THE WATCHTOWER

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WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY 117 Adams Street •   - Brooklyn 1, N.Y., U.S A.

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N. H. Knoeb, President              Grant Suiter, Secretary

“And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” - Isaiah 54:13.

THE BIBLE CLEARLY TEACHES

THAT JEHOVAH is the only true God, from everlasting to everlasting, and is the Maker of heaven and earth and Giver of life to his creatures; that the Word or Logos was the beginning of his creation and his active agent in creating all other things; and that the creature Lucifer rebelled against Jehovah and raised the issue of His universal sovereignty;

THAT GOD created the earth for man, made perfect man for the earth and placed him upon It; that man yielded to unfaithful Lucifer, or Satan, and willfully disobeyed God’s law and was sentenced to death; that by reason of Adam’s wrong act all men are born sinners and without the right to life;

THAT THE LOGOS was made human as the man Jesus and suffered death in order to produce the ransom or redemptive price for obedient men; that God raised up Christ Jesus divine and exalted him to heaven above every other creature and clothed him with all power and authority as head of God’s new capital organization;

THAT GOD’S CAPITAL ORGANIZATION is a Theocracy called Zion, and thut Christ Jesus Is the Chief Officer thereof and Is the rightful King of the new world; that the faithful anointed followers of Christ Jesus are Zion’s children, members of Jehovah’s organization, and are His witnesses whose duty and privilege It Is to testify to Jehovah’s supremacy and declare his purposes toward mankind as expressed in the Bible;

THAT THE OLD WORLD, or Satan's uninterrupted rule, ended A.D. 1914, and Christ Jesus has been placed by Jehovah upon the throne, has ousted Satan from heaven, and now proceeds to vindicate His name and establish the “new earth”;

THAT THE RELIEF and blessings of the peoples can come only by Jehovah’s kingdom under Christ, which has begun; that His next great act is to destroy Satan’s organization and establish righteousness completely in the earth; and that under the Kingdom the people of good-will surviving Armageddon will carry out the divine mandate to “fill the earth” with righteous offspring, and that the human dead in the graves will be raised to opportunities of life on earth.

ITS MISSION

THIS journal Is published for the purpose of enabling the people to know Jehovah God and his purposes as expressed in the Bible. It publishes Bible instruction specifically designed to aid Jehovah’s witnesses and all people of good-wllL It arranges systematic Bible study for Its readers and the Society supplies other literature to aid in such studies. It publishes suitable material for radio broadcasting and for other means of public Instruction In the Scriptures.

It adheres strictly to the Bible as authority for Its utterances. It is entirely free and separate from all religion, parties, sects or other worldly organizations. It is wholly and without reservation for the kingdom of Jehovah God under Christ his beloved King. It is not dogmatic, but invites careful and critical examination of its contents in the light of the Scriptures. It does not Indulge in controversy, and its columns are not open to personalities.

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“ALL NATIONS ADVANCE” TESTIMONY PERIOD

April is the last of the four-month Watchtower subscription campaign and it has been named “All Nations Advance” Testimony Period. This name agrees with the international effort that this campaign has been witnessing to secure at least 300,000 new subscriptions for The Watchtower in the sixteen languages in which it appears. The special campaign offer, of a year’s subscription together with a premium of eight vital booklets issued by the Watch Tower Society, at the regular subscription rate of $1 (American money), expires at the close of April. All Watchtower readers who want its contents to get to other hundreds of thousands should take advantage of this attractive inducement to subscribe by taking part in the campaign during the remaining time. Help make it an “all nations” participation by seeing that you are with us in the field presenting this offer in your respective nation. We have references and instructions for anyone writing in for them. Let us serve you. To know the scope of the “all nations” effort we ask each campaigner to turn in his report at the glorious end, April 30.

“WATCHTOWER” STUDDS

Week of April 25: “That the Ministry Be. Not Blamed,’* fl 1-20 inclusive, The. Watchtower March. 15, 1943.

Week of May 2: “That the Ministry Be Not Blamed," fl 21-40 inclusive, The Watchtower March 15, 1948.

SAVE

your personal or home copy of each issue of The Watchtower. Do not throw them away, but preserve them in a binder or drawer or on Hbrary shelves. At the end of each year, in its December 15 issue, The Watchtower contains an index of subjects and an index of all the scriptures cited, quoted and commented upon in all the leading articles throughout the year. By saving your copies and keeping them in date order you will have an invaluable reference library for consultation in your study of the Bible. Organized companies should preserve copies in the library of their local Theocratic ministry course school.

USE RENEWAL SUBSCRIPTION BLANK

The renewal blank sent you prior to the expiration of your Watchtower subscription should be filled out and returned to the Brooklyn office or to the Branch office in the country where you reside. Servants in the companies, and individuals, when sending in renewals for The Watchtower, should always use these blanks. By fining- in. these, renewal blanks you are assured of the continuation of year Watchtower from the time of expiration, and without delay. It will also be a great help if you sign your name uniformly, and note any recent change of address, on the renewal slip.

&VWCHTOWER

ANNOUNCING JEHOVAH’S KINGDOM

Vol. LXIX                             March 15, 1948                                  No. 6

“THAT THE MINISTRY BE NOT BLAMED”

"Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed.”—2 Cor. 6:3.

JEHOVAH is not to be blamed for that class of I men and women who are popularly known as J “ministers of God” but who do not live up to the name, bringing disgrace upon it. When hundreds of thousands of men and women claiming as their title “minister of God” or “minister of the gospel” act contrary to what it means and requires, there should be no surprise that atheism and materialistic Godlessness are increasing throughout the lands of Christendom.

² Many people, not familiar with the Holy Bible, judge God to be what his so-called “ministers” represent him to be in their speech, teachings and course of life. The religious ministers should not condemn the people for their materialism and Godlessness and lay the blame upon the people’s lack of faith and devotion to righteousness. The religious ministers of Christendom should look at themselves and examine themselves to see if they are not themselves responsible because of what they teach or fail to teach and because of the land of action they take in times of war and in times of peace. They should investigate themselves to see what share of the responsibility they bear for the spread of Godless Communism. How much did the course of action of the Greek Orthodox clergy contribute to the desire for communism and the growth of communism in Russia, the great stronghold of that ideology today? As for the teachings and peacetime and wartime operations of the Roman Catholic clergy, how far has the practical effect of such been to disgust men and women into Godless Communism in Italy, in France, in Austria, and in Poland, all of which countries were Roman Catholic bastions for many centuries ?

’ Of course, chiefly responsible for atheistic Communism is God’s great adversary, Satan the Devil. But if Christendom’s ministers of religion have followed a course of action that has resulted in multitudes’ preferring anti-God Communism, then it is useless for religious clergymen to create a great hue and cry about Communism and to carry on a “holy crusade” against it. By keeping on in their same way of teaching and acting the religious clergy simply

1, 2. Faced with growing Godlessness, who should be investigated? 3. How do religious clergy counteract crusades on Godlessness? counteract their strenuous crusade efforts. They will never succeed, but the great menace to their religious institutions and to their profession as priests and clergymen will grow and at last overwhelm them. The prophecy of the Holy Scriptures forecast exactly that result, saying: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, .. . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: . . . ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ... evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” (2 Tim. 3:1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 13) The religious clergy of all Christendom, having a love of pleasures and having an outward form of Godliness but a course of life denying the power of Godliness, will never be able to prevent the outworking of prophecy. They will have to eat the bitter fruit of their hypocritical doings.

• ⁴ The matter of “minister of God” is therefore very important in these perilous times. The question is, What kind of “ministers” should the people have or look for? They should remember that the Devil has his, and his kind fool the people. Take note in the Bible that these servants of Satan the Devil take to themselves holy names, such as “apostles” and “Christ”; as the Bible says: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel: for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” (2 Cor. 11:13-15) Lovers of truth and righteousness do not want such ministers, despite their outward “form of godliness”. The true and living God has his true ministers, and these are the ones that all those who seek God and his way to eternal life want to have. It is very important that the honest-hearted know the Scriptural marks of these true and faithful ministers of God. Otherwise, they will not be helped into the way of eternal life in the righteous new world. Otherwise, too, after having their eyes opened to the

• 4. What kind o£ ministers should the people have, and why! fraud and hypocrisy of religious clergymen, they will not know where to go and will fall victim to Godless Communism or some other “ism” and false ideology of these hysterical times.

THE PATTERN FOR MEASURING

• ⁸ The Holy Scriptures of the Bible give us descriptions and examples of bona fide ministers of the living and true God, to show us what ministers of Jehovah God should be. No one, therefore, can expect to get the correct facts upon this important class and thus be able to safeguard himself against fraud and misguidance unless he goes direct to God’s inspired written Word, the Holy Bible. There is where we now turn for the information that is to follow.

