It struck me this past year, with respect to JW teachings about the timing of Genesis 1, that even in things that really have no impact on what most JWs think of as "core doctrine" the Watchtower Society sticks to its traditions over what the Bible says. This was again brought home in the September, 2006 Awake! articles on Creation.
In the NWT, Genesis 1:1 reads: "In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
The Society claims that this verse allows for the 4.5 billion years that modern scientists have determined is the age of the earth, since it refers to a "beginning" after which six creative days and a rest day followed. But Exodus clearly says different:
Remembering the sabbath day to hold it sacred, 9 you are to render service and you must do all your work six days. 10 But the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You must not do any work, you nor your son nor your daughter, your slave man nor your slave girl nor your domestic animal nor your alien resident who is inside your gates. 11 For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and he proceeded to rest on the seventh day. That is why Jehovah blessed the sabbath day and proceeded to make it sacred. Exodus 20:8-11
Six days may work be done, but on the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest. It is something holy to Jehovah. Anyone doing work on the sabbath day will positively be put to death. 16 And the sons of Israel must keep the sabbath, so as to carry out the sabbath during their generations. It is a covenant to time indefinite. 17 Between me and the sons of Israel it is a sign to time indefinite, because in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day he rested and proceeded to refresh himself. Exodus 31:15-17
Just as the sabbath was the last of seven literal 24-hour days, so must have been the day on which Jehovah rested, and so must have been the other six creative days. No ancient Jew reading these passages would conclude otherwise. Both Exodus 20:11 and 31:17 state clearly that "in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1 mentions "the heavens and the earth" as well, and therefore "the beginning" must have been part of the "six days" of creation.
Thus, Exodus defines the meaning of Genesis 1:1, against nearly 130 years of Watchtower claims to the contrary. Clearly, the Society rejects the Bible in favor of its tradition.
Now, some Watchtower apologists might want to argue that the creative days were really 7,000 years long, based on the Society's argument that the seventh, or rest day of Jehovah, appears to be about 7,000 years long according to Watchtower chronology and doctrine. But this does not solve the basic problem, which is that Exodus lumps the creation of the heavens and the earth in with the six days of creation. So if each day were 7,000 years long, and we are now about 6,000 years into the "rest day", "the beginning" must have been about 48,000 years ago. But scientifically this is nonsense. The Watchtower Society realizes this, which is why it adamantly claims that those nasty young-earth creationists are anti-biblical, since they teach that the heavens and the earth were created only some 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, based solely on their view of the Bible. In view of Exodus 20 and 31, and Genesis 1, then, who is actually taking the Bible at its word?
The Society is well aware that a teaching that the earth is only 6,000 or 48,000 years old would bring ridicule upon it -- even and perhaps especially from long-time JWs. It also realizes that both positions are equally ridiculous. So what does it now teach? Nothing specific. It simply claims that "the beginning" was an unknown but long time ago, perhaps the 4.5 billion years assigned by scientists, and that the creative days were "millennia long". But this wording is a total cop-out. Why? Because it doesn't commit to a position. Why is this important to Watchtower leaders? Because they know very well that committing to the scientific position that life has been on the earth for hundreds of millions of years would break the faith in the Society of tens of thousands of older JWs who were brought up on the "7,000 year creative day" nonsense, and they can't afford that. They also know that such committing would be extremely problematic for the hundreds of thousands of young JWs who are well aware from their secular schooling that the universe is billions of years old.
The Society is well aware that Exodus poses an insoluble problem for its tradition, because it has carefully refrained from commenting on it in any literature I've been able to find indexed, from 1930 to the present and in the Watchtower Reprints Index which covers Watch Tower articles from 1879 through 1919 and topics in Studies in the Scriptures. As anyone who has carefully studied Watchtower literature knows, it even refuses to quote from the very Bible it claims to revere whenever such direct quotation blows away its claims. Rather, it paraphrases the Bible, adding or subtracting whatever is needed to support its tradition.
I hope this topic is of interest to people.
AlanF