United Publishers of the “Word of Life”

“Keeping a tight grip on the word of life.”—Phil. 2:16.

1. Why is the “word of life” being published today as never before, and why was it provided?

WHY should not the “word of life” be published—today as never before? Modern civilization is threatened with destruction. Worse, the entire human family is threatened with death by weapons having a destructive power not known before our generation. Fear of another world war, which means war with nuclear bombs or with gases worse than nuclear bombs, haunts every nation. An international “cold war” rages that ranks with actual armed “hot war” in its aims. Peace is kept only by a balance of terror between the two hostile camps bristling with nuclear weapons. But does the human family deserve the “word of life”? Is the human family worth saving? Man’s Creator, Jehovah God, thinks so. God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ, thinks so. And that is why Jehovah God in his love has provided the “word of life.” It is worth being published. It was meant to be published. It is being published, as never before.

2. (a) Is nuclear world war the worst thing that this world faces? (b) Who will emerge alive from what is coming?

² Is it just because the world today is faced with horrible destruction as the result of its own wrongdoing that the “word of life” was issued from heaven? No! The mass of mankind today thinks that the worst thing that it faces is a nuclear world war; and the fact of the matter is that the world does exist now under the frightful menace of such a war. Actually, however, the world faces something worse. Come a third world war or not, the world will without fail enter into that worse thing. It is the “war of the great day of God the Almighty,” and from this the world will not emerge alive. (Rev. 16:14) But some members of the human family will emerge alive, with a righteous new world ahead of them; and these will be the humans who are now getting and “keeping a tight grip on the word of life.” Still, not because of our facing God Almighty’s war was the “word of life” issued, to begin with. Why not?

3. Why was the “word of life” not issued in the first place just because our generation faces such horrible destruction, and when and by whom was it first issued?

³ Ours is not the first generation that has faced death, so that only our generation should need the “word of life.” For almost six thousand years now, notwithstanding the efforts of the most advanced medical science, the human family as a whole has been dying, and uncounted billions of men, women and children lie dead and forgotten in the graves. So the “word of life” was first issued at the time when the need for it first arose. It began to be issued shortly after death invaded the human family. Death entered as an enemy of mankind. It never was a friend of mankind. It was caused by an enemy of mankind. The “word of life” was issued by a friend of mankind, in reality man’s greatest Friend. Only the Giver of life, only the original Source of life, could give such a “word of life,” and he is God the Creator.

4. (a) How was it that mankind’s enemy gave Eve the word of death? (b) Why is the earth today overrun with disobedient children?

⁴ The enemy of mankind was a downright liar when he said to the mother of the human race: “You positively will not die.” (Gen. 3:4) He was not offering to her for our sakes the “word of life.” He was handing her the word of death, for he was trying to mislead her, deceive her into disobeying the great Giver of life, Jehovah God. Her husband, Adam, had told her how to avoid death, namely, by obeying God’s command not to eat of the forbidden fruit, for God had said to Adam: “In the day you eat from it you will positively die.” (Gen. 2:17) God wanted his earthly son and daughter to keep on living in the garden of Eden, and to fill the whole earth with their family in human perfection and innocence like their own. God did not desire the earth to be filled, as it is today, with children “disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal,” just as the prophecy of these “last days” foretold. (2 Tim. 3:1, 2) It was because Adam and his wife Eve disobeyed their heavenly Father and Creator that the earth is overrun today with disobedient children.

5. How did God enforce the sentence against the disobedient Adam and Eve, and what did Adam bequeath to his descendants?

⁵ From parents who were disobedient to their life-giving heavenly Father, we could hardly expect children to be born who themselves were not disobedient to their earthly parents, not to speak of being disobedient to God as Adam and Eve had been. Because Adam joined his wife in a death-dealing course of action, God sentenced him to return to the ground out of which he had been taken and to become just formless, lifeless dust again. To that end God the Planter and Owner of the garden of Eden drove Adam and Eve outside. He prevented their sneaking back in to search for the “tree of life” in the middle of the big garden and to eat from it and live till now and to time indefinite. (Gen. 3:17-24; 2:9) Thus Adam bequeathed to us his children, not perfect life, but human imperfection, sinfulness and the condemnation to death. (Rom. 5:12) So later on a proverb came to be composed in the land of Israel, which said: “Fathers are the ones that eat unripe grapes, but it is the teeth of the sons that get set on edge.”—Ezek. 18:2.

6. (a) What has happened to the serpent used to mislead Eve, but how was the one behind the serpent sentenced? (b) What does that mean for him?

⁶ But what about the enemy of mankind who caused all this? Has he died like Adam and Eve? Not yet; but he will die in God’s due time and in a violent way. Of course, the talking serpent that was used to mislead Eve into eating the forbidden fruit died before Adam and Eve did. The invisible spirit who was behind the serpent to make it speak lies against God has not yet died, but he will. How do we know? Because he is Satan the Devil, nicknamed also “the original serpent,” and in the garden of Eden God pronounced sentence also upon him, saying: “I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He [her seed] will bruise you in the head.” (Gen. 3:15) For a serpent, that would mean violent death. For the “original serpent,” Satan the Devil, it symbolizes violent death when the Seed of God’s “woman” goes into action as the executioner for God his Father.