• ⁶ The Pattern against which all others claiming to be God’s ministers are to be measured is, in all points, Jesus Christ, for he was and is God’s Chief Servant and, when on earth, he called upon men to follow him. He is God’s High Priest, not by being born into the family of Aaron the Levite and thus inheriting priesthood from Aaron the brother of Moses. No; but by God’s oath he was made High Priest resembling the ancient priest-king named Melchizedek, who reigned and performed his priestly office in the old city of Salem. As the apostle Paul says of Jesus Christ: “But this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord [Jehovah] sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec: by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.” (Heb. 7: 21, 22, 26) Jesus was therefore a better high priest of God than Aaron was.

• ⁷ Aaron was just the high priest of good for the nation of Israel and ministered before Jehovah God in a sacred tabernacle made by human hands of fellow Israelites. He was just a mortal priest, because of being a sinner under the condemnation of death. He could not continue in office forever, but must die, and he had to be succeeded in the priesthood by his offspring after him. He offered upon the altar animals whose blood could not really take away human sins. Hence the priesthood of Aaron at the sacred tabernacle could only picture and foreshadow a greater priest to come, with a better sacrifice that would have actual power to cleanse away human sin. The apostle Paul helps us to this conclusion, for, after showing how the ancient king-priest Melchizedek foreshadowed the true High Priest of God, Christ Jesus, he adds:

• ⁸ “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the 5, 6. Where, and what facts do we get on the pattern for ministers? 7, 8. Why was High Priest Aaron only typical? and typical of whom? heavens; a minister [leitourgos] of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices:... now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry [leitourgia], by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. . . . Christ, being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this [material] building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.”—Heb. 8:1, 2, 3, 6; 9:11, 12.

• ⁹ In speaking about Christ Jesus as having a more excellent ministry toward God than High Priest Aaron had, the apostle uses a particular word respecting Jesus. Our English word liturgy comes from it, and it means to perform public duties toward God, to serve the people, to work and exert oneself for the sake of the public good. Christ Jesus rendered such a public service in the interest of the public or people by presenting his perfect human nature as a sacrifice to Jehovah God. By such a sacrifice for humankind in general Christ Jesus was indeed a public minister or public servant, not in being a politician or a statesman of this world, but by being Jehovah’s High Priest to offer the only acceptable sacrifice to Him that serves as an offset to human sins. By faith in his sacrifice anyone of the public who hears the good news and accepts him as God’s appointed High Priest for sins can have approach to God and be relieved of the condemnation due to sin and be brought into the relationship of son of God. Amid this sinful world and its temptations and its opposition to righteousness Jesus deported himself in such a way that his ministry could not be blamed or be found fault with in the very slightest. We admit he died on a tree as a criminal exposed to public shame and reproach; but this was at the hands of his enemies. Also, his unresistingly submitting to death at their violent hands only worked in with God’s purpose that he die as an innocent man and thus offer up a perfect sacrifice to Jehovah God. Even his public enemies could benefit by his sacrifice if they repented and confessed and believed in him.

• ¹⁰ He laid down his life three and a half years after his baptism in the river Jordan, but during those years he was acting as a public servant or minister according to God’s will. Howl By acting as a teacher of all the people, by preaching the gospel of God’s kingdom to the circumcised Jews and the Samaritans. He was in the fullest sense God’s servant for the people, because he did not go in for politics or commerce or the so-called “Jews’ religion”. He dedi-

• 9 How was he a public servant with a blameless ministry?

• 10 . Bow *\as he God’s public servant of the circumcision/ cated himself completely to proclaiming the written Word of God, from the prophet Moses to Malachi, and explaining to the circumcised Jews the things concerning God’s kingdom in the light of those sacred Scriptures. For proclaiming the Kingdom message almost exclusively to such circumcised nation he could be called a "minister [or, public servant] of the circumcision for the truth of God”. (Rom. 15: 8) However, before ascending from our earth and returning to heaven from which he had come, Christ Jesus, now resurrected from the dead, gave instructions for his apostles and disciples to extend the Kingdom message out beyond the nation of circumcised Jews and to proclaim the gospel to all the uncircumcised heathen nations, to make disciples also from them. He gave these instructions for a world-wide expansion of the gospel because it was in harmony with the Bible prophecies that he preached. And as a public servant or minister he preached not only in public places, in the temple, in synagogues, in the out-of-doors under God’s blue sky, but also in the private homes of the people. He went from house to house to reach the people and preach to them intimately.

MINISTERS OF MESSIAH

• ¹¹ While Jesus the Messiah thus served in a public way dealing exclusively with God’s Word, he had others who ministered to him in various ways in order that his ministry might not be disturbed or lessened. Not to be left unmentioned are the several women, who went along with him and his apostles on some of their travels and rendered various services that female hands could offer. Of these it is recorded: “And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, . . . and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.” (Luke 8: 2, 3) The apostles, too, at times went out and did the shopping to provide things for the meals, or to arrange for meetings. For example, when Jesus was preaching to the Samaritan woman at the well near Sychar, we read: “His disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.” (John 4:8) On his way up to Jerusalem, he once “sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him”. (Luke 9:52) And just before celebrating his last passover supper with his apostles and setting up the Memorial of his own death, “he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat. And they went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.”—Luke 22: 8, 13.

• ¹² However, they also ministered to Christ Jesus by joining in with him in preaching the glad tidings of God’s kingdom, in some cases breaking the ground

• 11, 12. How did various ones ministei to Jesus for his work’s sake? for his coming later to top off a local witness to the Kingdom. To this effect we read: “Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, .. . After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, . . . into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.” (Luke 9:1, 2; 10:1-5) He thus trained them to serve God in a public way, for the public benefit.

• ¹³ In thus co-operating with Christ Jesus these disciples, women and men alike, were ministers of Christ. But through him they were at the same time ministers to God, because Christ Jesus was God’s anointed Representative. The prophet Moses, who foreshadowed Christ Jesus as Jehovah’s great Prophet, had his servant, namely, Joshua, respecting whom it is written: “And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.” (Ex. 24:13) “Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses’ minister.” (Josh. 1:1) Elsewhere Joshua is called Moses’ servant, because servant means the same as minister. (Ex. 33:11; Num. 11:28) Likewise the prophet Elijah, who foreshadowed Christ Jesus at his second coming, had his servant, namely, Elisha, regarding whom we read: “Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.” (1 Ki. 19:19-21) And to show us one of the ways in which Elisha did minister to Elijah, we read: “One of the king of Israel’s servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah [to wash his hands].” (2 Ki. 3:11) We also read of how the male members of the tribe of Levi were presented to High Priest Aaron, “that they may minister unto him.” (Num. 3: 6; 18:1, 2) However, while Joshua, Elisha and the Levites are spoken of as being ministers to these several men, they rendered their service as to Jehovah God and they were primarily God’s ministers and serving according to his appointment.

• ¹⁴ In like manner those who joined with Christ Jesus in his work were spoken of as his ministers. The privilege of being such Paul the apostle greatly appreciated. Therefore in presenting the proof of his ministry he said: “Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? . . . I am more.” (2 Cor. 11: 22, 23) He gave to his fellow workers and helpers the same honorable designation. To the church at Colosse he spoke of how they had learned the gospel from Epaphras, and

• 13. What illustrations show to whom they ministered primarily?

• 14. How are we today ministers of God as well as of Christ? said: “Ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ.” (Col. 1:7) Paul also instructed the young man Timothy how to serve faithfully in the church, saying: “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.” (1 Tim. 4:6) At the same time Paul calls Timothy a “minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ”. (1 Thess. 3: 2) Thus at the same time we today can be God’s ministers and Christ’s, not that God and Christ are two co-equal persons in a trinity or three-in-one God, but that Christ Jesus is God’s Chief Official. So we can serve God through Christ, who makes our works acceptable to God. We serve God by working under Christ Jesus, whom God has appointed as Head over all His servants. In fact, no creature on earth can render acceptable service to God except through Christ our Leader.

RESTORATION OF SUCH

• ¹⁵ During the fourth century the doctrine of the “trinity” was forced upon Christendom by the decree of the Roman emperor. Religious people of the empire were obliged to believe it, under threat of the police power and sword of the political state. As a consequence, the living and true God Jehovah was forced into the background and more prominence was given to his Son Jesus Christ. Religious leaders ignored Jehovah as if he were to be associated with mainly the despised Jews, and they made loud claims of being the ministers of Christ as the “second person" in a triune God. In violation of Jesus’ command, that “all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father”, the religious leaders of Christendom gave more honor to the Son than to the Father. (John 5: 23) Great disrespect was shown to the rightful place and power and authority of the Father, Jehovah God, and men did not understand or seriously consider that they must be first of all servants of Jehovah, just as his Son Jesus Christ is a servant of Jehovah after whom we must pattern. The result was that the name of Jehovah suffered an eclipse. There were many pretending to be “apostles of Christ” and “ministers of Christ”, but practically none confessing to being ministers of Jehovah God, really making him known, appreciated and loved by the people.

