(A week or two ago I
was advised by Rachael that a good number of people were still accessing an article
I wrote on Benjamin Wilson’s Diaglott way back in 2011. Since a little extra information
has been found since then, she suggested I might republish an updated version.
So this is it, and it may be of interest to some newer blog readers. Jerome.)
Although the Emphatic Diaglott
and its publication by the Watch Tower Society come a little later than the
period being researched on this blog, this translation had a major role to play
in the early history of the Society.
This article will review that
history briefly, but is mainly written to reveal who actually obtained the
plates and gave the copyright to the Watch Tower Society in 1902.
Benjamin Wilson’s Emphatic
Diaglott was first published in one volume in 1864 after being issued as a
part-work starting August 1858 with Wilson’s journal The Gospel Banner. The
version published by Fowler and Wells of New York was widely used by various Adventist
and Age to Come groups, and the main Age to Come newspaper The Restitution partly
grew out of The Gospel Banner. Wilson had been a friend of John Thomas, founder
of the Christadelphians, but the two ultimately had doctrinal differences and
split. While Thomas founded the Christadelphians, Wilson – although strongly
anti-organization - had a major role in the founding of the Church of God of Abrahamic
Faith. Today, the descendants of his group are usually called the Church of the
Blessed Hope or Abrahamic Faith – a faction who did not join the Church of God General
Conference in 1920.
Its connection with our history
starts when one of Nelson Barbour’s readers, Benjamin Keith, hit upon Wilson’s
translation of the Greek word “parousia” as “presence” rather than “coming”.
This set minds working on an apparently failed prediction for Christ’s second
coming in 1874. If the coming was an invisible presence (although that was not
how Wilson would understand the matter) then their expectations had actually
been fulfilled – but invisibly. This view ultimately became a major part of Charles
Taze Russell’s belief system. (Hereafter abbreviated to CTR).
Once established, Zion’s Watch
Tower Society highly endorsed the Diaglott. In Old Theology Quarterly for April
1893 “Friendly Hints on Bible Study and Students’ Helps” pages 9 and 10, the
Diaglott is highly recommended as “another of God’s special blessings for our
day...While we cannot say this work is perfect, we can say that we know of no
other translation of the New Testament so valuable to the critical student –
and this includes all to whom we write.”
Early copies had a note pasted
in the front entitled A Friendly Criticism, which detailed some doctrinal
differences between CTR and Wilson. While praising the work highly, the note
drew attention to certain issues such as a personal devil, the pre-human
existence of Jesus and his resurrected state - where the actual interlinear and
Wilson’s own English version were not thought to harmonize.
At the same time, The
Restitution paper carried an advertisement for the Diaglott each week for
several decades.
Wilson died in
1900. Shortly after, in 1902, the copyright to the Diaglott was obtained for
the Watch Tower Society, and they became its publisher for nearly one hundred
years. Anyone who wanted to obtain a Diaglott now had to contact the Watch
Tower Society.
The journal “Christadelphian
Tidings of the Kingdom of God” for January 2009 in its article “Reflections”
commented on how some erroneously thought the Diaglott to be a product of
Russellism. It explained that “the confusion probably arises because the copyright for The
Diaglott was purchased in the early 20th century by an anonymous buyer who then
donated it to the Watchtower Society.”
The article viewed the Watch Tower Society’s publishing
the work as “a sad, ironic twist of history.” It stressed there was no evidence
that Wilson ever came in contact with Millennial Dawn.
This conflicts with a claim made in Consolation magazine
for November 8, 1944, page 4 which states “Mr Wilson knew of the truth, and it
is reported that he at one time attended some of the meetings of Jehovah’s
people, but disagreed on certain fundamental issues.” It must be said that this
is unreferenced information
written decades after events, and the words “it is reported” do not necessarily
bode well. There are a number of other Diaglott references from Consolation
magazine in the 1940s. They state that the Diaglott “was produced about 1867”
(February 3, 1943, page 29), that the “Society bought the plates and
publication rights from the author, Mr Wilson” (February 3, 1943, page 29), and
that Wilson “was a Christadelphian” (November 22, 1944, page 30). We now know
that all these statements are incorrect. While the Consolation writers analysed
the Diaglott’s strengths effectively, they obviously had limited historical
records at their disposal.
