Expert: Thomas Hussein - 11/23/2007

Question
I was reading about Jehovah's witnesses to learn more about your religion. I read a little about Mr. Russell then researched him. I read that he prophesised Jesus was going to return in 1914. When 1914 came and went and he did not  return, Mr. Russell claimed he did return just invisiblely. Also I have read that Mr. Russell is also the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses Bible or one of the influences of the new translation of the holy scriptures. I was wondering what your input is on the subject. Thank you for your time and God Bless.

Answer
Hello Wayne,

--Thanks for your inquiry.  One thing about Bro. Russell, which is true of any of us, is that he did not claim any inspiration of any kind!  That inspiration ended at the Apostle Johns death!
--He and other sincere Bible students  felt strongly in accord with their understanding of Jesus own words  in particular Matthew 24  &  Rev. 12!--THAT THERE was indeed an application to his words for the "time of the end" , which we understand started in 1914 along with Christ's invisible presence!

--An accurate translation other than ours that translates Jesus words at Matthew 24:3,  as his "presence" or "parousia" RATHER than "coming"is made here:

***MATTHEWE 24: YOUNGS LITERAL TRANSLATION

Matthew 24:3

View commentary related to this passage

3"And when he is sitting on the mount of the Olives, the disciples came near to him by himself, saying, `Tell us, when shall these be? and what [is] the sign of thy presence, and of the full end of the age?'"

--IF HIS RETURN was to be visible why would there have to be a sign of his being here?
--WHEN HE was on earth he was recognized as the Christ or messiah by his teachings, wisdom there was no sign given because he was their, visible!  The miracles he performed were after people began to recognize him and the disciples were already following him!

---IN MATTHEW 24:3-12, he states what people would need to observe in order to recognize his invisible presence, in our time:
`7 "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places;
8 and all these [are] the beginning of sorrows;
9 then they shall deliver you up to tribulation, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated by all the nations because of my name;
10 and then shall many be stumbled, and they shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another.
11`And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray;
12 and because of the abounding of the lawlessness, the love of the many shall become cold;
14 and this good news of the reign shall be proclaimed in all the world, for a testimony to all the nations; and then shall the end arrive."

**PLEASE NOTE a commentary on the mistranslation of the word "coming" that misplaced the word "parousia" or presence--to have a profound meaning:

*** Rbi8 pp. 1576-1577 5B Christ’s Presence (Parousia) ***

5B Christ’s Presence (Parousia)

Mt 24:3—Gr., τὸ σημεῖον τῆς σῆς παρουσίας

1864  “the SIGN of THY presence”     The Emphatic Diaglott
                                    (J21), by Benjamin Wilson,
                                    New York and London.

1897  “the sign of thy presence”     The Emphasised Bible,
                                    by J. B. Rotherham,
                                    Cincinnati.

1903  “the signal of Your presence”  The Holy Bible in Modern
                                    English, by F. Fenton, London.

1950  “the sign of your presence”    New World Translation of
                                    the Christian Greek
                                    Scriptures, Brooklyn.

The Greek noun pa·rou·si′a literally means a “being alongside,” the expression being drawn from the preposition pa·ra′ (alongside) and ou·si′a (a “being”). The word pa·rou·si′a occurs 24 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures, namely, in Mt 24:3, 27, 37, 39; 1Co 15:23; 16:17; 2Co 7:6, 7; 10:10; Php 1:26; 2:12; 1Th 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2Th 2:1, 8, 9; Jas 5:7, 8; 2Pe 1:16; 3:4, 12; 1Jo 2:28. In these 24 places the New World Translation renders pa·rou·si′a as “presence.”

