The desire of Jehovah’s Witnesses went beyond getting copies of the Bible, the book itself, into the hands of people. The Witnesses wanted to help people to get to know the personal name, as well as the purpose, of its divine author, Jehovah God. There was a translation in English—the American Standard Version of 1901—that used the divine name in the more than 6,870 places where it appeared in the sources from which the translators worked. In 1944, after a number of months of negotiations, the Watch Tower Society purchased the right to make a set of key plates for this Bible from plates and type supplied by Thomas Nelson and Sons, of New York. During the next 48 years, 1,039,482 copies were produced.

[Picture on page 607]

“American Standard Version,” a translation that uses the divine name, Jehovah, over 6,870 times; Watchtower edition (1944)