7. What questions as to benefits does the future killing of Satan the Great Serpent arouse, and who provides the answer?

⁷ Killing off the enemy of mankind at a future time may do some good for people who may be living on earth after his violent death; but of what good will that be to all the billions of people who have died during the past six thousand years and who may yet die before Satan the Devil has his life stamped out? His destruction in the future will prevent his doing further damage; but how will his future destruction undo all the damage that he has done to all the dead generations that lie in the grave? Jehovah God thought of that question too, and he provided for answering it for our good.

WHICH BRUISE IS FIRST?

8. (a) Which bruising comes first, and what does the bruising of the heel mean to the Seed? (b) How only could the bruised Seed afterward bruise the Serpent’s head?

⁸ Not only did he tell the “original serpent,” Satan the Devil, that the Seed of God’s “woman” would bruise him in the head, but he added: “And you will bruise him in the heel.” If the Seed of God’s “woman” were to bruise the serpent in the head first, then, of course, the serpent would not be alive to bruise the Seed in the heel. But what really takes place first is that the serpent bruises the Seed of God’s “woman” in the heel. What does this bruising of the heel mean to the Seed or Son of God? It means death. Death? Yes! But if the Seed suffers death first by the bite of the serpent, how could the Seed afterward bruise the head of the serpent? Only by being brought back to life by the re-creative power of God. That means by a resurrection of the dead by God’s power. This is not our interpretation of God’s cryptic sentence in the garden of Eden. It is God’s own interpretation of the sentence by the way in which he has worked out the fulfillment of the sentence.

9, 10. (a) In its principal sense, the bruising was of whose heel? (b) How was he the Seed of God’s “woman,” and how was he born to be the equivalent of perfect Adam?

⁹ In its principal sense, the bruising of the heel of the Seed of God’s woman occurred nineteen hundred years ago. The promised Seed was the Son of God. At that time there were no human sons of God on earth, since Adam had lost sonship for the human family. So this Seed was the Son of God from heaven. Since he came from heaven, his mother who produced him and from whom he came forth was also heavenly. She was God’s symbolic wife, namely, his universal organization of invisible, heavenly, holy, spirit creatures or angels.

¹⁰ This heavenly organization is married or officially joined to God in unbreakable relationship and subjection, just as an earthly wife is joined to her husband and is subject to her husband’s law. In this heavenly organization the promised Seed was the chief Son, the only-begotten Son of God, “the first-born of all creation”; and from the heavenly organization he came forth when he was sent down to earth to be born as a human creature. (John 3:16; Col. 1:15) In obedience to the commandment of God his Father he was called Jesus, which name means “Jehovah Is Salvation.” As no earthly man could be his father, Jesus’ birth was miraculously accomplished from the womb of a virgin girl. Thus he became flesh and blood, but he was born perfect inasmuch as his heavenly Father was perfect. (John 1:14) By becoming man, Jesus became like perfect Adam, a little lower than the angels over whom he had previously been the chief.

11. In serving as the promised Seed, why was it necessary for the Son of God to become a perfect man?

¹¹ But here a question, please! For the only-begotten Son of God to serve as the Seed of God’s woman to bruise the Serpent’s head, why was it necessary for him to become a perfect man, lower than angels? It was necessary in order for him to fulfill God’s promise in the garden of Eden by being bruised in the heel, that is, to suffer death as a perfect man. In agreement with this it is written: “We behold Jesus, who has been made a little lower than angels, crowned with glory and honor by having suffered death, that he by God’s undeserved kindness might taste death for every man. Therefore, since the ‘young children’ are sharers of blood and flesh, he also similarly partook of the same things, that through his death he might bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil.” (Heb. 2:9, 14) Further, we read: “He who carries on sin originates with the Devil, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was made manifest, namely, to break up the works of the Devil.”—1 John 3:8.

12. His becoming a perfect man enabled the Son of God to offer up what sacrifice, and for whose relief?

¹² His becoming a perfect man having the same perfect life value that Adam had at his creation in the garden of Eden enabled the Son or Seed of God’s woman to “taste death for every man.” How so? Because he could offer up his perfect human life as a sacrifice to Jehovah God to take away the inherited sins of mankind. By the sin of Adam and Eve perfect human life had been lost to all of us their descendants. By the sacrifice of his perfect human life Jesus took the place of mankind in death, that all men who accept his sacrifice to God might have perfect life restored to them.

13. At his human birth what was the Son of God announced to be, and what was the “original serpent” prevented from doing shortly afterward?

¹³ When Jesus was born, an angel of heaven announced his birth to God-fearing shepherds near Bethlehem in Judah, saying: “I am declaring to you good news of a great joy that all the people will have, because there was born to you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10, 11) The word “Christ” is a title meaning “Anointed One.” The coming of the Christ or Anointed One from God had been foretold long before this. The Jews called him the Messiah, this Hebrew word meaning the same as the Greek word Christ. Satan the Devil recognized Jesus as the promised Christ or Messiah, the promised Seed of God’s woman. Therefore Satan the “original serpent” tried to have Jesus destroyed as a “young child” less than two years old. But God protected the young child Jesus, and the wicked Serpent was not able to bruise his heel then.—Matt. 2:1-23.

14. (a) How did Jesus become Christ? (b) What steps did Satan the Devil take in trying to make unnecessary his bruising the Seed’s heel?

