NOTE I—FOR PAGE 129
In Z '13, 52, 53, our Pastor gives various proofs that the Ancient Worthies will attain to a spirit nature after the Millennium. Among other reasons for his view, he there pointed out that this thought was typed by the fact that, additional to the priests, the Levites had no inheritance in the land, and that accordingly the Ancient Worthies, who will be the Millennial and post-Millennial Kohathites, will not have their final inheritance in the earth but in heaven, i.e., they will become spirit beings post-Millennially. This position of his implies that the Millennial and post-Millennial Gershonite Levites will also be made spirit beings post-Millennially, since the typical Gershonite Levites, like the typical Kohathite and Merarite Levites, had no inheritance in the land. But the saved world of mankind, the saved restitution class, will not have a heavenly inheritance, but an earthly one. Hence they cannot be the Millennial and post-Millennial Gershonites. Nor, for the same reason, can saved Israel, who will be the chief of the post-Millennially saved restitution class, be such Levites. Hence the Millennial and post-Millennial Gershonites must be the Youthful Worthies. Accordingly, when our Pastor wrote (p. 129) that the Millennial and post-Millennial Gershonites would "seem well to represent the saved world," the light on the subject was not due, and the light coming in 1913 (Z '13, 52, 53) and proving that the Millennial and post-Millennial Levites would all become spirit beings, proves that the Gershonites of those times would not be the saved world of mankind, nor the Jews, but the Youthful Worthies, who, as he elsewhere shows (F 156, 157; Z '11, 181, pars. 5-10; Z '15, 269, pars. 11, 12; Question Book, 151, 152), are to have a reward similar to that of the Ancient Worthies. The twelve tribes about the camp type from the standpoint of the Millennial and post-Millennial times "the saved world of mankind," as our Pastor elsewhere teaches.
The New Creation.
732
NOTE II—FOR PAGE 235
The High Priest wore his garments of glory and beauty both during the second part of the Atonement Day's service (Lev. 16:24) and during all of the rest of the year (Ex. 28:29, 43), when officiating. On the antitypical Day of Atonement we will here quote our note on T 50: "As our Pastor shows in the book, What Pastor Russell Said, p. 26, question 4, he came to see that the antitypical Day of Atonement is the entire period from Oct., 29 A.D. until Oct., 2874 A.D., and hence includes the Gospel and Millennial ages. This he shows lies in the meaning of the word atonement, reconciliation, when compared with the facts of the antitype. The word reconciliation implies that both parties at variance with each other become pleased with each other. Through the sacrifices of the Gospel age God will become pleased with the world, when Jesus' merit in these sacrifices is offered to him for the world in the beginning of the Millennium; and by the world's coming into harmony with God's will through Christ's Millennial ministry it will become pleased with God, which will complete the reconciliation, the at-one-ment. The part of the Atonement Day's service that was covered by Aaron's ministering in his linen garments of sacrifice types the part of the antitypical Atonement Day's service belonging to the Gospel age; and that part of the Atonement Day's service that was covered by Aaron's ministering in the garments of glory and beauty types that part of the antitypical Atonement Day's service belonging to the Millennial age."
NOTE III—FOR PAGE 374
The translation, "press down upon the mark" (Phil. 3:14), was suggested to our Pastor by one of the pilgrims, who told him that he had gotten it from a Greek scholar. But the translation does not fit the figure of a race; for a racer when he reaches the goal does not press down upon it. This fact caused Pilgrim Frank Draper to present his doubts on this translation to our Pastor in the spring of 1905. Brother Draper suggested that the matter be referred to us, as to one acquainted with Greek. All three brothers involved then offered special prayer that the Lord give us special enlightenment on the matter. In our examination of the subject we found that the preposition kata, rendered down in the above translation, is given in
Appendix.
