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Chronology and 607 BCE · Claim record

The revised figure was in print by 1910, four years before 1914 passed; it is therefore not explained as a response to the disappointment of 1914. On the evidence of the printings that survive, the change was made between the 1898 printing and the 1910 ‘839,000 Edition’.

Claim ID claim-chronology-pyramid-revision-predates-1914Concerns 1910Context
Context · 1910 Verified

The revised figure was in print by 1910, four years before 1914 passed; it is therefore not explained as a response to the disappointment of 1914. On the evidence of the printings that survive, the change was made between the 1898 printing and the 1910 ‘839,000 Edition’. Millennial Dawn, vol. 3 — Thy Kingdom Come (1898 printing), 1898Studies in the Scriptures, Series III — Thy Kingdom Come (839,000 Edition), 1910

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

Millennial Dawn, vol. 3 — Thy Kingdom Come (1898 printing), “Chapter X — The Testimony of God's Stone Witness and Prophet, the Great Pyramid in Egypt”

1898 · p.342 · C. T. Russell · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“we find it to be 3416 inches, symbolizing 3416 years from the above date, b. c. 1542. This calculation shows a. d. 1874 as marking the beginning of the period of trouble; for 1542 years b. c. plus 1874 years A. d. equals 3416 years. Thus the Pyramid witnesses that the close of 1874 was the chronological beginning of the time of trouble”

The 1898 printing carries the descending-passage calculation in the same terms as 1891: 3416 inches and the date 1874.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Page 342 of the 1898 printing opened and read in this session; the figure 3416 and the date 1874 confirmed. The 1898 printing is already set to the pagination used by the later printings, so this passage stands on p. 342 here and on p. 342 in the 1910, 1914, 1915 and 1918 printings — the same page, with the figure changed.

Scan provenance. Internet Archive item 'millennial-dawn-vol.3-thy-kingdom-come-edition-1898'. The item has a French-language title and description but reproduces the English 1898 printing. Public domain. The item has no page_numbers.json, so page-level text was extracted from its djvu.xml and the printed page number read from the running heads: the leaf carrying this passage falls between one headed 'The Great Pyramid. 341' and one headed 'The Great Pyramid. 343'.

Corroborated by. src-pyr-md3-1891-descending-3416-1874

Notes. This printing fixes the lower bound of the revision: the original figure was still in print in 1898. It also shows that the passage already stood on p. 342 before the figure was changed, so the change was made within an existing setting of the page rather than in a general resetting of the book.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-pyr-md3-1898-descending-3416-1874

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

Claim page

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-chronology-pyramid-revision-predates-1914/. 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.