• ¹⁶ The prophecies of the Bible foretold that such a falling away from the true, complete faith and from the loving service of God through Christ Jesus would take place among men claiming to be Christians. But Jehovah God did not propose to let himself be always pushed into a corner. The prophecies

• 15. How was more prominence given to the ministry to Christ?

• 16. Hence ^hat restoration was promised, and by what force? of his written Word foretold the time coming when his ministers would be restored upon the earth and would serve him in all parts of the globe. In this restoration the spirit of the Lord God would perform its part, for the prophecy of restoration follows the well-known prophecy quoted by Jesus from Isaiah 61:1,2, namely: “The spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the year of Jehovah’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God.” (Jm. Stan.Ver.) Jesus applied this prophecy to himself after he had been anointed with Jehovah’s holy spirit at the Jordan river, where he was baptized. He was Jehovah’s Chief Minister. He restored Jehovah God to his true and rightful place in the hearts and lives of his consecrated people. His followers, anointed with the same spirit from the day of Pentecost forward, became ministers of Jehovah because they became ministers of Christ Jesus and imitated him.

• ¹¹ During the centuries following the death of Christ’s apostles and their personal fellow servants the ministry to Jehovah God was ignored by those who proclaimed themselves Christ’s followers. After those many centuries it is nothing else than a final and complete fulfillment of the prophecy that God’s holy spirit has been poured out in these last days for the restoration of the ministry to Jehovah God. Speaking of a restoration of His organization of His people in a Theocratic way and also of the rebuilding and expansion of his worship, the prophecy says to these restored anointed ones of our day: “And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the priests of Jehovah; men shall call you the ministers of our God"

• ¹⁸ That prophecy, of Isaiah 61:4-6 (Am. Stan. Ver.), has not failed in our day. We have those “ministers of our God”, who are rendering priestly service to him. No, they are not the religious Hierarchy of the Vatican, nor the clergy of Christendom’s other religious organizations. They are the small remnant who particularly since World War I ended, in 1918, have been making strenuous efforts to revive the knowledge of Jehovah and to make known his fame among the nations. Because of their persistent efforts and their faithfulness to his name and universal sovereignty, they have undergone great persecution from the religionists of Christendom. Who are they¹? Jehovah’s remnant of anointed witnesses. And

• 17. 18. How has Isaiah 61:4-6 been fulfilled in our day? who are those “strangers” and “foreigners” who join in feeding the flocks and in productive work of plowing the fields and dressing the vines! They are the “great multitude” of consecrated persons of good-will who have made common cause with the anointed remnant. Because of the large part that these have with the remnant in converting the desolation or broken-down state of Jehovah’s worship in the earth into a blossoming garden in all lands, this great multitude of good-will are also called “Jehovah’s witnesses”. —Rev. 7:9-15.

OF THE GOSPEL, NOT OF RELIGIONS

• ¹⁹ The religious clergy of Christendom’s hundreds of denominations disclaim Jehovah’s witnesses and loudly proclaim that these were not ordained by them and have no recognized standing with them. That is good! That is Scriptural; for the genuine ministers are not made by men or religious clergy, but are made by Jehovah God through Christ Jesus. That was what the apostle Paul claimed as true in regard to himself. Theological training at the feet of Rabbi Gamaliel did not induct Paul into the Christian ministry. (Gal. 1 :11-17) The gospel of which Paul was a minister was not according to man, and he did not get it of man, but was taught it by the revelation of Jesus Christ. The apostle says: “The gospel, whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power. ... to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”—Eph. 3: 6-8, Am. Stan. Ver.; also Col. 1: 23.

• ²⁰ Paul ministered this pure gospel of salvation. By doing so he served as Christ’s instrument in the work of reconciling other persons to Jehovah God. Hence he says: “All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. 5:18) All this service aided the believers into membership in the church which is Christ’s body; so that the apostle spoke of himself as a servant of the church, saying: "The church, whereof I am made a minister.”—Col. 1: 24, 25.

• ²¹ We can thus clearly see that the apostle Paul was not a servant of the Jewish organization that rejected Jesus Christ. He was not a minister of Judaism or “Jews’ religion” with its traditions of the religious fathers. (Gal. 1:13,14) The thing with which he carried on his public work was the gospel as founded on God’s written Word and as preached by Jesus Christ. Today, like Paul, Jehovah’s witnesses act separate from all the religious organizations of Jewry and Christendom. They are not ministers of the hundreds of confusing religions of Chris-

• 19. As shown in Paul’s case, by whom are these made ministers? 20. How was Paul a minister of the church?

• 21. Of what are we ministers? and with what do we work? tendom. They are in the same classification as Paul, Timothy, Epaphras, and other early disciples, namely, “ministers of the gospel.” It is with the gospel exclusively that they work. It is this gospel, and not the wisdom and religious ideas of men, that they teach privately and preach publicly. It is with this gospel that they are trained. They are instructed and built up in Christian faith with it. Acquaintance with this true gospel, then a dedication of themselves to make it known to others, is what makes them gospel ministers. They reject the religious traditions of Christendom as “old wives’ fables” and as profane.

• ¹² Hence we strive to conform ourselves closely to Paul’s words to Timothy: "Be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which thou hast followed until now: but refuse profane and old wives’ fables. And exercise thyself unto godliness.” (1 Tim. 4: 6, 7, Am. Si an. Ver.) We recognize all too well that to be perfect or mature servants of God and of his gospel in Christ we must hold to the inspired writings of the Bible. We must study these in order to become wise to salvation and must preach them to others. That is what the apostle told Timothy, saying: “From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” —2 Tim. 3:15-17.

• ²³ If we specialize upon this, how can we at all dabble in the politics of this world, or try to dictate what the movie industry shall produce or the cinemas show on the screen, or act as referees in capitallabor disputes! We simply cannot. Those things of this world are not our concern. We cannot line up with the governor of Minnesota who, last November, at a Reformation Day celebration, said publicly: “We are personally responsible for the political conduct of our democracy. If Christians in the United States do not reverse their indifference to government, the time may quickly come when a decision will be forced upon them as a result of our apathy. . . . they must come forward to accept the obligation of leadership and service in political and civil life as never before in the history of our nation.”—New York Times, November 3, 1947.

• ²⁴ Would Christ Jesus, would the apostle Paul, heed that urgent warning or invitation to entangle themselves with the political affairs of this country, if they were personally present here now! Not if they stuck to the line of action that they followed

• 22. To be mature servants, we reject wbat and hold to what?

• 23, 24. (a) With what can we not dabble? (b) Despite being urged, why may we net mess ourselves up with political affairs? when on earth nineteen centuries ago. Christ Jesus owned up to no responsibility for the political conduct of any nation, but quietly said to politician Pilate: “My realm does not belong to this world.” (John 18: 36, Moffatt) And Paul wrote to Timothy: “Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangle th himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” (2 Tim. 2:3,4) Both Jesus and Paul his faithful imitator kept hands off this world’s running of its affairs and stuck to the ministry of the gospel. We do not imitate Christ Jesus, but follow the pope of Vatican City, if we mess ourselves up with the politics of the various states of this world. Only this past October 30 an Associated Press dispatch said that Pope Pius XII “denied that church and state could be entirely separate”, but that the pope said that “church and state go back to the same font, God, and that both have charge of the same man, of the same natural and supernatural personal dignity”. (New York Times, October 31, 1947) Talking that way, the pope overlooks that when Jesus Christ was offered the charge of all the political states of this world it was not Jehovah God, but it was Satan the Devil, “the god of this world,” that made the offer to Christ Jesus on the terms that Jesus fall down and worship the Devil.

^2S Because Jesus Christ was a minister of God and devoted to the ministry of the gospel, he refused to enter politics in league with Satan the Devil. For holding to this neutral course he was foully put to death by a political conspiracy. But no blame can be cast upon Jesus’ ministry, as being fradulent. If the pope, who claims to be Christ’s vicar, had instructed the Roman Catholic clergy to follow Jesus’ example and stick to the gospel, Monsignor Josef Tiso would not have entered the political office of president of Slovakia as a protectorate under Adolf Hitler and taken part in the slaughter of thousands of helpless Slovakian Jews, and all this time being on good terms with the Vatican, and finally appealing to Hitler for military aid when the allies were closing in upon the Nazi forces. Condemned after trial in court, Tiso was hanged as a criminal and Nazi collaborator April 18, 1947. Just his being a Roman Catholic priest did not earn for him a pardon or excuse him of his crimes. Tiso’s ministry was to be blamed according to his known actions, and it only betrayed the Nazi-Fascist sympathies of the Vatican for its newspaper, Osservatore Romano, to say: “The circumstances finally that a priestly character— which is always sacred even in someone who may be guilty—was held in no consideration cannot but

25. 26. (a)In that regard, how was Jesus’ ministry blameless? (b) Why are criminals not to be spared as sacred for being priests? cause deep pain to all the faithful.”—New York Times, of April 20, 1947.

