Hello. I was wondering if someone could kindly answer my question: Is there a new, "24 elders" class of people? I was baptized a long time ago - in 1976. I also faded a long time ago; I left in '78 or so. In any case, at that time, the Witnesses generally spoke of two groups or classes of people - the so-called "annointed" consisting of the 144,000 with the heavenly hope, and the so called "large crowd" whose hope was to inherit an earthly paradise. But recently, I have read about the so-called 24 elders group. Is this "new light". Exactly to whom does this term apply? Does it refer to the Governing body? I would appreciate any info that you could give me. Thank you.
Does the "24 Elders Class" constitute a New Class?
by Rapunzel 3 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Narkissos
Watchtower 7/1, 1995:
What glory awaits those privileged to share in the heavenly calling! And what a delight it is to learn of the wonders that await them! The book of Revelation gives us thrilling glimpses of their heavenly inheritance. For example, at Revelation 4:4, we read: "Round about the throne [of Jehovah] there are twenty-four thrones, and upon these thrones I saw seated twenty-four elders dressed in white outer garments, and upon their heads golden crowns." These 24 elders are anointed Christians, resurrected and now occupying the heavenly position Jehovah promised them. Their crowns and thrones remind us of their royalty. Think, too, of their wondrously high privilege of serving around Jehovah’s throne!
It seems that the interpretative nuance is "the anointed once they are in heaven". I don't remember the WT using the "24 elders" to describe the anointed on earth (whether within or outside the Governing Body). But those are far memories for me too...
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Rapunzel
Narkissos - Je vous remercie d'avoir repondu a ma question; je l'apprecie beaucoup. I must say that I find this interpretive nuance rather arbitrary and baffling. Specifically, i t baffles me how they can vacillate between the number 24 and the number 144,000 in designating the same group of people. As is well known, the Witnesses claim that the number 144,000 is a literal number; and this idea is itself an exception that runs counter to their tendency to ascribe a symbolic meaning to other numbers, i.e., they claim that the numbers seven (7) and twelve (12) are symbolic of completion and perfection, while 6 is symbolic of imperfection in that it falls short of 7. However, in turn, they use the number 24 to symbolically represent the formerly literal 144,000 as a collective "installed" in heaven. Thus, the number 24 becomes an exception to the exception?!?! On earth, these "annointed" are designated by the literal number 144,000 while in heaven, this same group is then designated by the symbolic number 24? Why does a literal number on Earth become a symbolic designation in heaven? Je n'y comprends rien!!
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Narkissos
BonsoirRapunzel,
Yes that inconsistency about "literal" and "symbolical" numbers crossed my mind too (of course from this perspective the most blatant one is in chapter 7, where the 12 tribes of 12,000 each are understood as symbolical yet their sum, 144,000, is construed as literal!).
It may also be interesting to note that while the "anointed" are supposed to be "resurrected" after the intronisation of Jesus in WT chronology, the 24 elders of Revelation are already around the throne of God before the slaughtered Lamb enters in chapter 5.