733
27 different ways in the A. V. While at the time we saw that the word "down" did not fit the connection, we were then unable to suggest a translation that satisfied our mind as fitting it. But the prayer of these three brothers, though delayed in answer, was not left unanswered. Several years later the thought of the passage became clear to us as requiring that the word kata here be rendered at; and that the sentence be translated as follows: At the mark [goal] I press on for the prize, etc. The following reasons justify this rendering: Since St. Paul wrote these words in 62 A.D., i.e., 28 years after his conversion and call to the apostolate, and since he had previously, by his love for enemies, even under tests, given many proofs that he had already reached the mark, perfect, untested, disinterested love, whose climax is untested disinterested love for enemies, he would not, as the A.V. suggests, be running toward the mark. The translation at the mark suggests what the facts prove to be true—that he had already reached it. Having accordingly reached the mark he was now pressing on for the prize. This was necessary because between the mark and the Judge's stand, which he would have to reach to receive the prize, there were enemies, the devil, the world and the flesh, who were by foul and trialsome means seeking to prevent his getting there; and maintaining, in spite of these, his standing as having reached the mark, he had to press on until he reached the Judge's stand to get the prize.
NOTE IV—FOR PAGES 470, 480 and 484
In view of the fact that it was almost invariably our Pastor's custom, before and after Vol. VI appeared, to announce as the Memorial date one based on Nisan as beginning with the new moon nearest the Vernal Equinox (regardless of whether it came before or after that Equinox), and in view of the fact that he twice expressly stated that Nisan began with the new moon closest the Vernal Equinox (Z '07, 88, par. 3; Z '15, 70, par. 1), the word "after" in the phrase "after the Vernal Equinox" in the second line of the note on page 470 seems to be a printer's mistake. Hence the word "nearest" or "closest" should be substituted for the word "after" in that phrase. That the word "appearance" in that same line means advent, arrival, and not visibility, is evident from several
The New Creation.
734
facts: (1) The new moon nearest the Vernal Equinox set in during the rainy season, which often rendered it invisible many nights after it was due first to be visible in a cloudless night. (2) For the Jews at Jerusalem to have waited for the Nisan new moon to become visible before beginning to fix Nisan 1 would not have allowed sufficient time for the Jews, e.g., in Rome, Spain, Babylon, etc., to find out from Jerusalem the proper day for Nisan 14; for a quick journey from Babylon to Jerusalem took in those days four months (Ezra 7:9); and thus the Jews in such places could not have celebrated the Passover on the right date, if they had to wait for Nisan 1 to be fixed at Jerusalem by the first visibility of the moon nearest the Vernal Equinox. These considerations prove that the Nisan new moon was fixed by the Jews through astronomical calculations at least four months before the Nisan new moon arrived. (3) Even in Saul's and David's days the time of the new moon was known in advance. (1 Sam. 20:5, 18, 24.) Hence the word appearance in the second line of the note on p. 470 means not visibility but advent, arrival.
It is certain that in the times of Christ the Jews began Nisan with the new moon nearest the Vernal Equinox; for Josephus (Antiquities, Book III, Chap. 10, Sec. 5) expressly states that the Passover must be held while the sun was in Aries, which it then reached at the Vernal Equinox, and where it remained 30 days, i.e., until April 20. This necessitated the Jews beginning Nisan with the new moon nearest the Vernal Equinox, regardless of whether that new moon was before or after the Vernal Equinox. E.g., if the moon newed, say a day or two before the Vernal Equinox, and the Jews had waited for the new moon after that Equinox, i.e., had waited until about 27 or 28 days after the Vernal Equinox, i.e., April 18 or 19, to begin Nisan, Passover would not have come until May 1 or 2, i.e., ten or eleven days after the sun had left Aries. This Josephus, who was a well informed Jewish priest and a contemporary of Jesus and the Apostles, says could not be. Hence his saying that the Passover must be held while the sun was in Aries is another way of saying that the new moon nearest the Vernal Equinox, regardless of whether it set in before or after the Spring Equinox, began the month of Nisan. Some have thought that the first ripe sheaf would not be ripe in time for use Nisan 16 (Lev. 23:12),
Appendix.