• ²⁶ Let Osservatore Romano remember that God did not consider the law-breaking, fornicating, thieving Hophni and Phinehas to be sacred despite their guilt. Even if they were priests and sons of High Priest Eli, God decreed their death and promptly let them be slain by the Philistines while acting as chaplains in battle. (1 Sam. 2:34; 4:4-11) Their ministry, while measurably not as bad as Tiso’s, could nevertheless be blamed, because it brought great reproach upon the name of Jehovah God and perverted his service.

• ²¹ By no means can God’s true ministers of his gospel undertake to act as the custodians of the morals of the state'or of the public community that upholds such a political state, and try to put Jehovah God in the state. We cannot by making laws give people an injection of righteousness and morality. Not even the law of Moses could legislate righteousness into God’s chosen people of Israel. That Theocratic law could only condemn them as natural-born sinners in Jehovah’s sight and needing redemption, redemption through no political legislation, but through Jesus’ blood. The Roman Catholic priests that try to influence legislation to inject their Roman Catholic righteousness into the people merely serve to legislate themselves into power for controlling the community, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish. The apostle Paul knew better than to try to act as custodian of the morals of the people of Rome and other lands that he visited. He said to the church at Corinth which had a disgusting case of fornication on its hands: “What have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”—1 Cor. 5:12,13.

• ²⁸ The apostle foretold that at the end of this world, where we are now, the nations would have dropped to their lowest ebb, creating most perilous times, and that there would never be any improvement. (2 Tim. 3:1-13) The failure of Christendom’s clergy to improve the morality of the people of the various political states proves that theirs is a losing fight, because it is no business of a true minister of God. Why, the true ministers of His Word cannot even force the gospel of salvation upon anyone; and it is only through that gospel that any person attains to real righteousness and morality in God’s sight. How, then, can Christendom's ministers of religion hope to regulate the morality of the political state and to legislate uprightness into the people that do not accept and obey the gospel of God in Christ Jesus? They can not. Jehovah’s witnesses are well instructed in that gospel. They do not let themselves be fooled 27. 28 (a)Why cannot true ministers act as custodians of the public morals? (b) Why is it a losing fight to try to do so?

into joining the religious clergy in that futile effort which does not have God's approval or backing. Only His kingdom established in the hands of Christ Jesus will bring in a world completely moral and upright, a new world and not this old world made over.

RELIEF WORK

• ²⁹ What if the Roman Catholic religious system during the sixteen centuries of its existence since the days of Emperor Constantine had tried to popularize the Holy Scriptures, which, Paul says, are “able to make thee wise unto salvation”? What if the ministers of Roman Catholicism, especially since the invention of printing from movable type, in the fifteenth century, had tried to spread copies of the Bible among the people? What if they had tried- to explain those sacred Scriptures to the people, instead of feeding them upon pagan philosophies and religious traditions of uninspired men? Then their ministry would have been relieved of great blame for today's state of affairs in Christendom and its nations. Just consider what Jehovah’s witnesses, with their small numbers, have done in this regard only since 1919, putting out more than half a billion books and booklets on the Holy Scriptures, besides hundreds of millions of copies of this magazine, free tracts, and other invitations to Bible study! All this despite intense and violent opposition of Roman Catholic religionists and other religious elements in Christendom. Whose ministry is to be blamed, theirs or ours?

• ³⁰ Today the food situation all over the world is bad, exciting grave fears in religious and political as well as commercial circles believing in free enterprise. It is dinned into our ears that Godless Communism thrives upon famine, disorder and human misery. For this reason Americans are urged from all sides to send food to Western Europe to save it from the advancing juggernaut of Communism, and the religious clergy take great pride in having a leading part in the collecting of such food to be shipped, not for purely humanitarian purposes, but largely for political purposes to prop up weak political governments. But let such religionists understand plainly now, if they did not understand it before, that not mere shortages in material food, not mere famines for bread, are something for atheistic Communism to thrive upon, but that the dreaded Communism thrives more so upon the dearth of getting the pure, spiritual food from God’s written Word. Owing to the unfaithfulness of Christendom’s clergy as the ministers of Christ, which they claim to be, there exists throughout the world just such a famine for hearing the word of Jehovah God. The clergy responsible for this should not consider them-

• 29. For not spreading the Bible, whose ministry must be blamed?

• 30. Due to what does spiritual famine exist and Communism thrive? selves free from blame for the thriving of Communism and its growing menace to the world. Because they turn down God’s Word and fight His witnesses that spread his Word, Amos 8:11 predicted: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah.”—Am. Stan. Ver.

• ³¹ Hence the vision from the Lord has vanished from the clergy, and Jehovah’s witnesses are the only ones that are bringing real relief to the peoples of all nations. Those who hear Jehovah’s Word which his witnesses minister receive the only effective bulwark against the advance of any Godless “ism” into their lives. This flatly denies the charge of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy that the practical effect of Jehovah’s witnesses’ ministry, despite all their professions, is to promote Communism. That baseless accusation has an undeniable relationship with the charges of the Nazis in Hitler Germany against Jehovah’s witnesses. According to a wireless from Berlin, June 29,1933, Herman Goering, Nazi premier of Prussia, suppressed Jehovah’s witnesses (or Bibelf orscher) as being a “subversive organization”, saying that “under the guise of scientific and Biblical research this international organization has carried on incendiary propaganda against the Christian church and the state, and in dangerous degree has been promoting the Bolshevist disintegration of civilization”, and that this danger has recently become greater, because the German Branch of the Watch Tower Society had come to act as a masked refuge for outlawed “communist and Marxist elements”. That was 21 days before the concordat was signed between Hitler and Pius XI, Franz von Papen signing for Germany and Cardinal Pacelli, now Pius XII, signing for the Vatican.

• ³² The charge has not yet been raised by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy of America that the organization of Jehovah’s witnesses is a “masked refuge” in which the outlawed “Communist and Marxist elements” are hiding themselves. Only time will tell whether the American Hierarchy will stoop to that. If they do, then the open and above-board, public activities of Jehovah’s witnesses down to the time of raising such a charge will brand it a lie. The ministry of Jehovah’s witnesses can in no wise be blamed for Communism’s growth in the Vatican’s own backyard, its native land of Italy.

• ³³ The relief from spiritual famine that Jehovah’s witnesses are pushing in all nations by spreading the life-saving knowledge of Jehovah God and the kingdom of his Christ is of far more importance and

31, 32. (a) Against what do we erect an effective bulwark? (b) What brands the charge that we promote and harbor Communism a lie?

33. Besides spiritual, what other relief have we recently given?

value than the material relief being carried on by the political, social, commercial and religious agencies. Surely life eternal in the perfect new world is of more enduring importance and worth than life and temporary comforts in this wicked world. However, Jehovah’s witnesses have followed the example of their Christian brethren of the first century and have generously given material things to feed, clothe and house their needy brethren in Europe and the Orient. They have shipped tons upon tons of clothing and food to the faithful ministers of God in various European lands, the Philippine Islands and Japan. During the months of August and September of 1947 alone the witnesses in America contributed $104,000 for the sending of food packages to their fellow ministers in Germany and Austria through the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe (CARE). This relief work is part of their ministry, for the Scriptures classify it as such.

• ³⁴ Read, at Acts 11:27-30, where the world-wide dearth was predicted which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. The disciples in Syria started a relief campaign and sent it to their Christian brethren in Judea, including Jerusalem, by the hands of Paul and Barnabas. Acts 12: 25 reports: “Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry.” Note that this relief work was called a “ministry”. The apostle Paul speaks thus of such relief when reporting his part in a relief campaign about twelve years later (or .about 56 A.D.). Acting as supervisor of the relief funds from Europe, he writes: “But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia [Greece] to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem. It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister [leitourgein] unto them in carnal things.” —Rom. 15:25-27.

• ³⁵ Jehovah’s witnesses have shown the same loving interest in the material needs of their brethren during the present postwar emergency, entreating the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society as an agency that they might do something in this regard. As Paul says: “Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you: for I know the forwardness of your mind,.... For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God; whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God.” (2 Cor. 8: 4; 9:1, 2,12,13) Paul calls this relief work 34. Where do the Scriptures call this relief work a ministry?

