Excellent dissertation Sacoton!
I do remember pretty well, at the beginning of the fifties the old man, who was an anointed, who came home to study with us kids, and who taught us all these fabulous “prophetic figures” one of which was actually the Jonadabs.
I learned very early the significance, that is to say, that they represented the FDS, but NEVER did I realize that they referred, at that time, exclusively to the rest of the anointed ones still alive in 1935, excluding the FDS.
I do remember, and I taught it as an elder, that the “witnesses” mentioned in Isaiah 43:10 were “basically” the anointed remnant, since in 1931, when they took up the name, they were the only ones attending the conventions where the name was adopted.
I never recalled, of course, I was in fact not born, that the book “Salvation” edited in 1939, specifically made the distinction between the Jonadabs and the anointed in those explicit terms:
“ Jonadab becomes a companion of and walks with the anointed followers of Christ Jesus, the remnant, Jehovah's witnesses now on the earth. ”
At that time, 4 years had already elapsed since the GC was identified, and they were still NOT considered Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The other publications cited by you, namely 1998, 1975 and 1964, although they refer explicitly to the “Witnesses” of Isaiah being the anointed ones, they do not seem exclude, on the other hand, the GC as being AS WELL members of the same entity, the JW organization, as this was the case in 1939.
WHEN, therefore, did the WT subtly enlarged its interpretation to include the FDS as members of the JW entity?
Specially now, that the GB seems to be the ONLY FDS, both the famous special remnant and the GC, seem to be ONE group, the JW, under the direction and diktat of the GB.
Believe that this is the usual way of acting of the WT.
For a while they teach a given interpretation, then, similarly to what has happened to the 7000 years long “creation days”, the teaching is NEVER officially dropped or modified, but you sense that there was a change and all of a sudden, no one seems to remember that the WT use to teach creation days of 7000 years each, THE BASIS FOR THE 1975 date calculation!
When a teaching is too cumbersome to sustain, or to awkward to continue to be taught, because of different circumstances, it is very cleverly made to fade away from the collective memory of the JW.
If anyone can trace the “moment” the change occurred, it would be interesting to highlight it.
Thanks for the in depth analysis.
Nick!