¹⁴ When Jesus grew to be a perfect man of thirty years of age he left his carpenter shop at Nazareth and got baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Right after his water baptism God anointed Jesus with holy spirit from heaven, so making him the Anointed One. From then on the Son of God, the Seed of God’s woman, was properly called Jesus Christ. (Matt. 3:13-17) Forty days after that Satan the Devil tried to bring about the death of the Seed of God’s woman by having him perform selfish, ambitious miracles and tempting him with world rulership if he would recognize Satan the Devil as god and worship him as such. But Satan could not tempt this perfect man into sin as he had tempted the perfect Adam into sin against God, because Jesus Christ faithfully resisted these three temptations and told Satan the Devil to get away. (Matt. 4:1-11) Because Jesus Christ kept perfect obedience and did not come under God’s condemnation and sentence to death, it became necessary for the “original serpent” to bruise his heel—on a later occasion.

15. (a) How did Jesus proceed in harmony with his anointing and where? (b) What seed did the original serpent provide for his own use and under what false accusation did they have Jesus put to death?

¹⁵ Meanwhile Jesus Christ began serving God in harmony with his anointing and undertook to preach the kingdom of God as the only government of salvation for all mankind. He also gathered disciples about him and taught and trained these also to preach God’s kingdom. This took place in the midst of the Devil’s world, the Roman Empire being then the dominant world power. (Matt. 4:17; 10:1-7; Luke 10:1-9) God had predicted that the “original serpent” would have a seed of his own. The Great Serpent developed this devilish seed among the religious leaders of Jesus’ own people on earth. Before the Roman governor of the province of Judea they accused Jesus Christ of trying to supplant the empire of the Roman Caesars with his own kingdom. Under this false charge Jesus was impaled on a stake outside the city of Jerusalem to die there in public disgrace like a treacherous, seditious slave.

16. When was that, and what did God let occur that day?

¹⁶ That was on Friday, April 1, A.D. 33. Although Jesus was innocent, God did not step in to save the Seed of his woman from this cruel death. In harmony with his purpose announced long previously he let the “original serpent” bruise the heel of the promised Seed. (John 18:12 to 19:37) Apparently the hope of eternal life for God-fearing mankind died then along with Jesus Christ.

17. What other part of God’s Edenic promise was there yet to be fulfilled, and how did God provide for this?

¹⁷ God had let the “original serpent” bruise the woman’s Seed, just as foretold. Now it rested upon God to provide for the other part of his Edenic prophecy to be fulfilled, that the Seed of his woman should bruise the Great Serpent in the head in due time. So Jesus’ death must be reduced to a heel wound. In God’s eyes it was a sacrificial death, the death of an innocent one, in which death it was not just or right for innocent Jesus to be held. He was not a willful sinner like Adam for God to hold down in death eternally. Accordingly, at the foretold time, on the third day from his death, Almighty God raised up his Seed, his Son, from the dead.

18. (a) What did Peter say regarding the impossibility of having Jesus held forever in death and also about the kind of resurrection that Jesus had? (b) How did such a resurrection make possible the redemption of mankind?

¹⁸ Regarding this marvelous miracle one of Jesus’ disciples named Simon Peter said: “Jesus the Nazarene, a man publicly shown by God to you through powerful works and portents and signs that God did through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this man, as one delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you fastened to a stake by the hand of lawless men and did away with. But God resurrected him by loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to continue to be held fast by it. . . . This Jesus God resurrected, of which fact we are all witnesses.” (Acts 2:22-32) Jesus was resurrected, not as a man “a little lower than angels,” but as a spirit Son mightier than Satan the Great Serpent, because this same Simon Peter tells us: “Christ died once for all time concerning sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, that he might lead you to God, he being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the spirit.” (1 Pet. 3:18) In this way his perfect human life remained as a sacrifice and thus its merit could be presented to God for mankind’s redemption when Jesus ascended back to heaven forty days from his resurrection.

19. (a) Whose bruising has Satan been carrying on since then, but what does he himself now await? (b) Under what symbols was this action toward Satan shown to the disciple John?

¹⁹ No more can Satan the Great Serpent bruise the heel of the Son of God’s woman. It is written: “We know that Christ, now that he has been raised up from the dead, dies no more; death is master over him no more.” (Rom. 6:9) Though the Great Serpent has since been permitted to bruise the heel of the faithful disciples of Christ, Satan now awaits his own being bruised in the head by the resurrected immortal Son of God’s woman. In a prophetic vision given to the disciple John many years after Jesus’ resurrection and return to heaven, Satan the “original serpent” was shown being cast out of heaven after the birth of God’s kingdom in the heavens. Then Satan was shown being bound and rendered helpless by being thrown into an abyss for the thousand years of Christ’s reign, and after that being cast into the Gehenna of everlasting destruction.

20. (a) After his complete bruising, with whom will Satan interfere no more? (b) What can we now appreciate as to when the “word of life” was first issued?

²⁰ In that order the complete bruising of the head of the Great Serpent, Satan the Devil, was to be accomplished; and never again was he to interfere with redeemed mankind living in restored human perfection in a paradise extended all around the earth. (Rev. 12:7-17; 20:1-10) From this we can appreciate why it was said earlier in this discussion that the “word of life” was issued by mankind’s great Friend, Jehovah God, shortly after death invaded the human family. That was at the garden of Eden.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE “WORD OF LIFE”

21. (a) From where is it that we get such hope-inspiring information? (b) All through the Bible’s sixty-six books, what wondrous story is told, from Genesis to Revelation?