• 35. What kind of service is this, and why are we not blamable? a public service (liturgy), even though it is not extended to the general public of Christendom but is confined to Jehovah’s servants in Christ. So, in this respect the ministry of Jehovah’s witnesses is not to be blamed. They may feel sure that this loving sharing of things with their fellow servants in need is one of the acts that Jehovah God will not forget, because they have done this for his name’s sake, “in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” The apostle exhorts us to keep it up to the end. —Heb. 6:10,11.

PUTTING NO OBSTACLE IN OTHERS’ WAY

• ³³ Before not very long this special time of such privileged service in God’s sight will be over, once the final war of Armageddon is past. Appreciating the matter in this day of salvation, we are determined to do as the apostle Paul said, namely, “finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24) Judas fell from the apostolic service, and Paul, when called to it by God’s mercy through Christ, took it up and held it fast as a priceless treasure of service. Said he: “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.” (Acts 1:17, 25; 2 Cor. 4:1) Paul stood right up to it to the last. He did not look upon any big trialsome experience as being the final test of £iis integrity after which he could take it easy and stop ministering. No; but when in prison at Rome for the second time, while it seemed that he had finished his course, yet he called for Timothy to bring him “the books, but especially the parchments”. He wanted to do more work while in prison until the end came in God’s time for him. They could hold him bound in prison, but could not stop him from preaching even there. In his case it was true, “the word of God is not bound.” (2 Tim. 4:13; 2:9) From such a faithful example as Paul we can take seriously and without faultfinding his own words to Archippus: “Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.” And to Timothy: “Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”—Col. 4:17; 2 Tim. 4: 5.

• ³⁷ How could we expect the apostle to exhort otherwise, when he said concerning his own part in the Lord’s work: “I glorify my ministry?” He did so by giving to it the chief importance in his life and faithfully working at it. (Rom. 11:13, Am. Stan. Ver.) Since he conscientiously copied Jesus Christ in his service to Jehovah God, we can take an example from Paul as a true apostle rather than from religious clergymen of Christendom in their present compromising entanglement with this world. His 36. According to Paul’s example, what are we determined to do?

• 37. Why is Paul's ministry exemplary and without blame? record shows he put no stumblingblock in anyone’s way. So his ministry cannot be blamed or found fault with. But that of Christendom’s clergy, when compared with the Scriptures, can be found fault with. It has put obstacles in the way of many, not merely Communists but also others, and it has brought immeasurable reproach upon the holy name of Jehovah God.

• ⁵⁸ We, too, should be just as jealous as Paul and the other apostles and their fellow workers were for the good name of the ministry that God has entrusted to us through Christ, to preach “this gospel of the kingdom”. We shall try to so conduct ourselves in connection with it that we .may put no obstacles in the way of others’ accepting that gospel of salvation. True, millions of people have taken offense over our flag-saluting stand and because of our neutrality toward wars between nations of Satan’s world, but, in these cases, one’s taking offense is not justified. Why not? Because they are offended at our faithfulness to God’s Word and commands and to Christ’s example. Let it be so in all other cases of offense, that the offended ones can find no fault with us except it be in regard to our loyalty to the law of our God.

• ³⁸ In other respects, though, let us cause people no reasons for stumbling, because of any selfish conduct, looseness in living up to our calling, or getting afraid of the foe, or tired and then quitting, thus affording men a real cause to blame and find fault with our ministry. But, since we are near the final end of this special "day of salvation”, Armageddon being so close, let us seek to avoid giving offense.

• 38. What taking of offense toward our course is unjustified? and why? 39. To prevent blame upon our ministry, what shall we do?

Why not make the gospel of salvation committed to us as commendable to others as possible by our unselfish, faithful and devoted course ? That way we do not waste God’s grace that has been bestowed upon us. As the apostle says: “Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the holy [spirit], by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known.”—2 Cor. 6:1-9.

• ^<0 We cannot show proof of our appointment to this gospel work by displaying religious titles and gawdy, pretentious robes and collars received from the Hierarchy and Christendom’s theological seminaries. But, like Paul, we can show proof of our Christian ministry by our consecration to God and by the works of publishing the gospel and aiding others to God’s way of salvation by Christ. Not the flattering titles from men count. The results count. By these we commend ourselves to the consciences of men in the sight of God. Rejoicing at the results that God has accomplished through us thus far, we join with his servant in saying: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.” —1 Tim. 1:12.

• 40. How do we prove our ministry? and what do we express for It?

MEMORIAL AND THE 19-YEAR CYCLE

EVERY 19 years the Memorial, Nisan 14, falls on about the same day of the same month of the modern (Gregorian) calendar. This is because Jehovah has so ordered the movements of the earth and moon that Nisan 1, or the new moon nearest the spring equinox, falls on practically the same day of the solar year every 19 years. A lunar month like Nisan averages a bit more than 29j days and the modern calendar month averages a little less than 30j days. Hence there are more lunar months than calendar months in a 19-year period. In a 19-year cycle between Memorials there are 228 calendar months but 235 lunar months, or 12 years of 12 lunar months each and 7 years of 13 lunar months each. For example, the Memorial in 1925 was celebrated on April 8, and 19 years later (in 1944) the Memorial was celebrated on April 8. Between these two dates there were 6,940 days, which equal 235 lunar months, or 12 years of 12 lunar months each and 7 years of 13 lunar months each. Because of the slightly varying length of lunar months, a lunar year of 12 lunar months may have 353 days or 354 days or 355 days. A

lunar year of 13 months may have 383 days or 384 days or 385 days. In spite of such variation, in a 19-year period the total number of days is approximately 6,940. The following table gives the details for the 19-year period between the Memorials of 1925 and 1944.

Dates of the Memorial*						Number of days between Memorials	Number of lunar months between Memorials
From			To
April	8,	1925	March	27,	1926	353	12
March	27,	1926	April	15,	1927	384	13
April	15,	1927	April	4,	1928*	355	12
April	4,	1928*	March	24,	1929	354	12
March	24,	1929	April	12,	1930	384	13
April	12,	1930	April	1,	1931	354	12
April	1,	1931	March	20,	1932*	354	12
March	20,	1932*	April	9,	1933	385	13
April	9,	1933	March	28,	1934	353	12
March	28,	1934	April	17,	1935	385	13

* In this 19-year period there are five leap years: 1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944.

		Dates of the Memorial*				Number of days	Number of lunar month*
	From			To		between Memorials	between Memorial*
April	17,	1935	April	6,	1936*	355	12
April	6,	1936*	March	26,	1937	354	12
March	26,	1937	April	15,	1938	385	13
April	15,	1938	April	4,	1939	354	12
April	4,	1939	March	23,	1940*	354	12
March	23,	1940*	April	11,	1941	384	13
April	11,	1941	March	31,	1942	354	12
March	31,	1942	April	19,	1943	384	13
April	19,	1943	April	8,	1944*	355	12
Total years 19; days 6,940; lunar months 235.

In the above table it will be seen that the seven (7)

embolismie years, or years with a 13th lunar month inserted, were the 2d, 5th, Sth, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 18th, which, manifestly, does not follow the Jewish arrangement of fixed embolismie-years, namely, the 3d, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th, of the 19-year cycle. In ascertaining the Memorial dates, no effort was made to follow the Jewish arrangement. (See The Watchtower of February 1, 1948, page 42, IflO, footnote.)

However, these 19-year cycles show the accuracy with which the Creator has timed the movements of the earth and moon, which he made and placed in the heavens, movements by whose observation his faithful servants on earth can ascertain the proper date for the celebration of the memorial of the death of Christ.

EXODUS TO TEMPLE—480 YEARS

THE extant Hebrew manuscripts of the book of First Kings state that in the four hundred and eightieth year after the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt King Solomon began the building of the temple of Jehovah. (1 Ki. 6:1, 37) The claim has been made by those who dispute the figure 480 that in copying this portion of the Bible (1 Ki. 6:1) a scribe mistook the Hebrew character he n (5) for daleth T (4), which in the modern Hebrew alphabet are very similar in form. (See The Emphatic Diaglott and its footnote on Acts 13:20.) If that be true, then the period from the exodus to the laying of the temple foundation was 580 years instead of 480 years long. Do the facts support such claim?

