Having received a copy of the new Watchtower Library CD, I decided to do a comparison of what actually changed with the updated Revelation book. I was expecting some significant changes with some 'new light' for the 'trumpet blasts' or other 'important' stuff, but in all, I thought the changes were mostly quite mundane, though some seem a little crafty for different reasons. Any thoughts...
Throughout
- removed almost all references to “Watchtower Society” and “President of the Watchtower Society”
- changed references to cited publications “published by Watchtower Society” to “Jehovah's Witnesses” (or “Bible Students” pre-1931)
- footnotes citing Watchtower and Awake refer to newer articles
- footnotes about 1914 replace Kingdom Come with Bible Teach
- footnotes about Daniel replace Your Will with Daniel's Prophecy
- uncapitalised “serpent” (Satan) (but becomes capitalised in chapter 27, 28 and 40)
- capitalised “Witnesses”
- removed most references to Luke 21:24-26
- removed most references to Matthew 25:31-33
- changed “Judea” to “Judaea”
- various statistics updated
- changed “20th century” to “our day” or similar
Chapter 8
- changed number of errors identified in 1919 regarding 1918 trial
- “hundreds executed” changed to “200”
Chapter 12
- changed “many early missionaries” to “some”
Chapter 13
- inserted “judgment evidently began in 1918”
Chapter 14
- changed “modern astronauts” to “human” (The Weirdest Change award goes to this one)
Chapter 16
- removed “nations and people being judged”
- changed “accidental nuclear war mathematically certain in next 25 years” to “possible”
Chapter 18
- changed ‘threat’ from “nuclear holocaust” to “terrorism”
- removed reference to Jeremiah 17:5
- changed “world has been rocked and shaken by JW warnings” to “put on notice”
- changed “the Lamb will wipe out every tear” to “Jehovah”
- inserted "anointed might still be remaining"
Chapter 21
- changed “goatlike group described by Isaiah” to “those”
Chapter 24
- changed “goatlike people” to “opponents”
Chapter 25
- removed “justice tempered with mercy”
- changed placement of ‘42 months’ from “October 1914 into 1918” to “December 1914 to June 1918”
- changed “outbreak of first world war” to “December 1914”
Chapter 27
- changed “10000 imprisoned in Nazi camps” to “12000”
- changed “thousands died” to “2000”
- inserted “change of government policy on non-Catholic religions”
Chapter 28
- changed “It [successor to League of nations=UN] expelled nations” to “League of Nations”
Chapter 30
- changed “in 539BC” to “after”
- changed “in the 1870s” to “by”
Chapter 32
- removed “Satan is now maneuvering nations towards saying "Peace and Security"”
Chapter 33
- changed ‘Pope made no mention of Christ” to ‘very little attention’
Chapter 34
- retains 1 reference to NH Knorr as WTS president, and *adds* “of Watch Tower Society” to related footnote (removes all other references to “Watchtower Society” or “President”)
- removed “diabolical nuclear age”
- changed “more than 5000 solidiers were killed” to “as many as 5000 people”
- changed “there will be a significant cry of "Peace and Security" before sudden destruction” to ‘the prophecy will not be understood until after it happens’
Chapter 38
- changed punctuation of quoted Revelation 9:1-3 to include “And the smoke from her goes on ascending forever and ever” as part of the spoken statement following “Hallelujah”.
- changed “No doubt, anointed who survive will soon enter heaven” to “If any anointed survive…”
Chapter 41
- added “if any of the anointed are still alive”
Chapter 43
- changed “river flows after the destruction of Satan’s world” to “river flows during the time of the end, and thereafter”
- changed “trees may picture 144,000” to “include”
