50 Fun Facts About Jehovah's Witnesses

Who founded the Bible Student movement from which Jehovah's Witnesses stem?

Russell started a Bible study group in Pittsburgh in 1870 and by 1912 was the most distributed Christian author in the United States.

In which US city did Russell and others form their Bible study group in 1870?

Russell had grown up working in his father's haberdashery there, and he later sold his clothing stores for about $300,000 to fund the ministry.

In what year was the name "Jehovah's witnesses" adopted?

Joseph Rutherford introduced it at a convention in Columbus, Ohio, to set his group apart from other Bible Student groups.

The name Jehovah's Witnesses is based on a verse from which book of the Bible?

Isaiah 43:10 reads "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord" in the King James Version, and the resolution was adopted on July 26, 1931.

In which city was the 1931 convention held where the new name was announced?

The name was chosen partly to signal fresh evangelizing methods after years of defections following Russell's death.

What are the two magazines Jehovah's Witnesses are best known for distributing?

In 2010 they were the two most widely distributed magazines in the world, and both are now handed out free of charge.

What did Awake! magazine originally launch as in 1919?

It was renamed Consolation in 1937 and became Awake! in 1946, taking the title from Romans 13:11.

What is the meeting place of a Jehovah's Witness congregation called?

The term was first suggested by Rutherford in 1935 for a building in Hawaii, and the halls deliberately contain no religious symbols.

Rutherford coined the name for the group's meeting halls in 1935 for a building in which US territory?

Some later halls went up in days through volunteer "quick-build" projects once the foundations were laid.

Which Bible version do Jehovah's Witnesses prefer to use?

The New Testament portion appeared in 1950 at a Yankee Stadium convention and the complete Bible followed in 1961.

Where was the denomination's own translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures released in 1950?

The translation committee's members were never publicly named, in keeping with the policy of not crediting individual writers.

Which medical procedure do Jehovah's Witnesses refuse on religious grounds?

The doctrine dates from 1945, and since 1988 Hospital Liaison Committees have helped members find surgeons who operate without blood.

In what year was the blood transfusion doctrine introduced?

Blood fractions such as albumin and clotting factors are treated as a matter of personal conscience rather than an outright ban.

Which of these celebrations do Jehovah's Witnesses observe?

Birthdays and religious holidays are avoided as having pagan or nationalistic origins, but anniversaries are permitted.

What do Jehovah's Witnesses call the group of men that establishes all of the denomination's doctrines?

It took over doctrinal authority from the Watch Tower Society president in a 1976 reorganisation.

How many people do Jehovah's Witnesses believe will go to heaven to rule with Jesus?

They interpret Revelation 14 literally on this point; everyone else who is saved lives forever on a cleansed earth.

What do Jehovah's Witnesses call the majority of the faithful who hope to live on a paradise earth?

The "little flock" is the 144,000 bound for heaven; from 1935 new converts were counted in the earthly class Rutherford called the great multitude.

In which year do Jehovah's Witnesses believe Jesus began ruling invisibly in heaven as king?

Russell and Nelson Barbour had earlier calculated 1914 as the end of a 2,520-year period they called the Gentile Times.

Rather than a cross, Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus died on what?

They regard the cross as a pagan symbol and avoid the word "crucifixion" altogether.

Which archangel do Jehovah's Witnesses identify with Jesus?

They hold that Jesus was God's first creation and the only archangel, and reject the doctrine of the Trinity.

What do Jehovah's Witnesses call their most important annual event?

It is held after sunset on Nisan 14; bread and wine are passed around but only those who consider themselves anointed partake.

The annual observance of Christ's death is held on the 14th day of which Jewish month?

That places it at Passover; more than 20 million people attended the observance in 2025, far more than the number of active members.

What term do Jehovah's Witnesses use for members actively involved in preaching?

About 9 million publishers in some 119,500 congregations were reported in 2025.

Roughly how many members did Jehovah's Witnesses report worldwide in 2025?

The count includes only people who file reports of their preaching, so surveys that ask people to self-identify find roughly twice as many.

How many hours per month did a regular pioneer commit to preaching in 2025?

Auxiliary pioneers do 30 hours, and special pioneers preach 100 hours a month with a stipend, often in remote areas.

