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Chronology and 607 BCE · Claim record

The chapter rested on Isaiah 19:19, 20, printed as its epigraph; on p. 318 the verse is quoted with the word ‘pyramid’ inserted in square brackets after ‘pillar’, so that the identification is made inside the quotation of the text itself.

Claim ID claim-chronology-pyramid-isaiah-pillar-glossConcerns 1891Explicit statement
Explicit statement · 1891 Verified

The chapter rested on Isaiah 19:19, 20, printed as its epigraph; on p. 318 the verse is quoted with the word ‘pyramid’ inserted in square brackets after ‘pillar’, so that the identification is made inside the quotation of the text itself. Millennial Dawn / Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 3 — Thy Kingdom Come, 1891Millennial Dawn / Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 3 — Thy Kingdom Come, 1891

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The Watch Tower of 1 December 1928 replied that the ‘altar’ and ‘pillar’ of Isaiah 19 are the anointed remnant, and that ‘It is impossible to fit the literal pyramid of Gizeh to the prophet’s description’.

Show the evidence (2 sources)
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 · p.307 · C. T. Russell · Tower Publishing Co.

““In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.” — Isa. 19: 19, 20.”

Isaiah 19:19, 20 is printed as the epigraph of the chapter, immediately below the chapter title and the summary of contents. It is the scriptural warrant offered for treating the pyramid as a divine monument, and it is the same passage the organisation reinterpreted in 1928.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Page 307 of the 1891 printing opened and read in this session; chapter title, contents summary and epigraph confirmed. The printed page number appears in the page's own running head.

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-md3-1891-pillar-gloss, src-pyr-w-1928-1201-no-justification

Notes. The chapter is the last in the volume: a preface on p. 305, the chapter proper on pp. 307-376, and an appendix on pp. 377-380.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-pyr-md3-1891-isaiah-epigraph

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 · p.318 · C. T. Russell · Tower Publishing Co.

“shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar [pyramid] at the border thereof, to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.”

Isaiah 19:19, 20 is quoted again here with the word ‘pyramid’ inserted in square brackets after ‘pillar’, so that the identification is made inside the quotation of the verse itself. The next sentence adds that the building stands ‘in the geographical center of the land surface of the world’.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Page 318 opened and read in this session; the bracketed insertion is present in the scan and is not an artefact of transcription.

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-md3-1891-isaiah-epigraph, src-pyr-w-2000-0101-bible-in-stone

Notes. The square brackets are Russell's own insertion into the text of the verse. In the scan the words 'in the midst' are set in italics, as they are in the epigraph on p. 307.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-pyr-md3-1891-pillar-gloss

Claim page

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