In the US, when they introduced the donation arrangement in about 1990, the publication of the extraneous books like the Diaglott started to taper off. Before that, the money they charged for them paid at least for the printing cost, but after that, people just wouldn't donate for them. The deluxe NWT, the Diaglott, the KJ and ASV, the Bible in Living English; all that stuff just kind of went away after the inventories were depleted.
The Emphatic Diaglott, still being published by the WTB&TS for the benefit of ... NOT JWs but for Christadelphians, Church of God Holiness and Abrahamic Faith folks.
by illoowy 23 Replies latest jw friends
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slimboyfat
Exactly so. Before 1990 Watchtower’s primary function was as a publisher of religious material, which is why they were interested in publishing various Bible versions, concordances, calendars, and so on. When it no longer made a profit they progressively lost interest in publishing the Diaglott and other various items, up to recent years when Yearbooks and many other items were discontinued or decreased in volume. Watchtower now has a severe money shortage because they no longer make a profit from publishing. They have been living off sales of property for years but this won’t last forever. -
Disillusioned JW
I "bought" my first KJV (a WT edition) and ASV (a WT edition) I think in the early 1990s. I had to wait years before the WT announced in a KM that they were available again for ordering. It was easy for me to order them (when they were available) since I was the literature dept. servant at the time. [The booklet which listed the items that could be ordered classified them, the leather/deluxe Bibles, and the KIT as controlled stock items, meaning the KH was not to stock up on many of them (if any) as inventory at any given time, but could order them if people in the congregation requested a copy to be ordered for them.]
When I started looking up WT "proof texts" in the KJV for a number of WT doctrines I noticed that many of the verses in the KJV were incompatible (or more difficult to use) for proving some of the WT doctrines. That made me concerned for awhile. As a result, after learning that, from that point on when I witnessed door-to-door I only used in my reasoning those verses which also worked in the KJV, since I knew people at the door respect the KJV and don't use the NWT. I didn't manage to place much WT literature or start many studies.
dropoffyourkeylee and slimboyfat that is very interesting what you both say about the controlled stock items are no longer available for being ordered from the WT. It is also interesting regarding what was said about the WT having a severe money shortage. Br. Russell (I still use "Br." when referring to him) said something to the effect of 'if the time ever comes when the Lord doesn't support the work financially and that thus the WT Society can't pay its bills without pleading for money, then it would cease operations.'
http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com/russell2.html is very interesting. I wonder how much of it is true. So far I have only read the very first part of it since the page is very long. It is about have the various legal entities of the JW religion (or 'business") are set up legally and suggests how they are controlled, perhaps even in a way for personal profit.
Last time I checked the Diaglott (other than old editions prior to the 1940s) typically receive about $10 plus shipping cost in eBay auctions. I plan to keep my Diaglott and 1985 KIT, for now, for personal study of the Bible and to see how the NWT and other Bibles compare to the Greek text and Diaglott's and KIT' interlinear renderings of the Greek text. If I write a book with the aim to convincing JWs to leave the JW religion I would probably quote from WT editions of those books, thus I should keep them for that purpose.
The Byington Bible I have is one I bought at a local Goodwill Outlet thrift store. I don't like the translation of that Bible, since to me it is considerably harder to understand. As a result, I don't plan to keep that Bible.
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Disillusioned JW
Where I said "... about have the various ..." I should have said "... about how the various ...".