²¹ But from where is it that we get all this hope-inspiring information? It is from the inspired Book of the great Giver of life, Jehovah God. It is from his Holy Bible, the one Book in all the earth that presents this glorious “word of life.” In the opening book called Genesis, which was first written in Hebrew, the Bible sets out God’s Edenic promise concerning the bruising of the head of the Serpent by the Seed of God’s woman. In the last book of this Bible called A Revelation, which was first written in the common Greek of nineteen centuries ago, the vision is written down of how Satan the “original serpent” together with all his demonic angels will finally be bruised in the head and thus be brought to nothing. All through the sixty-six inspired books of the Holy Bible the wondrous story is told of how God through his Seed Jesus Christ makes provision for mankind’s everlasting salvation from death and for their deliverance from bondage to the “original serpent,” Satan the Devil, and for their enjoying of eternal life in peace and happiness on earth under the heavenly kingdom of God.

22. What kind of Word may the Bible be called, and why rightly so?

²² The inspired Bible as a whole may therefore be called the “word of life.” Rightly so, for it is the gift to us by the loving-kindness of God, concerning which we read: “This was given us in connection with Christ Jesus before times long lasting, but now it has been made clearly evident through the manifestation of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has abolished death but has shed light upon life and incorruption through the good news.” (2 Tim. 1:9, 10) Aside from the Bible, there is no “word of life” today.

23, 24. (a) In order to benefit from the “word of life,” what must we do with it? (b) With what weapon must we fight for the life held forth in that word?

²³ Now that we, by God’s loving-kindness, have this “word of life,” what are we to do with it? We are living in the midst of the dying world of mankind. We are witnessing the last days of this old system of things doomed to destruction in the approaching “war of the great day of God the Almighty.” If we want to benefit from the “word of life” and to attain to the eternal life in God’s new system of things it holds forth, we certainly have to hold on to the “word of life.” We have to live in harmony with it in order to prove worthy of such eternal life, and not be destroyed with this wicked system of things. To those who have become the spiritual children of God, the inspired apostle Paul writes: “Keep doing all things free from murmurings and arguments, that you may come to be blameless and innocent, children of God without a blemish in among a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you are shining as illuminators in the world, keeping a tight grip on the word of life.” (Phil. 2:14-16) If we do this, the “word of life” will not have come to us in vain. In a way, we have to fight for this life, and we have the means at hand with which to make a successful fight. What?

²⁴ The apostle Paul likens the “word of life,” which is God’s Word, to a sword that accompanies the “complete suit of armor from God.” Paul says: “Accept the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, that is, God’s word.” (Eph. 6:11-17) To keep fighting for life and to prevent the symbolic “sword” from being knocked out of our hand, we have to have a “tight grip on the word of life.”

25. (a) What personal experience shows whether we are to keep the “word of life” to ourselves? (b) Who personally told us what to do with the “word of life”?

²⁵ However, does this mean that we are to keep the “word of life” to ourselves and be interested in only our own salvation, our own attainment to life everlasting? Is that how we ourselves came into possession of the “word of life”—by other possessors of the word holding it tight to themselves so that Jehovah God himself was obliged to come personally and deliver the “word of life” to us directly out of his own hand? In all honesty we are compelled to answer No! Jesus Christ, who is God’s means for bringing eternal life to us, told us what to do with the “word of life.”

26. (a) Jesus’ connection with our getting life is shown in what expression applied to him? (b) Did Jesus enjoy life to himself, and how did he describe himself as a means of life to us?

²⁶ Jesus Christ himself is called the “word of life.” As the mouthpiece of Jehovah God he is called the “Word of God.” His official title in heaven was “the Word.” (Rev. 19:11-13; John 1:1) In a letter to the heirs of eternal life in God’s new system of things, the apostle John writes these words concerning the presence of Jesus Christ on earth nineteen centuries ago: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have viewed attentively and our hands felt, concerning the word of life, (yes, the life was made manifest, and we have seen and are bearing witness and reporting to you the everlasting life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us).” (1 John 1:1, 2) On earth Jesus said: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever; and, for a fact, the bread that I shall give is my flesh in behalf of the life of the world. . . . he also that feeds on me, even that one will live because of me.” (John 6:51, 57) The Son of God did not selfishly enjoy life to himself. He was sent and came to bring us life.

27. (a) What final instructions did Jesus give concerning the thing to do with the “word of life”? (b) Why is such world-wide publishing only right in itself?

²⁷ As he himself was sent from heaven and came to bring us life that was really embodied in him, so he sends forth those who are possessors of the “word of life” to bring it to others. When giving final instructions to his disciples from the written Word of God, Jesus Christ said to them: “In this way it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from among the dead on the third day, and on the basis of his name repentance for forgiveness of sins would be preached in all the nations—starting out from Jerusalem, you are to be witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:46-48) “You will receive power when the holy spirit arrives upon you, and you will be witnesses of me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the most distant part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) The “word of life” was to be published unitedly by Jesus’ followers to the very extremities of the earth. Such publishing was only right in itself, because this word is a word of life for all mankind.

Publishing the “Word of Life” in a Dying World

1. How is a message of human survival being published today, and where is it found?

TODAY the survival of the human race is in question, if we are to judge from statements made by militarists, scientists and economists. But, no matter how disquieting the statement of their fears may be, there is an authoritative message of survival now being published. Hence there are people today who believe in the survival of the human race. These few who have such a remarkable belief are being heard widely today. They are publishing everywhere the “word of life.” That life-giving word is contained in the Holy Bible, which is the Word from the Fountain of life, Jehovah God.

2. (a) With what distribution would the publishing of the “word of life” reasonably have to be accompanied? (b) How would the introduction to James’ letter and the time when he wrote it indicate such a distribution?