The related verb pa′rei·mi literally means “be alongside.” It occurs 24 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures, namely, in Mt 26:50; Lu 13:1; Joh 7:6; 11:28; Ac 10:21, 33; 12:20 (ftn); 17:6; 24:19; 1Co 5:3, 3; 2Co 10:2, 11; 11:9; 13:2, 10; Ga 4:18, 20; Col 1:6; Heb 12:11; 13:5; 2Pe 1:9, 12; Re 17:8. In these places the New World Translation renders pa′rei·mi as “(be) present” or “present himself.”

From the contrast that is made between the presence and the absence of Paul both in 2Co 10:10, 11 and in Php 2:12, the meaning of pa·rou·si′a is plain. Also, from the comparison of the pa·rou·si′a of the Son of man with the “days of Noah,” in Mt 24:37-39, it is evident that this word means “presence.”

Liddell and Scott’s A Greek-English Lexicon (LS), p. 1343, gives as the first definition of pa·rou·si′a the English word presence. Likewise TDNT, Vol. V, p. 859, states under the subheading “The General Meaning”: “παρουσία [pa·rou·si′a] denotes esp[ecially] active presence.”

The word pa·rou·si′a, “presence,” is different from the Greek word e′leu·sis, “coming,” which occurs once in the Greek text, in Ac 7:52, as e·leu′se·os (Lat., ad·ven′tu). The words pa·rou·si′a and e′leu·sis are not used interchangeably. TDNT, Vol. V, p. 865, noted that “the terms [pa′rei·mi and pa·rou·si′a] are never used for the coming of Christ in the flesh, and παρουσία never has the sense of return. The idea of more than one parousia is first found only in the later Church [not before Justine, second century C.E.] . . . A basic prerequisite for understanding the world of thought of primitive Christianity is that we should fully free ourselves from this notion [of more than one parousia].”

Concerning the meaning of this word, Israel P. Warren, D.D., wrote in his work The Parousia, Portland, Maine (1879), pp. 12-15: “We often speak of the ‘second advent,’ the ‘second coming,’ etc., but the Scriptures never speak of a ‘second Parousia.’ Whatever was to be its nature, it was something peculiar, having never occurred before, and being never to occur again. It was to be a presence differing from and superior to all other manifestations of himself to men, so that its designation should properly stand by itself, without any qualifying epithet other than the article,—THE PRESENCE.

“From this view of the word it is evident, I think, that neither the English word ‘coming’ nor the Latin ‘advent’ is the best representative of the original. They do not conform to its etymology; they do not correspond to the idea of the verb from which it is derived; nor could they appropriately be substituted for the more exact word, ‘presence,’ in the cases where the translators used the latter. Nor is the radical [root] idea of them the same. ‘Coming’ and ‘advent’ give most prominently the conception of an approach to us, motion toward us; ‘parousia’ that of being with us, without reference to how it began. The force of the former ends with the arrival; that of the latter begins with it. Those are words of motion; this of rest. The space of time covered by the action of the former is limited, it may be momentary; that of the latter unlimited . . . .

“Had our translators done with this technical word ‘parousia’ as they did with ‘baptisma,’—transferring it unchanged,—or if translated using its exact etymological equivalent, presence, and had it been well understood, as it then would have been, that there is no such thing as a ‘second Presence,’ I believe that the entire doctrine would have been different from what it now is. The phrases, ‘second advent,’ and ‘second coming,’ would never have been heard of. The church would have been taught to speak of THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, as that from which its hopes were to be realized, whether in the near future or at the remotest period,—that under which the world was to be made new, a resurrection both spiritual and corporeal should be attained, and justice and everlasting awards administered.”

Also, Bauer, p. 630, states that pa·rou·si′a “became the official term for a visit of a person of high rank, esp[ecially] of kings and emperors visiting a province.” In Mt 24:3, as well as in other texts such as 1Th 3:13 and 2Th 2:1, the word pa·rou·si′a refers to the royal presence of Jesus Christ since his enthronement as King in the last days of this system of things."

***I WILL provide more information of what the brothers before 1914 stated and how they presented the prophecies of Jesus and others as the application to 1914 being a marked time in Bible history...........