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Chronology and 607 BCE · Claim record

Of the dates the pyramid measurements were said to confirm — 1874, 1881, 1910, 1914 and 1915 — only 1914 is still taught. It is now derived from the 'seven times' of Daniel 4 counted from 607 BCE, with no reference to any measurement: the corroboration was withdrawn and the conclusion it had supported was kept.

Claim ID claim-chronology-pyramid-1914-survivesConcerns 31 December 2024Context
Context · 31 December 2024 Verified

Of the dates the pyramid measurements were said to confirm — 1874, 1881, 1910, 1914 and 1915 — only 1914 is still taught. It is now derived from the 'seven times' of Daniel 4 counted from 607 BCE, with no reference to any measurement: the corroboration was withdrawn and the conclusion it had supported was kept. Studies in the Scriptures, Series III — Thy Kingdom Come (839,000 Edition), 1910Millennial Dawn / Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 3 — Thy Kingdom Come, 1891The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, 1 December 1928Examining the Scriptures Daily—2024, 31 December 2024

Show the evidence (4 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

Studies in the Scriptures, Series III — Thy Kingdom Come (839,000 Edition), “Chapter X — The Testimony of God's Stone Witness and Prophet, the Great Pyramid in Egypt”

1910 · p.342 · C. T. Russell · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“we find it to be 3457 inches, symbolizing 3457 years from the above date, b. c. 1542. This calculation shows A. D. 1915 as marking the beginning of the period of trouble; for 1542 years b. c. plus 1915 years A. D. equals 3457 years. Thus the Pyramid witnesses that the close of 1914 will be the beginning of the time of trouble”

The same sentence as in 1891 and 1898, with the measurement of the descending passage given as 41 inches longer and the resulting date moved from 1874 to 1915. The tense also changes: the close of 1874 ‘was’ the beginning becomes the close of 1914 ‘will be’ the beginning.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Page 342 of the 839,000 Edition opened and read in this session; the figure 3457 and the dates 1915 and 1914 confirmed. The title page reads 'SERIES III / Thy Kingdom Come / 839,000 Edition' and '1910'. The Internet Archive catalogue record gives the year as 1906, which the title page does not support; the title page has been followed.

Scan provenance. Internet Archive scan. Public domain. Page-level text was extracted from the item's djvu.xml, one block per leaf, and the printed page number read from each page's own running head.

Corroborated by. src-pyr-md3-1891-descending-3416-1874, src-pyr-ss3-1914-descending-3457-1915, src-pyr-ss3-1918-descending-3457-1915

Notes. The revised figure was therefore already in print in 1910, four years before 1914 passed. The change cannot be explained as a response to the disappointment of 1914.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-pyr-ss3-1910-descending-3457-1915

Primary JW publication Verified

Millennial Dawn / Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 3 — Thy Kingdom Come, “Chapter X — The Testimony of God's Stone Witness and Prophet, the Great Pyramid in Egypt”

1891 · pp.358-359 · C. T. Russell · Tower Publishing Co.

“Prof. Smyth found the first of these measures (a) to be 1874 Pyr. inches; the second (b) to be 1881 Pyr. inches, and the third (c) to be 1910 Pyr. inches … and give the dates (a) October, 1874, (b) October, 1881 and (c) October, 1910, A. D. This threefold ending is in full accord with what we have found taught in the Scriptures”

Three sets of measurements of the floor of the Grand Gallery are described on p. 358: (a) to the Step and then along its upper surface, omitting the riser; (b) through the Step, as though it were not there; and (c) over the whole floor and up the riser of the Step. The ellipsis in the quotation covers an intermediate step the reader should know about: Flinders Petrie's measures are noted as eight-tenths of an inch longer, the figures are rounded up to 1875, 1882 and 1911, and one and a quarter inches are then deducted from each to correct for the era, giving 1873¾, 1880¾ and 1909¾, from which the three October dates are read.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Pages 358 and 359 opened and read in this session; the three figures and the three dates confirmed. The 1891 typesetting uses a 'ct' ligature that the scan's OCR renders as '6l' or '6t' (for example 'destru6lion', 'fa6l', 'jun6tion'). These have been expanded to 'destruction', 'fact' and 'junction' in the quotation; no other word has been altered.