² Since the “word of life” is contained on the pages of the Holy Bible, the publishing of the “word of life” would reasonably have to be accompanied by the publishing and distributing of the Bible. That Book was meant to be spread around everywhere. Various prophecies in it show that. Introductions to a number of letters in the Bible indicate that. For example, the disciple James, in writing his letter to the symbolic “twelve tribes” of Christian Israel, opened it by saying: “James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are scattered about: Greetings!” (Jas. 1:1) How widely scattered abroad were the “tribes” by then, especially if James wrote his letter about A.D. 60, or about twenty-seven years after the holy spirit was poured out in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost? On that day about three thousand Jews and proselytes were converted to accept Jesus as Lord and Master and Messiah or Christ, the Son of God; and Acts 2:5-11 tells us that they were from “every nation of those under heaven,” Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Crete and Arabia. When these departed from Jerusalem after the festival of Pentecost was over, they returned to these distant parts of the earth. In order to reach all these believers of the spiritual “twelve tribes” of Israel, James’ letter had to be copied and widely circulated about.

3. (a) Why would the letter to the Hebrews have to be circulated as widely as James’? (b) Why would Peter’s first letter have to be circulated?

³ Likewise, the fifty-eighth book of the Bible is directly addressed to the Hebrews, that is, to Hebrew Christians; and for this letter to reach them, it would have to be circulated just as widely as James’ letter. (Heb. 1:1) The introduction of the apostle Peter’s first letter reads: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the temporary residents scattered about in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, to the ones chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” (1 Pet. 1:1, 2) Thus Peter’s letter required circulation; and unless his original letter was slowly passed from one congregation to another, copies must have been made and distributed among all the congregations included in his introduction.

4. (a) Why did the last book of the Bible also require circulation? (b) How is Paul shown to have encouraged circulation of his letters, and who in Babylon was familiar with his letters?

⁴ The last book of the Bible, A Revelation to John, is addressed by John to the “seven congregations that are in the district of Asia,” in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Hence this last book of the “word of life” required circulation also. The apostle Paul was a great letter writer. He supplied fourteen of the letters found in the Christian Greek Scriptures of the Holy Bible. Paul especially encouraged the circulation of his letters, he writing to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians and Hebrews generally. In his letter to the Christians at Colossae he said in his conclusion: “When this letter has been read among you, arrange that it also be read in the congregation of the Laodiceans and that you also read the one from Laodicea.” (Col. 4:16) Even the apostle Peter, when he was writing from Babylon in Mesopotamia, spoke of his familiarity with the letters of Paul. (2 Pet. 3:15; 1 Pet. 5:13) All the evidence is that those first-century Christians were sharing the “word of life” with others in this dying world.

5. (a) What manuscript copies of the Christian Greek Scriptures are still in existence? (b) Whom did Christian copyists have as an example for copying the Scriptures, and how could they produce the complete Bible?

⁵ Today there are still in existence about 4,000 manuscript copies of the twenty-seven books found in the Christian Greek Scriptures, none of these, however, being of the first century. Besides this, there are around 8,000 manuscript copies in a Latin translation, and around 1,000 manuscript copies of translations in still other languages. As regards making copies, the early Christians, the first of whom were Jews or Hebrews, had an example in the Jewish scribes or Sopherim, who, from the days of Ezra the priestly scribe or copyist, made handwritten copies of the inspired Hebrew Scriptures for the Jewish synagogues. The synagogues came to be established all around, inside and outside the Roman Empire, wherever the Jews were scattered. Thus it was possible to go into a synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia, Asia Minor, and hear the Hebrew Scriptures read; or in Beroea, Macedonia; or in Rome, Italy. (Acts 13:14, 15; 17:10, 11; 28:16-23) So the Hebrew Scriptures had a then worldwide circulation. Accordingly, besides copying the Christian Greek Scriptures, the Christian copyists could make copies of the inspired Hebrew Scriptures or of its Greek Septuagint translation, if they could not buy copies from the Jewish vendors or sellers. They could thus make copies of the complete Bible of sixty-six inspired books.

6. (a) How were the Christians under a command different from that of the Jews as regards publicity? (b) This “word of life” is what kind of word, as demonstrated by Jesus during temptation?

⁶ Under the law of Moses the Jews were under command to keep to themselves, or separate from the Gentiles. The Christian congregations, however, were under command by the Greater Moses, Jesus Christ, and his apostles to move out, to become unitedly the greatest publicity organization on earth, a Christian organization specializing on publishing to the whole dying world the “word of life,” the good news of God’s kingdom. This “word of life” is not a mere verbal tradition, a message handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. It is a written Word, that remains unchanged by time or circumstances and that can be read, analyzed and compared with the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. That is why Jesus Christ himself, who is called “the Word of God” and “the word of life,” could repulse the Devil’s temptations by saying repeatedly: “It is written,” and then quoting the written Bible—Scriptures!—Matt. 4:1-10.

7. (a) What did Jesus predict regarding the good news in our day? (b) For this to be accomplished, what has it required, and to what extent has this been done by now?

⁷ Pointing forward to our days, days that have been marked by world war, famine, pestilences, earthquakes and perplexity of the nations because of their approaching end in the universal war of Armageddon, Jesus said: “Also, in all the nations the good news has to be preached first.” (Mark 13:8-13) For the good news of eternal life through God’s kingdom under Christ to be preached and understood in all the nations, it had to be translated into the languages of the peoples of those nations. To this end, because the Holy Bible is a book with a message from God for the whole world, it has been translated into more languages than any other book in human history. By this year 1961 it had already been translated in whole or in part into 1,165 languages and dialects, so that, if everybody on earth were taught to read in his own language, the Bible or parts of it could be read by 90 percent of the world’s population.