What are Jehovah's Witnesses' branch offices and headquarters staff residences called?

Volunteers called Bethelites receive room, board and a small stipend, and are expected to read the entire Bible in their first year.

Where did the Watch Tower Society move its headquarters in 1909?

It stayed there until 2016, when the property was sold to Kushner Companies for $340 million ahead of the move to Warwick.

To which New York town did Jehovah's Witnesses move their world headquarters in 2017?

The Brooklyn buildings went to Kushner Companies for $340 million in 2016, ahead of the move upstate in 2017.

Which company bought the Brooklyn headquarters property in 2016?

The $340 million sale came the same year the denomination ranked eighteenth for donations among Canadian registered charities.

Who succeeded Russell as president of the Watch Tower Society in 1917?

A former Missouri court reporter and substitute judge, he was known as Judge Rutherford and introduced door-to-door preaching.

Why did Watch Tower Society directors go to prison in 1918?

The book attacked clergy support for the war; the directors were freed in March 1919 and the charges dropped in 1920.

What was Beth Sarim, built in San Diego in 1929?

Rutherford used the ten-bedroom house as a winter home; Abraham and company did not arrive, and it was sold in 1948.

Rutherford predicted that Abraham and other patriarchs would be resurrected in which year?

The failed date, along with other changes, drove tens of thousands of Bible Students away during the first half of his tenure.

What was the title of Rutherford's famous 1918 lecture and 1920 booklet?

The Harp of God, his first hardcover book, followed in 1921, and by 1924 he was on the radio from station WBBR on Staten Island.

Which state did Rutherford practise law in, earning the nickname "Judge"?

He paid for his law studies by selling encyclopedias door to door and sat as a substitute judge in the 8th/14th circuit.

Who became the third president of the Watch Tower Society in 1942?

He commissioned the New World Translation, expanded missionary work and stopped crediting individual authors in Society literature.

Which year did Watch Tower literature imply might begin Christ's thousand-year reign?

Baptisms jumped from about 59,000 in 1966 to more than 297,000 in 1974, then membership dipped when the year passed quietly.

What colour triangle identified Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi concentration camps?

About 10,000 Witnesses were sent to the camps; unlike other groups they could win release by signing a declaration renouncing their faith.

How many Jehovah's Witnesses are estimated to have been sent to Nazi concentration camps?

Between 2,000 and 5,000 died in custody, including some 250 who were executed, many for refusing military service.

What right did the 1943 Supreme Court case West Virginia v. Barnette establish?

It overruled the 1940 Gobitis decision, and the Barnett sisters' surname was misspelled in the court papers.

Which 1940 Supreme Court ruling did Barnette overturn?

In Gobitis the Court had told dissenting parents to change school policy through the democratic process instead.

In which country did the Supreme Court ban Jehovah's Witnesses as "extremist" in April 2017?

The ruling liquidated the St. Petersburg headquarters and all 395 local organisations; Stalin had deported Witnesses to Siberia in 1951.

What was the name of the denomination's first website, launched in 1997?

It was replaced by jw.org in 2008, whose logo now appears on literature carts and outside Kingdom Halls.

What preaching method did Jehovah's Witnesses introduce in 2012?

Rather than knocking on doors, members stand beside a cart and wait for passers-by to approach them.

Since 2009, how many meetings a week does a congregation hold?

Historically there were three; children attend the same meetings as adults, with no separate Sunday school.

What phrase did Russell use for the Great Pyramid, which he believed was built under God's direction?

He borrowed the phrase from Joseph Seiss and believed the pyramid had been built by the Hebrews under God's direction.

In which year did Rutherford eliminate locally elected elders in congregations?

In 1938 he introduced a 'theocratic' system in which appointments worldwide came from Brooklyn headquarters.

In which year was the full New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures released?

Nathan Knorr commissioned the translation; the Greek Scriptures portion had come out earlier, in 1950.

How often do congregations forming a 'circuit' gather for a one-day assembly?

Larger groups also meet annually for a three-day regional convention, usually at a purpose-built Assembly Hall.

Which country stripped Jehovah's Witnesses of state funding over its shunning policy?

The country concluded that shunning, especially of children, amounted to psychological violence; the policy was softened in 2024.