indecent on her part.” (Deut. 24:1-4) “Something indecent” evidently meant something other than adultery, for, as noted above, that crime incurred the death penalty under the Mosaic law. However, since God “hated a divorcing,” it is reasonable that valid grounds for it must have been serious, such as a wife’s showing gross disrespect for her husband or bringing shame on the household.​—Mal. 2:16.

Yet even in such serious cases the Scriptures neither commanded nor encouraged divorce. As a deterrent to hasty breakup of marriages, God decreed that a husband divorcing his wife must give her a “certificate of divorce.” This required time for preparation and legal implementation. And it may have involved consultation with duly authorized individuals who might first try to effect a reconciliation.

As time went on, however, Jewish husbands began ‘dealing treacherously’ with their wives by divorcing them on all sorts of trivial grounds. (Mal. 2:13-16) In Jesus’ day a prevailing rabbinical opinion held that a man could divorce his wife “even if she spoiled a dish for him.” According to the German-language Bible commentary by Strack and Billerbeck, many statements in ancient Jewish writings show “that among the Jewish people in the Mishnaic period [which included Jesus’ day] there was no marriage that a man could not summarily, in a completely legal manner, dissolve by handing out a certificate of divorce.” It should not be surprising, then, that the Pharisees asked Jesus whether divorce was lawful “on every sort of ground.”​—Matt. 19:3.

What was Jesus’ view of divorce? “I say to you,” he continued, “that everyone divorcing his wife, except on account of fornication, makes her a subject for adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” (Matt. 5:32) With full authority as the Messiah and Son of God, Jesus showed that his Father was not pleased with men divorcing their wives even for the Scripturally stated “something indecent.” (Compare Matthew 19:8.) Rather, a man who would divorce his wife for reasons other than her sexual immorality would expose her to adultery if she had sexual connection with another man, since in God’s eyes the marriage would remain intact. Jesus added that “whoever marries a divorced woman,” that is, one divorced on grounds other than sexual immorality, “commits adultery.”

These words of Jesus are beneficial indeed. His establishing of sexual immorality as the only basis for divorce restrains couples who wish to please God from splitting up for numerous other reasons. And his condemning of the immoral thinking that leads up to adultery serves to reduce even further the instances of marital breakup. For those who heed its admonition, the Sermon on the Mount is a powerful aid in preventing adultery and divorce.

All Ready to “Go”

JEHOVAH, our God, is the great Provider. In Isaiah 25:6-8 we read of the grand banquet that he “will certainly make for all the peoples”​—a banquet of finest ‘dishes and wine.’ A banquet of such a kind will be enjoyed by all who exercise victorious faith in Jehovah’s provision made through his Son and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ​—a delightful banquet of spiritual and material good things, for it is said of our Host at that banquet: “He will actually swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces.”

We do not have to wait, however, until the New Order, to enjoy a feast of blessings in God’s spiritual paradise. We may feast on Jehovah’s provision right now. A feast that all of Jehovah’s people are keenly anticipating is the “‘Victorious Faith’ International Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses,” to be held around the world starting June 14, 1978, and continuing on into the early part of 1979.

Are your preparations complete? Are you ready to go to this convention? Have you included all the family, as well as those newly interested, in your plans? Are you resolved to get the greatest spiritual benefit from this assembly? This you may do by being in your seat each day for the opening song and prayer, by listening intently to all the program and by staying on to say a heartfelt “Amen” to the concluding prayer of thanks. There will be a special blessing, too, in the field service of the third morning of the assembly and in daily volunteer service. On the other four days of the convention, morning and afternoon sessions are planned.

Of course, Satan would try to discourage us from getting the most out of this assembly. He would like us to think negative thoughts about the additional traveling required, the quality of the food served; or the kind of accommodations arranged and which may not be to our liking. But do we attend conventions primarily to satisfy our material wants and comforts? Far from it! We go there with the positive viewpoint of gaining the greatest benefit in a spiritual way. If some hardships or problems come our way, let us take them in our stride, even as Jesus and his apostles set the example. (John 4:6-15; Acts 14:19-22; 2 Cor. 12:10) The more we display long-suffering, kindness, goodness, mildness, self-control, along with faith, at this assembly, the grander will be our blessing.​—Gal. 5:22, 23.

The “Victorious Faith” International Convention is nearly upon us! Are you all ready to go? As you travel to the assembly, may you do so in the spirit of David, who declared: “I rejoiced when they were saying to me: ‘To the house of Jehovah let us go.’” (Ps. 122:1) Now “in the final part of the days” Jehovah’s restored worship is exalted as the one remaining hope for mankind. “To it all the nations “must stream” if they would have Jehovah’s favor and protection. As we act on Jehovah’s gracious invitation to share to the full in the blessings of the 1978 International Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses, let us be like the “many peoples” described in Isaiah 2:2-4: “Come, you people, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” Let us participate to the full in all the marvelous assembly blessings, thus testifying to our victorious faith!

