Calendar & Year-texts from the past

[jwhess]

The 1968 Calendar definitely emphasizes the preaching work.  The four apostles wanted to know more about the future.  Jesus helped them see that the good News would be spread around the world.  An now, 1935 years later look at the report.  It was 197 lands or countries that were in our preaching territory. It truly included Judea, Samaria and the most distant parts of the earth.

 

 

[jwhess]

The 1969 calendar is very colorful with the happy scene of the early Christians escaping from Jerusalem and fleeing to the mountains when Jehovah caused the Roman army to retreat from the city siege.  I believe the original picture (much larger scale) at Bethel, shows the Roman army retreating down the road with the Jewish rebels chasing them.  It is difficult to see in the calendar.  The 1969 Yearbook opens with a discussion about the curse on Amalek for attacking God's people when they left Egypt.  Jehovah instructs Moses to write the curse down and "never forget" the orders to destroy them.

 

It took well over 1000 years to eradicate the Amalekites (Haman the Agagite and his lineage were killed in the end of the story about Esther and Mordecai).  During those centuries Jehovah warned the Israelites "do not forget. David reminded us of the need to remember...Psalms 103:2..."Let me praise Jehovah; May I never forget all that he has done."

 

The year text was Luke 21:28 "Lift your heads up because your deliverance is getting near".  now, 52 years later we echo the same sentiment.

 

[jwhess]

Here is the 1970 Calendar.  It is a very nice illustration of the baptism Paul did in Athens, Greece.  It is rare that Paul baptized individuals (usually done by his companions- 1 Cor 1:14) The account is given in Acta 17:34.  The artwork is derived from this account in the 1970 Yearbook page 21.

 

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by jwhess

[jwhess]

At the beginning of this project, we started with very early Watchtower Calendars from the late 1930s.  We progressed in both the years and the graphic quality of the pictures used in the calendars.  Some members supplied missing years and better copies along the way.  I tried to add information from our publications (especially the matching Yearbook) to round out the discussion.

 

The information about not posting images from our website does not seem to apply because these images are not hosted there. The copyright laws changed around 1970 (got longer coverage) and so these images may or may not be covered in later years.  I am going to make this 1971 picture my last edition.  this is a 50 year old publication.  the reason I posted this one, it is the first calendar picture of Jesus in the common grooming we see picture today.  We had a clarification in the Watchtower in May of 1968.  the 1969 and 1970 calendars did not depict Jesus, so this is the first since the clarification.

 

This seems like a good place to stop.  And the year text says it all... We go to preach in every land and nation.

 

 

[momma]

Thank you so very much for all your information and pictures of the many calendars.  I have added them all to my collection. I’m sorry to see it ending.