What CAN be easily established today is that Wilson would
certainly have known of Millennial Dawn and CTR. Wilson wrote for The
Restitution almost up to the time of his death in 1900, and The Restitution regularly
reviewed CTR’s works and activities. Wilson was also a special contributor to
The Millenarian when it reviewed CTR’s Divine Plan of the Ages in February 1887.
And a nephew of Wilson wrote a booklet attacking CTR’s theology.
There is also an account of several meetings between Wilson and ZWT Pilgrim
J A Bohnet in 1892. Bohnet wrote up the experience many years later in an
article on the front page of the St Paul Enterprise for April 4, 1916. He
described how CTR had provided Wilson’s address, and how Bohnet visited Wilson
several times at his home in Sacramento, California. Amongst other things they
discussed CTR’s Friendly Criticism paste-in mentioned above. It was obviously
amicable, but there was no meeting of minds – they remained divided on a number
of issues including their understanding of the ransom and the pre-existence of
Christ.
What does come out from their conversations as recorded by Bohnet is
that reports that Wilson objected to CTR using his work so extensively were
denied by Wilson. He was also asked point blank whether he was a Christadelphian?
Wilson’s answer was, “No, I am a member of no organized denomination.”
Much misinformation has been circulated over how the
Watch Tower Society obtained the rights to the Diaglott.
The book “Jehovah’s Witnesses –
A Comprehensive and Selectively Annotated Bibliography” published by Greenwood
Press in 1999, is one such example. On page 61 it relates how Benjamin Wilson (or
as it calls him, Professor Wilson) wanted to sell the rights to the Diaglott
because he got into serious financial trouble, but blocked CTR’s attempts to
buy them. CTR then used a third party to keep his name out of it, so that
Wilson couldn’t stop him. When Wilson discovered CTR had obtained the rights by
such a devious method he publicly claimed there were numerous errors in the
Diaglott anyway and he was going to produce a revised edition. No supporting
references are given for this story, there is no record of anything of the sort
in The Restitution – as already noted above, this was a paper with plenty to
say about CTR on other issues - and history records that Wilson had been dead
for a couple of years when the rights changed hands. We can safely discount such
anecdotes as fantasy – with an obvious agenda.
Returning to the above quotation from “Christadelphian
Tidings”, their reference to an anonymous buyer harkens back to the Society’s
own description of the event. The Proclaimers book on page 606 made the comment:
“That
same year (1902), the Watch Tower Society came into possession of the printing
plates for The Emphatic Diaglott...Those plates and the
sole right of publication had been purchased and then given as a gift to the
Society.”
The original reference comes from the back
page of the Watch Tower for December 15, 1902 (which is not in the reprints).
In offering the Diaglott as part of a list of available publications, the blurb
stated:
“For several years a friend, an earnest Bible student,
desirous of assisting the readers of our Society's publications, has supplied
them through us at a greatly reduced price; now he has purchased the copyright
and plates from the Fowler & Wells Co., and presented the same to our
Society as a gift, under our assurance that the gift will be used for the
furthering of the Truth to the extent of our ability, by such a reduction of
price as will permit the poor of the Lord's flock to have this help in the
study of the Word. REDUCED PRICES.--These will be sold with ZION'S WATCH TOWER
only.”
So who was this earnest Bible student, anonymous friend
and benefactor?
The answer was established in a court hearing in 1907.
And it is not rocket science to guess who it really was.
In 1903 Maria Russell initiated court proceedings against
CTR for what ultimately resulted in a divorce from bed and board – an official
separation, but one where neither she nor CTR were ever legally free to
remarry. Much hinged on the issue of financial support, and in April 1907
testimony was taken on CTR’s financial situation. Maria tried to establish that CTR still had considerable funds,
whereas CTR testified that, bit by bit, he had already donated his assets to
the WT Society. CTR was questioned at length about his financial affairs over
previous years.
The Bible House had been turned
over to the Society in 1898 and other properties subsequently – including the
house Maria had lived in up to 1903. Now they were in 1907, CTR testified he
had a small bank balance and an arrangement for board and lodging for the
duration of his natural life.
However, the court testimony
shows quite clearly that, back in 1902, and for a little while thereafter, CTR
still retained direct control of funds in his own name. And in the details of
this testimony he explained quite openly just how the Society obtained the
Diaglott.
He stressed that the aim had
been to allow as many as possible to obtain the Diaglott, and so had made it
available on a not for profit basis.