The following is the up-to-date list of “Victorious Faith” International Conventions planned for the summer months of 1978. As there have been a number of changes, including additions and deletions, please give close attention to the details for those conventions you may attend. Where the program is to be presented in a language other than the principal local language, notation is made in the listing below:

UNITED STATES

June 14-18: Dallas [Irving], Tex. (Spanish only), Texas Stadium, 2401 Airport Fwy. Milwaukee, Wis., County Stadium, 201 S. 46th St. New Orleans, La., Superdome, 1500 Poydras St. Washington, D.C., RFK Memorial Stadium. E. Capitol & 22nd Sts. N.E.

June 21-25: Detroit [Pontiac], Mich., Silverdome, 1200 Featherstone. Lakeland, Fla. (Spanish only), Lakeland Civic Center, 700 Lemon St. New Orleans, La., Superdome, 1500 Poydras St.

June 28–July 2: Los Angeles, Calif., Dodger Stadium, 1000 Elysian Park Ave. Philadelphia, Pa., Veterans Stadium, S. Broad & Pattison Ave. St. Louis, Mo., Busch Stadium, 300 Stadium Plaza.

July 12-16: Houston, Tex., Astrodome, Loop 610 at Kirby Dr. Los Angeles, Calif. (Korean and Japanese also), Dodger Stadium, 1000 Elysian Park Ave. New York [Queens], N.Y., Shea Stadium, Cor. of Roosevelt Ave. & 126th St. San Francisco, Calif. (Chinese also), Candlestick Park Stadium.

July 19-23: Cincinnati, Ohio, Riverfront Stadium, 201 E. 2nd St. Monroe, N.Y. (French only), Jehovah’s Witnesses Assembly Hall, Forrest & Mountain Rds.

July 26-30: Pittsburgh, Pa., Three Rivers Stadium, 420 Stadium Cir. Seattle, Wash., Kingdome, 201 S. King St.

August 2-6: Los Angeles, Calif. (Spanish only), Dodger Stadium, 1000 Elysian Park Ave.

August 9-13: New York [Elmont], N.Y. (Spanish only), Belmont Park Race Track, Hempstead Tpk. at Cross Island Pkwy.

ALASKA

July 26-30: Anchorage, West High School, Romig Auditorium, 1700 Hillcrest Dr.

CANADA

July 5-9: Montréal, P.Q. (English, French, Arabic, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish. Some sessions only: Korean, Ukrainian). Olympic Stadium Parc Olympique, Pie IX Blvd. & Sherbrooke St.

July 12-16: Winnipeg, Man. (English. Some sessions only: Ukrainian), Winnipeg Stadium, Empress St. & Maroons Rd.

July 19-23: Vancouver, B.C. (English only), Empire Stadium, Exhibition Park.

August 23-27: Edmonton, Alta. (English. Some sessions only: Ukrainian), Edmonton Coliseum, 75th St. & 118th Ave.

CARIBBEAN ISLANDS

August 2-6: Bridgetown, Barbados (English only), National Stadium, Waterford, St. Michael. Fort de France, Martinique (French only), Hall des Sports, Stade Louis Achille.

August 9-13: Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe (French only).

August 16-20: San Juan, Puerto Rico (Spanish only), Hiram Bithorn Municipal Stadium, Ave. Roosevelt.

August 23-27: St. Johns, Antigua (English only), Antigua Recreation Grounds, East St. San Juan, Puerto Rico (Spanish only), Hiram Bithorn Municipal Stadium, Ave. Roosevelt.

August 30–September 3: San Juan, Puerto Rico (English, Spanish), Hiram Bithorn Municipal Stadium, Ave. Roosevelt.

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND

July 5-9: Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, Sheffield Wednesday Football Ground, Hillsborough.

July 12-16: Dublin, Ireland (English. Friday morning session in Italian also), R.D.S. Main Hall, Ballsbridge, Dublin. Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, Sheffield Wednesday Football Ground, Hillsborough.

July 19-23: London, England (English, Greek, Spanish, Italian), Rugby Union Ground, Twickenham.

July 26-30: Edinburgh, Scotland (English only), Murrayfield Rugby Ground, Murrayfield. London, England, Rugby Union Ground, Twickenham.

NORTHERN EUROPE (Scandinavia)

July 5-9: Copenhagen, Denmark (Danish, English). (Sessions only on July 8, 9: Croatian, Greek, Polish, Spanish), Idrætsparken (Sports Park), Copenhagen Østerbro, Per Henrik Lings Allé 2 (off Øster Allé).

July 12-16: Helsinki, Finland (Finnish only), Messukeskus (Fair Center). Itä-Pasila.

July 19-23: Stockholm, Sweden (Swedish, Norwegian. Some sessions only: Spanish, Italian, Portuguese), Stockholmsmässan (Stockholm International Fairs), Älvsjö.

CENTRAL AND WESTERN EUROPE

July 12-16: Rotterdam, Netherlands (Dutch, Italian. Friday morning session only: English), Feijenoord Stadium, Olympiaweg 50.