Scan provenance. Internet Archive item 'millennialdawn03inruss', the 1891 Tower Publishing Co. printing (University of Pittsburgh copy). Public domain. Page-level text was extracted from the item's djvu.xml, one block per leaf, and the printed page number was read from each page's own running head. Note for anyone re-checking this item: the item's page_numbers.json is one lower than the printed page throughout — it maps the leaf whose running head reads 336 to page 335 — so the running heads, not that file, are authoritative here.

Corroborated by. src-pyr-ss3-1910-gallery-triple

Notes. These three figures and the three dates they were said to give were not altered in later printings: they stand in the same terms on pp. 362-363 of the 1910 printing, where the wording has been lightly reset but no figure and no date has changed.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-pyr-md3-1891-gallery-triple

Primary JW publication Verified

The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, “The Altar in Egypt (part 2)”

1 December 1928 · p.356 · par. 6 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“Since all these scriptures referring to the stone are used symbolically to represent Christ, we may know that no natural stone or pile of stone is referred to and that it would be entirely inappropriate to apply these scriptures to the great pyramid. There is therefore no justification for applying any of these texts to the pyramid of Gizeh.”

'The Altar in Egypt' (part 2), The Watch Tower, Vol. XLIX, 1 December 1928, No. 23. The article begins on p. 355 and reads Isaiah 19:19, 20 as applying to the anointed remnant rather than to any building. The words quoted here close paragraph 6, which begins on p. 355 and runs over on to p. 356; the article's own study questions group paragraphs 6 and 7 as the passage dealing with the pyramid.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Wording, issue, page and paragraph confirmed in this session by reading the article through from its opening page (p. 355) to its closing paragraph and study questions.

Scan provenance. Internet Archive item 'w_E_19281201' (single-issue scan). Public domain. Page-level text was extracted from the item's djvu.xml, one block per leaf. The scan's OCR reads the leading '3' of every page number in this issue as an '8' (the page printed 356 is read as '856'), and the item's page_numbers.json simply repeats those OCR numerals, so neither can be used directly. The printed numbers here come from the leaf sequence: the article opens on the leaf whose own text ends '355', and each following leaf is one page later. Paragraph numbers are the article's own and are cross-checked against the 'Questions for Berean Study' printed at the end of the article on pp. 361-362, which group the paragraphs in the same way.

Corroborated by. src-pyr-w-1928-1201-forgive, src-pyr-w-2000-0101-bible-in-stone

Notes. The article states the conclusion twice: first that it would be 'entirely inappropriate' to apply the stone texts to the pyramid, then that there is 'no justification' for doing so.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-pyr-w-1928-1201-no-justification

Primary JW publication Verified

Examining the Scriptures Daily—2024, “December 31”

31 December 2024 · p.128 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“The “seven times” represent a period of 2,520 years. That time period began in 607 B.C.E. when the Babylonians removed the last king from Jehovah's throne in Jerusalem. It ended in 1914 C.E. when Jehovah enthroned Jesus”

A current daily-text comment setting out the calculation by which the organisation still arrives at 1914: the ‘seven times’ of Daniel 4, read as 2,520 years from 607 BCE.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Opened on wol.jw.org in this session; wording, publication and page confirmed.

Corroborated by. src-chr-o-es-2024-1231-seven-times

Notes. 1914 is the one date formerly supported by the pyramid measurements that remains in the organisation’s teaching, now derived from Daniel 4 alone.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-pyr-es-2024-1231-1914

Claim page

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-chronology-pyramid-1914-survives/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.