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Authority and accountability · Claim record

Charles Taze Russell began publishing Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence in July 1879, as its editor and publisher, after breaking with N. H. Barbour over the ransom; the first issue was printed in 6,000 copies.

Claim ID claim-authority-russell-1879-watch-towerConcerns July 1879Context
Context · July 1879 Verified

Charles Taze Russell began publishing Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence in July 1879, as its editor and publisher, after breaking with N. H. Barbour over the ransom; the first issue was printed in 6,000 copies. Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), 1993

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The organisation's own history presents this as the start of the work from which Jehovah's Witnesses came, while stressing that Russell claimed no new truths of his own: “not as new, not as our own, but as the Lord's”.

Show the evidence (1 source)
Primary JW publication Verified

Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), “Chapter 5: Proclaiming the Lord's Return (1870-1914)”

1993 · pp.42-60 (quoted passage: 47-48) · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“C. T. Russell, though, felt that to withdraw from the Herald was not enough; the ransom doctrine must be defended and Christ's presence must be proclaimed. Hence, in July 1879, Russell began publishing Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence. Russell was the editor and publisher, with five others originally listed as contributors to its columns. The first issue had a printing of 6,000 copies.”

The chapter is the organisation's standard modern life of Russell: born at Allegheny 16 February 1852; a partner in his father's clothing business at eleven; repelled by eternal torment; steadied in 1869 by hearing the Adventist preacher Jonas Wendell; indebted to George Storrs and George W. Stetson; persuaded by N. H. Barbour in 1876 that Christ's invisible presence had begun in 1874; separated from Barbour in 1879 over the ransom.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Whole chapter read on the Watchtower Online Library; the document’s own citation code is “jv chap. 5 p. 42 – p. 60” and the quoted sentences straddle the page marker for 48. The chapter contains no mention of the Ross prosecution, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle litigation, Miracle Wheat, or the marriage and its court proceedings.

Notes. The chapter quotes Russell's own disclaimer: “Our work … has been to bring together these long scattered fragments of truth and present them to the Lord's people—not as new, not as our own, but as the Lord's.”

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-ctr-jv-1993-ch5-life

Claim page

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