The extant Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible do not use numerical signs in the text, but spell out all numbers.¹ Even the Nash papyrus from the second century before Christ spells out the numbers, “third,” “fourth,” “seventh,” “six,” and “one”.² Moreover, in the Hebrew Siloam inscription, cut just inside the southern entrance of the tunnel or conduit which Hezekiah (in the eighth century before Christ) caused to be dug from the Gihon spring to the Siloam pool, appear two numbers, three, and twelve hundred; and both are spelled out.³ (2 Chron. 32:2-4; 2 Ki. 20: 20) Furthermore, the Moabite stone, written in a dialect differing little from Biblical Hebrew and erected by Mesha, king of Moab (2 Ki. 1:1; 3:5), after the death of Ahab, king of Israel (919 B.C.), contains seven numbers {thirty, forty, seven thousand, two hundred, fifty, one hundred, and ten), and all of them are spelled out.⁴ In these inscriptions no numerical signs are used.¹ Thus confusion is avoided. For this reason the spelled-out numbers cannot be confused at 1 Kings 6:1, because four (vanR, ’arba'} and five (tvon, hamesh} are not at all similar in Hebrew.

It might be argued that some scribes might have used ciphers for numbers in copying Biblical manuscripts and that all such copies are now lost.⁵ But even if it be granted

• ¹ The Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. IX (1905), p. 348.

• ² Stanley A. Cook, “A Pre-Massoretic Biblical Papyrus,” in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology (Jan., 1903).

• ³ Encyclopedia Americana (1942), Vol. 25, p. 10; The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible (1944), pp. 564, 565.

• ⁴ The Westminster Dictionary of the Bible, pp. 403, 404; Enc. Am. (1942), Vol. 19, p. 277.

• ⁵ The Jewish Enc., Vol. IX, p. 348.

for the sake of argument that some scribes did use ciphers in the text of the Hebrew Scriptures, the fact still remains that the ciphers for 400 and for 500 could not be sufficiently similar in form to be confused.

It is now known that the ancient Israelites were acquainted with numerical ciphers, even before Jeremiah wrote First Kings early in the sixth century before Christ. Before our present twentieth century no Hebrew inscription containing numerical symbols had been found.¹ Now several such are known. At Samaria, during the 1908-11 and the 1931-35 excavations, were found dozens of potsherds or ostraca (pieces of broken clay pots) on which had been written in Hebrew (from 844 to 836 B.C.) brief notes or accounts of oil and wine received from the ninth to the seventeenth year of the reign of Jeroboam II. Some of the numbers on these ostraca are spelled out {ninth, tenth} and some are written in ciphers {1, 2, 15, 17}.² At the city of Lachish 21 inscribed ostraca were found (18 in 1935 and 3 in 1938), which were letters sent to Joash, a Judean officer stationed at Lachish, by a subordinate at a military outpost. All but one or two of these letters were written early in 608 B.C. Ostracon 21 (and perhaps 19) was written before the reign of Zedekiah.³ Hence all 21 were written in Jeremiah’s time.

Two of these letters contain ciphers, ostracon 9 and ostracon 19. Ostracon 9 (found in 1935) acknowledges receipt of 115 things or people that were sent by someone. The letter says: “May Jehovah cause my lord to hear tidings of peace! . . . hath sent 115 . . . Return word to thy servant by the hand of Shelemiah (telling us) what we shall do tomorrow.”⁴ Ostracon 19 (found in 1938) contains a list of names and numerals {10,11, 50,15} ³ These numerals are all written in ciphers. Therefore, up to now, Hebrew ciphers have been found (though not in any formal literary composition) for the following numerals: 1, 2, 10, 11, 15, 17, 50, 115.

For 1 and 2 the same form of ciphers (simple strokes, 11> ^or /> //) appear in cuneiform,⁶ in Phoenician, in Egyptian, in ancient Greek, in Aramean, and in Roman writing. The 10 (a, A, a) is made the same in Phoenician (a), and, with slight variation, in cuneiform, Aramaic, Egyptian, ancient Greek, and Latin.⁷ The symbol for 5 ("|, t) is the same in a Phoenician inscription of the third or second century before Christ and, with a slight variation, in the ancient Greek (T). The 11 is a combination of the sign for 10 and the sign for 1; the sign for 17 is a combination of the signs for 10, 5, and 2; the sign for 50 is a composite one made up of the signs for 5 and 10.

The sign for 100 is a symbol resembling the ancient form of the letter mem. The source of this symbol is not clear, but it is interesting to note that in Accadian the sign for 100 (metu, meatu), which was taken over from the Sumerian, was afterwards used as the general symbol for the syllable me. That made it appear that the symbol for the syllable me served as the abbreviation for the word hundred. Therefore the Jews used the letter mem as the cipher for meah (hundred). In some Aramaic inscriptions at Elephantine, Egypt, written by Jews after the Babylonian captivity, a negligently written mem is sometimes used as the symbol for 100. In cuneiform and in Aramaic inscriptions in Egypt, to express 400 the symbol for 4 (" and \ ill respectively) was used together with the symbol for 100, that is, 4 X 100. If the same principle was followed in Hebrew (and we have proof that it was followed for expressing 50), then there could not possibly be any mistaking 400 for 500, because the symbol for 4 (| |||) could not be confused with the symbol for 5 (1) -⁸ No other system of ciphers is found in Hebrew before Christ.

NUMERATION ON COINS

The first time that a different system of numerical ciphers is found is on coins of the great Jewish rebellion of A.D. 66-70. These coins were formerly believed to be Macca-bean, but more of such coins found in Palestine from and after 1935 indicate that they were coined during the great Jewish rebellion.⁹ In the truly Maccabean coins 'with Hebrew inscriptions the numbers are spelled out.¹⁰ But in this different system the numbers are indicated by means of the letters according to their order in the alphabet. The first letter of the alphabet, aleph, is used for 1, the second letter, beth, is used for 2, the third letter, gimel, is used for 3, the fourth letter, daleth (-]), is used for 4, the fifth letter, he, (rr), is used for 5, etc. This system is still used in Hebrew.

The first nine letters of the alphabet are used for the numbers from 1 to 9, the tenth letter is used for 10; the eleventh, kaph (□), for 20; the twelfth, lamed, for 30; the thirteenth, mem, for 40, etc. The nineteenth letter, qoph (p), is used for 100, the twentieth for 200, the twenty-first for 300, and the twenty-second, tau (n), for 400. That exhausted the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, but five of

• ¹ Wedge-shaped characters used in writing Accadian in Babylonia, Assyria, etc.

• ² Lachish Ostraca, pp. 176, 199, 202-204, 207, 208, 211, 212.

³Lidzbarski, Altsemitische Texte (1907), p. 36; Lachish Ostraca, pp. 203, 204.

• ⁴ Millar Burrows, “Significant Recent Finds of Coins in Palestine,” in The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. VI, No. 2 (May, 1943), ’Narkiss, Coins of Palestine (1936). the Hebrew letters had a different form when they were used at the end of a word, and at first these were used for the hundreds above 400; for example, final kaph (-]) represented 500. But the preferred use has been to indicate 500 by a combination of tau and qoph (t. e., 400 +100)? In this system 400 would be one letter (n), whereas 500 would be two letters (pn). No chance for confusion there. Even when the final kaph (■;) was used alone for 500, it would be hard to confuse 400 (n) with 500 (-[) in the forms in which they appeared between A.D. 66 and the date of the oldest extant Hebrew manuscript of 1 Kings 6:1.’

ORIGIN OF ALPHABETICAL SYSTEM

Where did this alphabetical system of ciphers originate? Among the Greeks of Ionia in Asia Minor. Before that all the Greeks, including the lonians of Asia Minor, used the ancient Greek system (called Herodian, after the grammarian Herodianos).’ Even after the lonians of Asia Minor started to use the alphabetic system of numerical notation, the Greeks in Greece continued to use the Herodian numbers. The successors of Alexander the Great made the alphabetic system of numerical notation official, and, as a result, the alphabetic system began to be prevalent about 300 B.C., and the use of the Herodian ciphers ceased about 150 B.C., except in Greece proper, especially in Athens, where it lingered even into the first century.⁹ This refers only to Greek. There is no evidence that this system was adapted to the Hebrew alphabet till the first century of our common era.¹⁰

Now, as for the claim of many persons that the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, daleth (n), was used for 400, and the fifth letter, he (n), was used for 500: There is no record of such use before Abraham Aben-Ezra, who was born about A.D. 1092 and died in 1167. He did use such a scheme in his mathematical writings.¹¹ But there are extant manuscripts of the entire Hebrew Scriptures which were written before Aben-Ezra was born. For that reason Aben-Ezra’s scheme could not have affected the transmission of the Hebrew Bible text.

Therefore, whether the scribes who copied 1 Kings 6:1 always spelled out the words for four hundred or used the numerical signs then current, at no time between Jeremiah’s writing it and our earliest extant Hebrew manuscript of it could the appearance of 500 and 400 have been so similar as to be confused.

The Watch Tower publication entitled “The Truth Shall Make You Free", page 150, says with regard to 1 Kings 6:1, 2 and 11:42 the following: “In the original Hebrew text of these verses the numbers of years are written spelled out in full. It was first hundreds of years after Christ that alphabetic letters began to be used as symbols of numbers, and then these were used merely to number the chapters and verses, but not to change the original Hebrew text.”