Quoting from pages 204-205 of
the transcript of the April 1907 hearing, CTR said (and CAPITALS MINE):
“We publish also a brief New
Testament, with an interlinear translation in English, and the marginal
translation. It was published originally and for many years, for 30 or 40
years, by Fowler and Wells, of New York. THE PLATES WERE PRESENTED TO THE
SOCIETY BY MYSELF. The Society had certain corrections made in the new plates
etc., as they were considerably worn, and the edition which Fowler and Wells
retailed at $4.00 and wholesaled at $2.66 – 2/3 the Society is now publishing
at $1.50 per copy, and it includes postage of 16 cents on this, and as they are
nearly all purchased by subscribers to the Watch Tower it goes additional with
each volume, and in his subscription to the journal; that is to say, that the
Watch Tower for the year and this book that was formerly sold for $4.00 go
altogether, with postage included, for $1.50, WITH THE VIEW OF INTERESTING
PEOPLE IN THE WATCH TOWER PUBLICATION, and permitting the Watch Tower
subscribers to have the Diaglott in every home possible.”
So before CTR donated his
remaining assets to the Watch Tower Society, he was able to donate the plates personally
to the Watch Tower Society.
The repairs to the plates
extended the life of the Diaglott, and the new price made it more accessible to
the public. In addition, throwing in a year’s Watch Tower subscription as part
of the deal was adroit proselytizing. For instance, any newcomers to the world
of The Restitution who wanted a Diaglott (or just wanted to replace a copy),
now had to approach the Watch Tower Society for one. It was perhaps not
surprising that attacks on CTR’s theology intensified in The Restitution in the
early 20th century.
However, this leaves us with
the question: Why did CTR chose to remain anonymous, referring instead to a
nameless benefactor?
It is here this writer is on
shaky ground, because we have no direct way of knowing. But I can suggest two
reasons why CTR might have done this.
First, there are his comments
in the booklet A Conspiracy Exposed and Harvest Siftings published in 1894.This
detailed CTR’s recent difficulties with certain individuals. One was an Elmer
Bryan, who made certain accusations against CTR and brought two other brothers
(H Weber and M Tuttle) to see him to apply the steps of Matthew 18:15-17. As
recorded in the booklet, Brothers Weber and Tuttle heard both parties out and came
to the conclusion that Bryan’s accusations were ridiculous. One involved the
use of the pseudonym Mrs C B Lemuels (of behalf of Maria Russell) in advertising
material some years previously. In dispatching this criticism, CTR said on page
45: “Besides, I bring my own name as little into prominence as possible. This
will be noticed in connection with everything I have published – the O(ld)
T(heology) Tracts, the DAWNS, etc.”
Looking at the tract series and
early editions of the Dawns (Studies) one would be hard put to discover the
author. CTR indeed kept quite a low profile. In some respects this was to
change when the newspaper sermon work got off the ground. Newspapers wanted
personalities and CTR reluctantly became one. But that was further down the
line.
But that basic desire to keep a
personal name out of matters may have influenced CTR’s decision to donate the
Diaglott without claiming personal credit.
A second related reason may be
tied to another comment from A Conspiracy Exposed, this time page 40. In
connection with a business matter, CTR made the comment that he “preferred to
avoid any unnecessary notoriety.” Had the world known that CTR had bought the
plates and the rights from Fowler and Wells, there could have been uproar in
certain quarters. This writer would theorize that if various Age to Come groups
who used the Diaglott knew for certain that CTR had personally brought their
baby under his control – and now would only make it available with a year’s worth
of his journal – promoting his brand of heresy as they saw it – then cries of “Foul”
and “Unfair” would ring out loud and clear.
There would be rumbles whatever
happened, but no name – no direct blame. An anonymous benefactor leading to a
publishing organisation generously providing the volume at reduced cost to all
was far better P.R.
In fact, CTR did the public a great
service. He rescued the Diaglott from potential oblivion with the state of the
plates as they were. Then that reduction from $4.00 to $1.50 was well worth
having. And for around a hundred years thereafter, the Watch Tower Society made
this translation readily available to all. Ultimately the copyright expired and
the Society’s inventory dwindled. Since 2004, groups like the Abrahamic Faith
Beacon Publishing Society published their own version and viewed the
translation as “coming home”. Interestingly, the modern versions published have
retailed at a far higher price than the Watchtower Society ever charged, even
when they did have a fixed contribution for literature.
