A bit more about the history of the Bibles used by BibleStudents/JWs over the years:
In 1884... At first Bibles were purchased from
other Bible societies for redistribution .... The King James Version of
1611 in English was used as their basic version for
Bible study.
From the time that the magazine The Watchtower
began to be published in 1879, the publications of the Watch Tower Society have
quoted, cited, and referred to scores of different Bible translations.
In 1896 .....printing rights were obtained from
the British Bible translator Joseph B. Rotherham to publish in the United
States the revised twelfth edition of his New Testament. On the title page of these printed copies, there
appeared the name of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Allegheny,
Pennsylvania, the Society’s headquarters being located there at the time. In
1901 arrangements were made for a special printing of the Holman Linear Bible, containing marginal explanatory notes from the
Society’s publications of 1895 to 1901. The Bible text itself presented the
King James Version and the Revised Version of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.
The entire edition of 5,000 copies had been distributed by the year 1903.
The Emphatic Diaglott. In 1902 the Watch Tower Society came to be the
copyright owners, sole publishers, and distributors of The Emphatic Diaglott.
This version of the Christian Greek Scriptures was prepared by the English-born
Bible translator Benjamin Wilson, of Geneva, Illinois. It was completed in
1864. It used the Greek text of J. J. Griesbach, with a literal interlinear
English translation and Wilson’s own version to the right using his special signs
of emphasis.
A Bible Students Edition. In 1907 the Watch Tower Society published a
“Bible Students Edition” of the Bible. This volume contained a clear printing
of the King James Version of the Bible and included excellent marginal notes,
together with a valuable appendix designed by Jehovah’s Witnesses....
For 30 years the Watch Tower Society engaged
outside firms to do the actual printing of its Bibles. However, in December
1926, The Emphatic Diaglott became
the first Bible version to be printed on the Society’s own presses at Brooklyn,
New York. The printing of this edition of the Christian Greek Scriptures
stimulated the hope that a complete Bible would someday be printed on the
Society’s presses.
The King
James Version. World War II underlined the need for independent
publication of the Bible itself. While the global conflict was at its height,
the Society succeeded in purchasing plates of the complete King James Version
of the Bible. It was on September 18, 1942, at the New World Theocratic Assembly
of Jehovah’s Witnesses, with key assembly point at Cleveland, Ohio, that the
Society’s president spoke on the subject “Presenting ‘the Sword of the
Spirit.’” As the climax to this address, he released this first complete Bible
printed in the Watch Tower Society’s Brooklyn factory....
The American Standard Version. Another important Bible translation is the
American Standard Version of 1901. It has the most commendable feature of
rendering God’s name as “Jehovah” nearly 7,000 times in the Hebrew Scriptures.
After long negotiations, the Watch Tower Society was able to purchase, in 1944,
the use of the plates of the complete American Standard Version of the Bible
for printing on its own presses. On August 10, 1944, at Buffalo, New York, the
key city of 17 simultaneous assemblies of Jehovah’s Witnesses linked together
by private telephone lines, the Society’s president delighted his large
audience by releasing the Watch Tower edition of the American Standard Version.
The appendix includes a most helpful expanded “Concordance of Bible Words,
Names, and Expressions.” A pocket edition of the same Bible was published in 1958.
The Bible in
Living English. In 1972 the Watch Tower Society produced The
Bible in Living English, by the late Steven T. Byington. It consistently
renders the divine name as “Jehovah.”