8. What is reported about Bible translation in behalf of the peoples in Asia and Africa and island peoples?

⁸ It is reported at this time that there are 1,000 translators of nearly 100 different religious societies that represent 40 different nationalities, who are preparing for their peoples what they hope will be an authoritative translation of the Scriptures, an Authorized Version, as it were, for Africa, Asia and peoples of the islands. To provide scholarship and technical aid for getting translations of the Holy Scriptures to the people, the Bible Society is said to be “now entering on a phase of expansion and cooperation without precedent in its long history.”

9. When especially were Bible societies established, and what have popes of Rome said about such societies?

⁹ Especially toward the beginning of the last century Bible societies were established. These societies have not had the approval of the popes of the Vatican nor of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. In a papal bull to the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, A.D. 1825, Pope Leo XII said: “A certain society, vulgarly called the Bible Society, is audaciously dispreading itself through the whole world. After despising the traditions of the holy fathers, and in opposition to the well known decree of the Council of Trent, this society has collected all its forces, and directs every means to one object:—to the translation, or rather to the perversion, of the Bible into the vernacular languages of all nations.” A later pope, Pius IX, showed his attitude toward the “word of life,” saying: “Accursed be those very crafty and deceitful societies called Bible Societies, which thrust the Bible into the hands of the inexperienced youth.”a

10. In spite of Catholic disapproval what work went on, and what were established in Europe and America?

¹⁰ In spite of Roman Catholic disapproval and opposition the work of translating and publishing the “word of life” went forward. The Italian Bible was printed a dozen times before A.D. 1500, and eighteen editions of the German Bible had already been published before the version by ex-priest Martin Luther appeared. In 1804 the Basel Bible Society was founded at Nuremberg. That same year the British and Foreign Bible Society was founded in London, and it contributed financially to Bible societies on the continent of Europe. In America the earliest Bible society was established in Philadelphia in 1808; the New York Bible Society followed in 1809, and the American Bible Society in 1816. The Danish Bible Society at Copenhagen and the Swedish Bible Society came into existence in 1814. The Hamburg-Altona Bible Society appeared in the same year, and also the Netherlands Bible Society at Amsterdam. The Paris Protestant Bible Society was authorized by the French government in 1818. Numerous Bible societies followed in Europe, but, says The Encyclopædia Britannica (Volume 3, edition 11), on page 907: “Some of them were ultimately dissolved or suppressed through political or ecclesiastical opposition, the Roman Church proving especially hostile.”

11. What society was incorporated in 1884, and what has it kept printing till now?

¹¹ Comparatively late, but in God’s due time, in 1884 there was incorporated at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, what is known today as Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania. Though a special target of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and of the Protestant clergy as well, the Watch Tower Society has kept printing Bibles till now and is the publishing agent used by Jehovah’s witnesses.

12. Since the forming of Bible societies, how great has been the putting out of the Bible, and how is this keeping up with the growth of the world population?

¹² Since the formation of all these Bible societies the publishing and distributing of the Holy Bible has been enormous, more than two thousand million copies having been put out, in whole or in part. This past year there was a world distribution of 30 million copies by all Bible societies, many of these being New Testaments, or the Christian Greek Scriptures. However, the world population increases by 45 million persons a year, or half again as many as the number of copies of the Holy Scriptures. So the production of copies of the Scriptures is not keeping up with the world population. Yet we must remember that much of this population increase is in Communist Russia and Red China, which are behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains, so that their peoples cannot easily be reached.

13. How is the crying need for putting out more Bibles shown in the experience of one Bible society this past year?

¹³ There is a crying need for the distributing of more Bibles. One Bible society reported that there had been “an astonishing increase in circulation of Holy Scripture in areas of political tension and revolution”; that in Cuba and the African Congo, for instance, the society’s stocks were exhausted; that fresh printings had to be made and new books rushed, sometimes by air, to supply the demands of religious organizations in those areas of turmoil; that, in co-operation with other Bible societies, in seventy-five countries, the organization had put out more than 23 million pieces of Scripture last year, which means an increase of 32 percent over the distribution during 1959.—New York Times, May 12, 1961.

MAKING IT NOT IN VAIN

14. Why may much of this vast Bible distribution have been in vain, and how only can the Bible be understood?

¹⁴ Here it is proper to ask some questions: How much of this vast Bible distribution has been in vain? Recently there has occurred what is called a “reading explosion,” so that doubtless more persons are reading the Bible. But will Bible reading alone impart life to the reader? Does such Bible reading, begun by an individual with much enthusiasm and appreciation, fall off after a while and this book become just another stacked away on his library shelf? Can the Bible be understood and harmonized by the individual reader by himself? God gave the Bible, not to an individual, but to a nation, first the Hebrew nation, and then to what Peter calls God’s “holy nation,” which is the “Israel of God,” whose circumcision is not in the flesh but in the heart. It is thus an organization Book. It can be understood only in company with God’s true visible organization, the one filled with his holy spirit.—1 Pet. 2:9; Gal. 6:12-16.

15. How does the case of the Ethiopian Bible reader illustrate that the Bible cannot be understood unaided by someone else?