735
if Nisan began with the new moon nearest the Vernal Equinox, if that moon newed before that Equinox. But Dr. W. M. Thomson, who spent over 45 years in Palestine, and who is ranked among the greatest authorities on the Holy Land, tells us (The Land And The Book, Vol. 1, 362, par. 3) that in the vale of the lower Jordan the harvest begins about the end of March. The first fruits being ripe about three weeks before (and still earlier in Bible times), they were ripe before the Vernal Equinox and hence in time for use in the service of Nisan 16, which always came after the Vernal Equinox, according to the rule that the moon nearest that Equinox began Nisan, even if that moon newed 13 days before that Equinox.
Our Pastor gave us the Scriptural rule as to the Passover date as follows: That the brethren the world over keep Passover after 6 P.M. (God's time for beginning a day) of Nisan 14, arrived at by making Nisan begin with the new moon "closest" the Spring Equinox, regardless of whether it came before or after that Equinox. Whenever the modern Jewish calendar, which was not used in Jesus' days, but was borrowed by the Jews about 360 A.D. from the Greek heathen Meton and therefore is not Scripturally obligatory on us, gave a wrong date for Nisan 14, he rejected their date and fixed and announced the date according to the calendar of the heavens. This rule requires that a given place in the earth be used as the one at which the lunar day and month (6 P.M.) be begun; for while the moon news at the same instant of absolute time everywhere, it does not new at the same time by the clocks everywhere, since by our clocks it news an hour ahead for every 15° eastward and an hour behind for every 15° westward, e.g., if the Nisan moon news at 8 P.M. at Greenwich, England, it would new at 3 P.M. at Philadelphia, which, since the lunar day by God's orders begins at 6 P.M., means that at these two places, if each were taken as the place to begin the lunar day and month, the Nisan moon would new on two different lunar days. Accordingly, some one fixed place must be taken at which the lunar day and month for the whole world is made to begin. Some have taken for this fixed place 180° East Longitude, where the whole world begins the solar day at midnight; some have taken Jerusalem; some have taken Greenwich; some have taken Philadelphia; and some of the modern Jewish
The New Creation.
736
Calendar's date, which is arbitrary, since it does not take any one fixed place, but varies the matter as the Metonic cycles are arranged. Various groups of Truth people, following these various methods, have announced different dates for Nisan 14 almost ever since our Pastor's death.
Which of these methods is right? Our answer is: The one that God observes. Which does He observe? We answer: The one that begins the lunar day and month at 6 P.M. at Jerusalem. How do we know this? From the 2520 and 1845 years' parallels. The first member of the 2520 years' parallel began the first day of the seventh month of 3127 B.C. and ended the first day of the seventh month of 607 B.C., Jerusalem's time, when the second member of that parallel began. In P '36, 11, 12, various events are given from 1912 to 1914 A.D., paralleling various events from 609 to 607 B.C., coming exactly to the day in lunar time 2520 years apart, the time in each case coming out exactly in the lunar time based on Jerusalem as the starting point for that time. Again, in P '36, 8-11, a large number of events from 1915 to 1918 are given, paralleling various events from 70 to 73 A.D., coming out exactly to the day in lunar time 1845 years apart, the time in each case coming out exactly in the lunar time based on Jerusalem as the starting point for that time. And this is to be expected because in both the 2520 and the 1845 years' parallels their first members ended and their second members began at Jerusalem, hence in Jerusalem time. These two facts prove that God now (as well as in Bible times) fixes the lunar day and month as beginning at 6 P.M. at Jerusalem. Hence He fixes the lunar month for the World as beginning at Jerusalem, which will doubtless be the starting place for the lunar day, month and year during the Millennium, since Jerusalem will then be the World's capital. Hence we are to count that as the first day of Nisan on which the moon closest the Spring Equinox news at Jerusalem. And this can be easily determined as follows: Find out the date, hour, minute and second of the new moon nearest the Spring Equinox at Greenwich, England, which is given in most almanacs, then add to that time 2 hours, 20 minutes and 54 seconds, and the result will give the exact time the moon news at Jerusalem; for Jerusalem is 35°, 13' and 30" East of Greenwich. We give details hereon in P '33, 21-32 and P '36, 8-13.