That same year, the Watch Tower Society came into possession of the printing plates for The Emphatic Diaglott, which includes J. J. Griesbach’s Greek text of the Christian Greek Scriptures (the 1796-1806 edition) along with an English interlinear translation. Alongside this was the rendering of the text by British-born Benjamin Wilson, who had taken up residence in Geneva, Illinois, U.S.A. Those plates and the sole right of publication had been purchased and then given as a gift to the Society. After copies already in stock had been sent out, arrangements were made by the Society for more to be produced, and those became available in 1903.

Printing the Bible on Our Own Presses

It was 36 years after it first undertook publishing Bibles that the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society printed and bound a Bible in its own factory. The first one thus produced was The Emphatic Diaglott, the plates for which had been owned by the Society for 24 years. In December 1926 this Bible was printed on a flatbed press in the Society’s Concord Street factory in Brooklyn. To date, 427,924 of these have been produced.