¹⁵ Remember the Ethiopian Bible reader. He was returning from the temple in Jerusalem and reading aloud Isaiah’s prophecy as he rode along. Directed by God’s angel, the Christian evangelizer Philip hailed the chariot and asked this Ethiopian court official whether he understood what he was reading. Honestly the Ethiopian answered: “Really, how could I ever do so, unless someone guided me?” He invited Philip to step aboard and then listened to Philip explain the prophecy to him from the Christian standpoint. Now he understood to the point of desiring to become a follower of Jesus Christ, “the Word of God.” On driving near to a body of water he asked: “What prevents me from getting baptized?” After baptizing him Philip left and the Ethiopian convert went on his way rejoicing.—Acts 8:26-39.

16. Through whom did the Bible have to be explained, as illustrated in the case of the Berean Bible-reading Jews?

¹⁶ Remember also the Bible-reading Jews in Beroea in Macedonia. They heard the Law and the Prophets read in their synagogues and also studied these Scriptures privately, but never understood. Then along came the apostle Paul and he went into their synagogue. What he told them was new and different to them. But they were noble-minded about the matter. In what way? “They received the word with the greatest eagerness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily as to whether these things were so. Therefore many of them became believers, and so did not a few of the reputable Greek women and of the men.” (Acts 17:10-12) To understand the Bible for their salvation they had to have it explained through God’s organization.

17. What questions must be asked as regards the reading of the Bible in Jewish synagogues and in Christendom’s churches and homes?

¹⁷ From then and over these nineteen centuries till now the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms have been read in the Jewish synagogues, along with the comment of their rabbis. But has that saved the Jews? As for the reading of the complete Bible having both the Hebrew and the Christian Greek parts in the churches and the homes of the non-Jews, is this Bible reading by them as members of Christendom’s many sectarian religious denominations saving these hundreds of millions of Bible hearers or readers?

18. What makes it evident that all such Bible reading is in vain?

¹⁸ In this perplexing day how much of this religious Bible reading is aiding the readers to make right decisions on the vital issues of these times, now when we are living in the “conclusion of the system of things” and when the nations are on judgment before God regarding the supreme issue of universal sovereignty—by Jehovah God or by Satan the Devil? In spite of the Bible reading that the people hear or do in connection with Christendom’s religious systems, the people continue to conform themselves to this old world just the same as the atheists, the agnostics, the skeptics and the pagans do. They are not preparing themselves to meet the “war of the great day of God the Almighty,” by lining up with God’s kingdom, the good news of which is being preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations. (Matt. 24:14) Evidently their personal Bible reading is in vain. So what is needed?

19. (a) What may be said in commendation of putting out the Bible by itself? (b) But by what else must the Bible be supplemented as illustrated by the cases of the Ethiopian and the Berean Bible readers?

¹⁹ As in the case of the Ethiopian and the Berean Bible readers, there is an instructor, guide or teacher needed, one who is filled with God’s holy spirit and under God’s guidance as Philip and Paul were. Philip and Paul were no longer of the cast-off Jewish religious church but were now of God’s newly chosen organization, his “chosen race,” his “holy nation,” his “people for special possession,” filled with his spirit. We agree that Bible translating and publishing and distributing is a commendable thing. There is no book better to deal with than the Holy Bible. It is symbolically called the “sword of the spirit”; and certainly it is better to manufacture and distribute the “sword of the spirit” than to engage in the arms race and in making the munitions of carnal warfare, which only result in injuring, maiming and killing. But the Bible must be supplemented by something else. No, not by the traditions of men who were religious leaders of Christendom or of Judaism. The Bible must be supplemented by dedicated, baptized persons of God’s organization whom he sends forth to preach and teach.

20. What parting words of Jesus to his followers are still applicable, and so what is needed in conjunction with Bibles distributed?

²⁰ Nineteen centuries of time have not taken away the force and applicableness of Jesus’ parting words to his followers: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And, look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.” (Matt. 28:19, 20) Down into the present “conclusion of the system of things” there is need of teaching by the sent ones in conjunction with the Holy Bible, the written Word of God.

21. What do the words of Paul and those of James show as to the mere readers and hearers of the Word of life and those doing it?

²¹ Call to mind Paul’s words: “There is no partiality with God. For instance, all those who sinned without law will also perish without law; but all those who sinned under law will be judged by law. For the hearers of law [but who sin under it] are not the ones righteous before God, but the doers of law will be declared righteous.” (Rom. 2:11-13) Also James’ words: “Become doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves with false reasoning. For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, this one is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, and off he goes and immediately forgets what sort of man he is. But he who peers into the perfect law that belongs to freedom and who persists in it, this man, because he has become, not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, will be happy in his doing it.” (Jas. 1:22-25) So not the mere readers of the Bible, nor the mere hearers of the Bible, but the doers of the Word of life are the ones who are approved and who will be rewarded with life.

22. (a) What, then, must we do besides publishing and distributing Bibles? (b) Also besides publishing books explaining the Bible?

²² What, then? We must not only publish and distribute Bibles but also live the Bible. We must not only put Bibles in people’s homes; we must also go back and help them to understand the Bible that we make it possible for them to read. We must arrange for them to have with us a home Bible study in order for them to see the truth of the Bible according to revealed scriptures and according to prophecies fulfilled in this “conclusion of the system of things.” We must help them to see the truth according to God’s dealings with the visible organization that he has chosen and is using to publish the “word of life.” Also, we must not only publish books about or in explanation of the Bible; we must also help the Bible readers to understand these Bible-explaining books, and to prove the things set forth in such books by their own copies of the Bible.