July 26-30: Vienna, Austria (German, Croatian, Hungarian. Friday morning session only: English), Süd-Stadion, A-2344 Maria Enzersdorf. Brussels, Belgium (Dutch, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish). Palais du Centenaire-Heysel (near Atomium). Lille, France (French, Polish), Foire commerciale de Lille, Hall B, boulevard du Président Hoover, 59000 Lille. Nantes, France (French only), Stade Marcel Saupin, Quai Malakoff, 44000 Nantes. Marseille, France (French only), Stade vélodrome municipal, 3 boulevard Michelet, 13008 Marseille. Munich, Germany (German, English, Greek, Turkish), Olympiahalle, Spiridon-Louis-Ring, 8000 München 40.

July 29–August 2: Düsseldorf, Germany (German, Italian, Croatian, Portuguese, Spanish), Rheinstadion, 4000 Düsseldorf 30.

August 2-6: Grenoble, France (French only), Palais des sports, 10 boulevard Clémenceau, 38000 Grenoble. Paris, France (French, Portuguese), Stade Yves du Manoir, 12 rue François Fabert, boulevard Pierre de Coubertin, 92700 Colombes. Toulouse, France (French only), Stadium municipal, 31400 Toulouse.

SOUTHERN EUROPE

June 28–July 2: Athens, Greece, Apollo Stadium, Rizoupolis. July 12-16: Thessalonica, Greece, District of Hortiatis.

August 2-6: Milan, Italy (Italian. Friday morning session only: English), San Siro. Lisbon, Portugal (Portuguese only), Estádio do Restelo (Restelo Stadium). Barcelona, Spain (Spanish only), Feria Oficial e Internacional de Muestras de Barcelona.

August 9-13: Rome, Italy (Italian. Friday morning session only: English), Stadio Flaminio.

ASIA​—ORIENT (North Pacific)

July 26-30: Nagoya, Japan, Nagoya International Exhibition Hall, 2-2 Kinjo-Futo, Minato-Ku, Nagoya City.

August 2-6: Osaka, Japan, Expo Memorial Park​—Sports Ground, 23-17 Yamada-Ogawa, Suita City. Taegu, Korea, Kyungbuk Silnae Gymnasium, 1443 Sankyuk Dong.

August 4-8: Seoul, Korea, Seoul City Students Gymnasium, Chamsil 1-Dong.

August 9-13: Sapporo, Japan, Olympic Stadium, 17-90 Makomanai Minami-Ku. Seoul, Korea, Changchoong Gymnasium, Changchoong Dong. Taejon, Korea, Choongmu Gymnasium, 177 Poosa Dong.

August 11-15: Tokyo, Japan, Ohi Horse Racing Stadium, 2-1-2 Katsushima, Shinagawa-Ku.

August 12-16: Hong Kong (Chinese only), Dr. Chan Shu Kui Hall, 210 Java Rd., North Point.

August 22-26: Manila, Philippines (Tagalog), Rizal Memorial Stadium, Corner Vito Cruz and M. Adriatico Sts.

August 23-27: Taipei, Taiwan (Chinese-Mandarin).

HAWAII

July 5-9: Honolulu, Hawaii (English, Japanese), Blaisdell Center, 777 Ward Ave.

July 12-16: Honolulu, Hawaii (English, Japanese), Blaisdell Center, 777 Ward Ave.

MIDDLE AMERICA

November 25-29: Mexico City, Mexico.

December 6-10: Guatemala City, Guatemala.

CENTRAL AMERICA

November 29–December 3: Belize City, Belize. San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

December 27-31: San Salvador, El Salvador.

December 30–January 3, 1979: Managua, Nicaragua.

January 3-7, 1979: San José, Costa Rica.

January 6-10, 1979: Panama City, Panama.

SOUTH AMERICA

December 27-31: Valencia, Venezuela.

January 3-7, 1979: São Paulo, Brazil.

January 6-10, 1979: Asunción, Paraguay.

January 10-14, 1979: Cali, Colombia. Montevideo, Uruguay.

January 13-17, 1979: La Paz, Bolivia.

January 17-21, 1979: Lima, Peru.

January 19-23, 1979: Guayaquil, Ecuador.

January 24-28, 1979: Lima, Peru.

ASIA

October 4-8: Bombay, India.

October 18-22: Bangkok, Thailand.

October 25-29: Rangoon, Burma.

SOUTH PACIFIC

August 31–September 3: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

September 7-10: Honiara, Solomon Islands.

November 29–December 3: Ba, Fiji.

December 6-10: Auckland, New Zealand.

December 9-13: Perth, Australia. Noumea, New Caledonia.

December 11-15: Sydney, Australia.

December 13-17: Papeete, Tahiti.

AFRICA

December 6-10: Dakar, Senegal. Freetown, Sierra Leone.

December 13-17: Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Monrovia, Liberia.

December 20-24: Accra, Ghana. Kumasi, Ghana.

December 22-26: Ibadan, Nigeria. Lagos, Nigeria.

December 27-31: Nairobi, Kenya.

January 3-7, 1979: Maseru, Lesotho. Réunion.

January 9, 10, 12-14, 1979: Mauritius.

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