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Chronology and 607 BCE · Claim record

The descending-passage figure was changed without the Grand Gallery figures being touched. In the 1910 printing, pp. 362-363 still give the three Grand Gallery measurements as 1874, 1881 and 1910 pyramid inches and still read October 1874 as the first of the three dates, twenty pages after the descending-passage calculation has stopped pointing to 1874 and started pointing to 1915. October 1874 was therefore removed from one calculation and kept in another, in the same chapter of the same printing.

Claim ID claim-chronology-pyramid-revision-selectiveConcerns 1910Context
Context · 1910 Verified

The descending-passage figure was changed without the Grand Gallery figures being touched. In the 1910 printing, pp. 362-363 still give the three Grand Gallery measurements as 1874, 1881 and 1910 pyramid inches and still read October 1874 as the first of the three dates, twenty pages after the descending-passage calculation has stopped pointing to 1874 and started pointing to 1915. October 1874 was therefore removed from one calculation and kept in another, in the same chapter of the same printing. Millennial Dawn / Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 3 — Thy Kingdom Come, 1891Studies in the Scriptures, Series III — Thy Kingdom Come (839,000 Edition), 1910Studies in the Scriptures, Series III — Thy Kingdom Come (839,000 Edition), 1910

Show the evidence (3 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 · 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

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 · pp.362-363 · C. T. Russell · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“Prof. Smyth found the first of these measures (a) to be 1874 Pyramid inches, the second (b), 1881 Pyramid inches, and the third (c), 1910 Pyramid inches … and give the dates (a) October, 1874, (b) October, 1881 and (c) October, 1910, a. d.”

The Grand Gallery measurements and the three dates they were said to yield are unchanged from the 1891 edition, in the same printing in which the descending-passage figure was altered. The first half of the quotation stands on p. 362 and the dates on p. 363; the ellipsis covers the same intermediate steps as in 1891 (the Flinders Petrie adjustment, the rounding, and the deduction of one and a quarter inches).

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Pages 362 and 363 of the 839,000 Edition opened and read in this session; figures and dates confirmed.

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-gallery-triple

Notes. The revision was selective. October 1874 was retained as a pyramid-attested date in one calculation while being removed from another in the same chapter.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-pyr-ss3-1910-gallery-triple

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

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