Hurlbut, ebay and WT plagiarism

by Odrade 4 Replies latest jw friends

  • Odrade
    Odrade

    Last week I picked up an old book on ebay called "Hurlbut's Story of the Bible." It's an illustrated "bible" that is arranged by stories, with pictures. Many of them have morals to be learned, some tie in "foreshadowing" of New Testament events. It's an interesting piece of religious literature, published in 1904. It is still in print today, I'm not sure if the illustrations are the same or have been updated.

    What is most striking to me is that so many of the illustrations in this book are the same, or very nearly so, as the ones that appear all throughout WT literature. Granted, it has been several years since I cracked a book, probably at least 5 years since I leafed through a bible story book, but I'm seeing a lot of images I feel are very familiar. (I was going to look it up myself for comparison, but it appears I have thrown out my B.S. book. lol)

    Eh. If I get some time I'll scan a few of the images and post 'em up. Does anyone else have this book, and can you confirm the similarities I think I'm seeing? Or does anyone know if there are scans of the WT bible story book illustrations out there on the intarwebs?

    Curiosity.

  • unclebruce
    unclebruce

    Hi Odrade,

    The illustrations I've seen online do look similar and it wouldn't surprise me if most if not all early watchtower pictures were begged, stolen or 'borrowed' from somewhere else. I have a large book of adventist bible charts somewhere that look remarkably similr to those in Watchtower publications (printed in 1908).

    cheers, unc

    Hurlbuts Bible Illustrations

  • Trevor Scott
    Trevor Scott

    A few years ago I flipped through the The Golden Children's Bible (published 1965) and discovered the same thing. I bought the book and took some scans. Check it out here:

    http://www.geocities.com/thewatchtowerstudy/art.htm

  • unclebruce
    unclebruce

    Awesome link,

    Thanks Trevor,

    I'll pass that to a few other forums if that's ok.

  • Trevor Scott
    Trevor Scott

    unclebruce: feel free.

    :)

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