One point that strongly argues in support of this statement, namely, that originally the numbers in the Hebrew Bible text were spelled out or written out in full, is this, that the apostles of Jesus Christ, who were Hebrews, and their fellow disciples, wrote the Christian Scriptures from Matthew’s Gospel account to Revelation in the Greek language, and in these Christian Greek Scriptures they wrote all the numbers spelled out in full, including the number at Acts 13:19, 20, which reads: “And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance, for about four hundred and fifty years: and after these things he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.” (American Standard Version) They did this spelling out of numbers in spite of the worldly Greek system of numbering with alphabetic letters. The only exception to this is at Revelation 13:18, which gives the “number of the beast” as or 666, which is a symbolical number. Let us remember that the Bible is just one Book from Genesis to Revelation, and hence it is reasonable and consistent that the style of spelling out numbers in the Greek portion of the Bible would be the same as that in the Hebrew portion. We therefore accept the number 480 as the number of years from the exodus from Egypt to the start of building of Solomon’s temple.—1 Ki. 6:1.

JEROBOAM II MISUSES PROSPERITY

ON A chilly day in 852 B.C. King Jeroboam of Israel and his courtiers buried his dead father, King Joash. (2 Ki. 13:13; 14:16) The dampness of the rainy season made the wind feel cold. Even the wailing of the professional mourners seemed to intensify the cold. As Jeroboam trudged along with the funeral procession he noticed that the once proud palace of his royal predecessors Omri and Ahab was in great need of repair. His whole capital, Samaria, was run-down. But, he thought, at that it is better than the tumble-down huts of David. (Amos 9:11, Moffatt) He remembered the damage his father had inflicted on the royal city of Judah to the south. (2 Ki. 14:13) But of all the booty his father had taken, all that remained was those miserable hostages. (2 Ki. 14 :'14) The gusts of cold, damp wind made him realize that he was not well clothed. As he looked at the rest of the procession he saw that even the vestments of the priests of the high places-showed much wear. The poverty of his tiny kingdom annoyed him; Israel was stripped of everything, of necessities as well as luxuries; indeed, the Israelites in the part of Israel freed by his father were faring no better than those in the part not yet liberated; the affliction was very bitter. (2 Ki. 14: 26) The plagues Israel was suffering were like those of Egypt.—Amos 4:10.

Jeroboam did not continue poverty-stricken. In accordance with Jehovah God’s word transmitted through the prophet Jonah, the Most High, by means of Jeroboam, helped and delivered Israel, restoring its territory from the entering of Hamath on the north to the Dead sea on the south. (2 Ki. 14:25-28) Jeroboam, rather than recognize that Jehovah had restored this dominion because it was not His purpose to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, preferred to boast that it was his own power that had done it: “You are so proud of Lo-Debar [in Gilead], you think you captured Karnaim [in Bashan] by your own strength.” (Amos 6:13, Moffatt) The great herds and flocks of sheep, asses, cattle and camels of the two and a half transjordanic tribes grazed from Aroer on the Arnon river on the south to the northern extremity of Anti-Lebanon on the north, thus reaching to the southern limit of Hamath. Eastward, toward the Euphrates river, they grazed to the desert and into it when the spring rains provided pasture in it. “The sons of Reuben, . . . whose settlements at Aroer reached the length of Nebo and Baal-meon, and stretched eastward as far as the opening of the desert ending at the river Euphrates—so numerous were their cattle in Gilead. Opposite them lived the sons of Gad, occupying the land of Bashan. . . . They lived in Gilead, in Bashan, in the townships, and in all the pasture lands of [Sharon] to their fullest extent. The members of the half-clan of Manasseh who lived in the country swarmed from Bashan to Baal-hermon and Senir.” All these were “enrolled in the genealogical registers during the reign of .. . Jeroboam king of Israel.”—1 Chron. 5:21, 3, 8, 9, 11, 16, 23, 17, Moffatt.

The booty of his conquests, the yearly tribute, and the resulting traffic, caused wealth to pour into Samaria. This wealth Jeroboam did not use to honor and glorify Jehovah, but to advance false worship (golden calves and images of other demon gods, such as the star-god Chiun), lavish building and sensuous pampering of himself and friends to the oppression of the poor.—Amos 3: 9, 10; 5: 26; 2 Ki. 14: 24.

In Samaria Jeroboam admires his rebuilt capital and often boasts of its beauty. He and his nobles have rebuilt the city on its oval-shaped hill. Its many cisterns filled with sparkling water keep the city well supplied with water. (1 Ki. 22:38) His unscrupulous and prosperous friends have built sumptuous mansions in Samaria and other cities, and outside of them; on the hills and in the valleys they have built beautiful summer homes surrounded by cooling trees and pleasing gardens.

Jeroboam has enlarged his palace to the west, extended its outer court and placed a strong rectangular tower on the south for its protection. As he walks in the new slab-paved court and looks westward between the columns of its fringing colonnade, he sees the waters of the Mediterranean sea. Turning south he sees the storehouse which he knows contains the notes or accounts of oil and wine he receives as royal revenue. Ah, that pure clarified wine that he and his friends so much enjoy and that fine oil that feels so good on the body! (Amos 6: 6, Am. Stan. Ver.) His eyes run over the many little ivory plaques inlaid on his furniture and palace walls, plaques depicting lotus, lilies, papyrus, palmettes, lions, bulls, deer, winged figures, figures in human form, sphinxes and figures of the demon-gods of Egypt. He proudly thinks, No palace in Egypt has more artistically adorned ivory panels.—Amos 3:15.

Later in the day the king receives word from Amaziah, his chief priest at the royal sanctuary at Bethel: “Amos is conspiring against you in the very midst of Israel, and the country cannot bear what he is saying. This is what he says, that Jeroboam is to die by the sword, and Israel to go into exile, far from his own country.” Jeroboam looks at the massive double walls surrounding Samaria’s flat summit, then looks at the strong walls on the middle terraces of Samaria’s hill and, farther, others on the lower slopes, and, beyond, the fertile green valley all around the hill. He bursts out in a derisive laughter and says: ‘How ridiculous to think that I and Israel shall fall!’ Then he commands sharply: ‘Have Amaziah tell that dreamer to run back home to Judah and earn his living there by playing the prophet; and never again to come to Bethel to prophesy, since there is the royal shrine, the national temple.’ (Amos 7:10-13, Moffatt) Jeroboam thought to himself, How I loathe and hate that Amos. I abhor him. (Amos 5:10) Then he muttered: ‘As thy god, 0 Bethel, liveth, I will not have that Judean Amos besmirch the national religion!’ (Amos 8:14, Am. Stan. Ver.) Then he comforted himself saying aloud: “Trouble will never touch us, never catch us.”—Amos 9:10, Moffatt.

At a banquet in the royal palace later in the day the royal family and the invited wealthy nobles and their families sprawl on luxurious ivory-inlaid divans, lolling on cushions covered with silk damask. (Amos 3:12; 6:4, Moffatt and Rotherham) The bejeweled ladies say to their sleek husbands: “Let us have wine to drink!” (Amos 4:1, Moffatt) As the king chats with his guests and compliments the shrewdness of their oppressive shady business deals (Amos 3:10; 8:4-6) they beam all over and, with ostentatious self-righteousness, emphasize the free-will gifts which they have given. The king pleases them with a promise to have public announcement made of their generous offerings. (Amos 4:5) Among the most prosperous of his guests are the priests and bribe-taking judges he has appointed. (Amos 5:12, Moffatt) Next, the royal servants bring in “fresh lamb and fatted veal”. (Amos 6:4, Moffatt) How Jeroboam enjoys it, from the first appetizing whiff to the last golden-brown morsel! Jeroboam and his guests lap wine by the bowlful as they croon to the accompaniment of lutes and lyres and other musical instruments they themselves have invented. Some of them even compose songs for themselves, and others dance to the music.—Amos 6:5, 6, Moffatt, An Amer. Trans., Am. Stan. Ver.

Because, though Jehovah greatly favored Israel in Jeroboam’s time and provided much material prosperity, Jeroboam and his associates did not use it to the honor and praise of God and in harmony with his will, but squandered it on demon-worship and oppression of the righteous and needy, Jehovah’s judgment of Jeroboam after his 41-year rule is: “He did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah.”—2 Ki. 14: 23, 24, Am. Stan. Ver.