23. (a) In what respects should we all copy the greatest Bible teacher ever on earth? (b) Doing so, what do we all publish?

²³ In this activity we must especially copy the greatest Bible teacher on earth, Jesus Christ, who is God’s Word personified. When God poured out his spirit upon him, Jesus was commissioned to preach. (Isa. 61:1-3; Luke 4:16-21) The work that he was commissioned to do he did, although there is no record that Jesus put out one copy of the Holy Scriptures. He left the making of copies of the Scriptures and the distributing of these to the Jewish scribes or copyists of his day. He specialized, not on copying Scripture or making Bible copies, but on teaching what was already copied of the Bible. He used people’s own copies of the Scriptures or those kept in the synagogues. (Luke 4:17, 20) Not all of us can be Bible printers, but we can be Bible distributors and, especially, Bible teachers. This in particular is how we all publish the “word of life” today.

24. What are the facts with regard to Jehovah’s witnesses in the use of Bible translations in their work from house to house?

²⁴ “But Jehovah’s witnesses have and use their own translation of the Bible,” some critics will say in order to prejudice and stumble others regarding Bible teaching by Jehovah’s witnesses. The Bible itself shows that it was written in its original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek) by Jehovah’s witnesses, from Moses down to the apostle John, who wrote the last book of the Bible. But the many current translations of the original Bible were made by whom? By persons who claimed to be Jehovah’s witnesses? No; but by men who were, for the most part, members of sectarian churches of Christendom. Today Jehovah’s witnesses are doing the commanded teaching work in 158 languages, using not their own translations but those of the 1,165 translations already at hand for them to use. Where Bibles are already in the homes that Jehovah’s witnesses visit in preaching from house to house, they use those Bibles or let the householders use such Bibles in conducting a home study of the “word of life.” And yet with such Bibles Jehovah’s witnesses are able to teach the same good news of God’s established kingdom by Christ.

25, 26. (a) What do Jehovah’s witnesses use as their legal servant, and what is its record as to printed Bible translations? (b) In preaching the Kingdom message, what Bible translation do Jehovah’s witnesses use?

²⁵ Jehovah’s witnesses use as their administrative, publishing and legal servant the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society. It publishes English Bibles printed on its own presses in Brooklyn, New York. First, forty-two years after this Society was incorporated, it began to print on its own presses a Greek-English New Testament called The Emphatic Diaglott, which was produced by a Christadelphian twenty years before the Society was incorporated. Fifty-eight years after it was incorporated the Society began printing copies of the Authorized or King James Episcopalian Version of the Bible of the year 1611. Sixty years after it was incorporated the Society began to print copies of the American Standard Version Bible of 1901. And now seventy-seven years after it was incorporated, the Watch Tower Society produces for the first time, namely, in this year 1961, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in one volume, under one cover, a Bible translation that came out in six successive separate volumes from 1950 to 1960. This is only in the English language and not usable by Jehovah’s witnesses in the 157 other languages in which we preach and teach today in 181 lands.

²⁶ So we do not need to have our own Bible translation in order to preach and teach the glorious message for which Jehovah’s witnesses are distinguished from all the sects of Christendom—the good news of the established kingdom of Jehovah God and of his Christ. We use what Bibles are available in all languages.

27. (a) If not that of Bible translations, what is the real question today? (b) What, then, should the united publishers do with regard to the “word of life”?

²⁷ It is today a question, not of Bible translations, but of teaching the true Kingdom message from the Bible. Continue onward, then, you united publishers of the “word of life.” Keep a tight unbreakable grip upon it, but do this by at the same time sharing the “word of life” with others in this dying world. The “word of life” is for all the world, for all nations. “Be glad, you nations, with his people,” says Jehovah God himself. (Deut. 32:43; Rom. 15:10) All of you, then, gladden the life seekers of all the nations by unitedly publishing to them God’s glorious “word of life.”

[Footnotes]

Bible Correct About Sennacherib’s Death

IN THE days of King Hezekiah an attempted conquest of Jerusalem was thwarted by divine execution of 185,000 Assyrian invaders. In his Universal Jewish History Philip Biberfeld, LL.D., relates the episode and observes: “The Bible report concluded with the assassination of Sennaherib. ‘So Sennaherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the home of Nisroh his god, that Adrammeleh and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.’ [2 Kings 19:36, 37]

“In contradiction to this report, the Babylonian Chronicle stated that on the 20th of Tebet, Sennaherib, king of Assyria, was killed by his son in a revolt. Thus, he was assassinated by only one of his sons. The same account was given by Berossus and Nabonid. With respect to this event of first rate significance for Babylonian-Assyrian history all indications seemed to be that the Babylonian records were more reliable than the Biblical ones. However, the fact is that the opposite is true. In a more recently discovered fragment of the prism of Esarhaddon, he reports himself that his brothers revolted and slew Sennaherib, their father, to gain the kingship. Before he could reach them in Nineveh, they fled from there to unknown parts.

“The Babylonian Chronicle, Nabonid, and Berossus were mistaken; only the Biblical account proved to be correct. It was confirmed in all the minor details by the inscription of Esarhaddon and proved to be more accurate regarding this event of Babylonian-Assyrian history than the Babylonian sources themselves. This is a fact of utmost importance for the evaluation of even contemporary sources not in accord with Biblical tradition.”