IN A DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGE

THE following letter speaks for itself, and well gives an insight into the conditions obtaining doubtless generally in religious theological seminaries:

“At the age of fourteen I made what I felt to be a consecration to do God’s will, that is, to become a Methodist minister. I started with zeal, believing God’s Word to be true, and basing my faith upon it. However, my faith was soon dampened by the multitude of sects and churches all teaching many doctrines. I was bewildered at the lack of zeal of ‘Christians’ and the lack of purpose and integrity among those professing Christianity. Because of this situation, I was dismayed. It soon led to an individualistic attitude and a narrow life.

“Immediately upon finishing high school I went to my home-town university, Ohio Northern. This is a Methodist school. I went there as a preministerial student, taking a liberal arts course. Among the requirements was a year of Bible.

“The professor in Bible, a Methodist preacher, made this query before the class the very first day: ‘Is there anything in the Bible too sacred to be investigated in the light of science?’ He proceeded to show that there was not. Upon that basis then the Bible was taught the whole year, going through the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. The second day the professor showed how evolution was a more logical conclusion than that man was made perfect and fell as a result of Adam’s sin. Thus the story of creation was put in a class alongside of myth and superstition. All the Hebrew Scriptures were taught from a moral and social angle. According to this belief the prophets had no particular vision and were merely social reformers. The prophecies referring to Jesus really did not refer to Him. The Greek Scriptures were taught from the same standpoint. The stories concerning Jesus’ birth and miracles were myth and superstition. There was no personal Devil and hence those who had devils cast from them were merely ‘mentally sick’. Many other God-dishonoring teachings were taught, but time would not permit to tell all of them. At the meetings of our University ministerial association we used to laugh and tear the Bible apart. One would say, ‘I don’t believe in angels. What don’t you believe about the Bible?’ There was plenty of religion on the campus but no Christianity.

“To get away from this distressing situation, I applied for a student pastorate, knowing by doing this I would be able to drop school for about six months. Also I could confine my studies to the Bible and could preach what I wanted to. After six months of preaching, however, I was forced back into school by the authority of the church and the ministerial board. I was still studying to be a Methodist preacher, they said. This only brought the whole matter to a head, and three months after going back to school I told the district superintendent of the church that I was quitting my student charge and school to go down to a more fundamental school in Wilmore, Kentucky, Asbury. This was after I had already informed him I was going to quit the Methodist church and join the Christian and Missionary Alliance church. He told me I was a victim of a closed mind and gave me three modern books on the Bible to read, placing me on a kind of probation for two or three weeks. It finally ended that I quit my position as student pastor and went to Asbury College. Even there I found a love for worldly wisdom and for rank more than for the pure Word of God. There it was that I came to the conclusion that a worldly education was false and misleading as far as ever knowing the truth was concerned, and only a strict Bible education would now suffice. This was in the spring of the year 1946. Now I was certain I would never go back to any college, only to a Bible school.

“But while all this was going on in Kentucky, up home in Ohio Jehovah’s faithful servants were working my home town, and about the third time around, in a public meeting campaign, ‘The Kingdom Is at Hand' book was finally placed in my home. When I came home from college, that was one of the first books I picked up in the house. On first scanning it, I marked what I thought was false and what I thought was true, but finally came to the conclusion that the whole thing might be true, especially when I read in the concluding chapters about Christ having come in 1914 and that He was now ruling in the midst of His enemies, gathering His sheep into His fold.

"Then it was I remembered having met a Kingdom publisher in Lima, Ohio, on a street corner a year ago and also a young man from whom I obtained a Watchtower. I had merely thrown The Watchtower away at that time. The number of the block where the Kingdom Hall in Lima was located came to my mind, as the young woman had told me at the time to come to a meeting sometime.

“The following Sunday I took a bus from Ada to Lima, a distance of 20 miles, to have a talk with someone who knew something about this work. It so happened that Sunday evening that I opened the door of the Kingdom Hall, Lima, Ohio, and went upstairs. When I finally did open the door and climb the stairs, whom did I meet but the same man I had taken a Watchtower from a year ago on the street. For some strange reason he seemed overjoyed, and I did too. He bade me sit down and tell him what was on my mind. I began unveiling to him the above experiences I have just told, and he laughed out loud, but pardoned himself because, said he, he had heard that more people were in a condition just like me, one of confusion. By this time I was really curious and he began to tell me how there were three great corrupt systems controlling the earth, corrupt politics, corrupt religion, and corrupt commerce, and how religious leaders were working with politicians for control. I told him that wasn’t anything I didn’t already know by firsthand experience.

“Then he exploded the Tiell fire’ theory by quoting Revelation 20:13. That was a knock-out blow.

“After he explained many different things to me, I asked him in my distress what I was to do, because I knew opposition to this at home and college would be more than I could take at the time. He replied that there was an extra bed in the hall and that in this work I would have many fathers and mothers.

“The next day after having gone home, I came back and took advantage of that offer and lived up above the Kingdom Hall in Lima. In October of 1946 I started pioneering, and am continuing by Jehovah’s grace, having been immersed at the Cleveland Convention, in 1946.

“In looking back over this experience three things stand out vividly which I haven’t mentioned yet. I will always remember the power of Jehovah’s spirit, or active force, the power of God’s Word to turn back the lies of Satan, and the very evident enmity between Satan and God’s organization. These three things still burn in my memory and urge me on to greater service.”

GILEAD GRADUATES MISSIONARIES FOR AFRICA

AS PART of the graduation week-end events thirty-two of the tenth class of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead were thrilled to receive foreign missionary assignments for Africa. In spite of zero wintry weather, on February 8 there were 99 Canadian and American students graduated, 90 of whom received diplomas of merit.

The graduation exercises were held on Sunday morning at nine o’clock, before 647 assembled friends, relatives and guests of the class. Addresses were given by the servant in charge of the large farm on whose acres the school and campus are located, by the members of the faculty, by the president’s secretary, and by J. Steelman, a graduate of the first Gilead class and since active for several years in the Caribbean area. He counseled from experience on how to be a successful missionary in a foreign assignment. These preliminary discourses led up to the key address by the school’s president, N. H. Knorr.

“Are You Saved?” was the searching title of his discourse. It was clearly developed that settlement of the question is a vital and personal one for each individual. Salvation is open to all meek ones of all nations, but to gain it certain steps are necessary. It stems from Jehovah God through Christ Jesus alone. Active, public confession and preaching are necessary for the Christian to hold fast to salvation. There can be no turning back; to do so means loss of the benefits formerly gained. Development of this argument led into scoring the “universal salvation” doctrine of some religionists. The wicked are not saved, and those once saved can lose their blessed status if they become unfaithful. Eternal salvation is conditional upon day-to-day obedience. Hence, guarantee your salvation by enduring daily in Kingdom service. For the faithful the answer to the question “Are You Saved?” is Yes, thus far. May it always be Yes for all those of the graduating class, President Knorr concluded.

The diplomas and other gifts of the Society to the graduating students were passed out, accompanied by much applause from the assembled on-lookers. Specially enthusiastic hand-clapping greeted those graduates that Brother Knorr indicated were assigned to various parts of Africa. While only 32 had received definite foreign assignments to the “dark continent”, it was indicated that many more would be required to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding African field. Interest in this area for missionary activity had been whetted ten days prior to graduation, when Brother Knorr gave two travelogue lectures on his recent service tour in that continent. At that time he asked for volunteers willing to go to Africa to serve, and 90 percent responded.

At the conclusion of the graduation exercises one of the students rose, and on behalf of the entire class read a resolution endorsed by the graduates. It voiced firm resolve to hold aloft the gospel torch and sing praises unto Jehovah God among the nations.—Psalm 57: 9.

¹

Mark Lidzbarski, Handbuch der Nordscmitischen Epigraphik {Handbook of the North-Semitic Inscriptions} (1898), p. 198.

²

G. A. Reisner, Harvard Excavations at Samaria (1924), Vol. I.

³

Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Reseat ch, No. 80 (Dec., 1940); J. Finegan, Light from the Ancient Past (1946), pp. 161, 162.

⁴

W. F. Albright, “The Lachish Letters After Five Years,” in the Bull, of the Am. Sch. of Or. Res., No. 82 (April, 1941).

⁵

H. Torczyner, The Lachish Ostraca (1940), pp. 199, 200.

⁶

The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 1 (1939), under “Alphabet”, subhead “V. The Letters as Numerals”, p. 204.

⁷

The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 1 (1939), under “Alphabet”, p. 203; Encyclopedia Judaica (1928), Vol. 2, under “Alphabet”.

⁸

^s David Diringer, I/Alfabeto Nella Storia Della Civil td (1937), p. 721.

⁹

Friedrich Liibker, Reallexikon des Klassischen Altertums

¹⁰

[Encyclopedia of Classic Antiquity] (1914), under “Zahlen”, p. 1131.

¹¹

Lachish Ostraca, pp. 207, 201.

⁶ Ibid., p. 210.