The history of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Published on 29 April 2026 at 07:27

1. Background before Jehovah’s Witnesses

Jehovah’s Witnesses did not begin as a separate group with that name.
They developed from the Bible Student movement in the United States.
The background was the 19th-century Adventist atmosphere.
Many groups at that time were very interested in:
- Bible prophecy
- the Second Coming of Christ
- the end times
- the millennium
- dates and calculations from Daniel and Revelation
One important background figure was William Miller.
Miller predicted that Christ would return in 1843 or 1844.
When this did not happen, the Adventist movement divided into many groups.
Jehovah’s Witnesses later came from this wider atmosphere of prophecy and end-time expectation.

The main founder figure was Charles Taze Russell.
Russell was from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
He was troubled by some teachings he heard in traditional churches.
He especially rejected:
- eternal torment in hell
- the immortality of the soul
- the Trinity
- traditional ideas about the visible return of Christ
Russell began a Bible study class in Pittsburgh in the early 1870s.
This group became known as the Bible Students.
Britannica dates the outgrowth of the International Bible Students Association to Russell’s work in Pittsburgh in the 1870s.

The early group was not first called “Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
They were known as:
- Bible Students
- International Bible Students
- Watch Tower Bible Students
They met in small study groups.
They believed they were returning to simple Bible Christianity.
They were suspicious of traditional church creeds.
They wanted to study the Bible outside the control of older churches.
Russell’s followers also used printed material heavily.
This became one of the strongest marks of the movement:
- magazines
- books
- tracts
- public lectures
- later door-to-door distribution

In July 1879, Russell began publishing Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.
This magazine later became The Watchtower.
This was very important because the movement grew mainly through literature.
The first issue had a printing of 6,000 copies.
By 1914, each issue was around 50,000 copies, according to Jehovah’s Witnesses’ own historical account.
The magazine defended Russell’s views and spread his interpretation of Bible prophecy.
It became the central voice of the movement.

In 1881, the Watch Tower Tract Society was formed as a publishing agency.
In 1884, it was legally incorporated as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.
Russell became its president.
The purpose was mainly to print and distribute religious literature.
This is important because Jehovah’s Witnesses developed as a highly publication-based movement.
Their authority and identity became closely connected to their publications and central organisation.

Russell’s early teaching was different from historic Christianity.
He rejected the doctrine of the Trinity.
He denied eternal punishment in hell.
He taught that Christ’s return was not mainly visible, but an invisible presence.
He accepted the idea that Christ’s invisible presence had already begun in 1874.
He believed that 1914 would be a major prophetic date connected with the end of the present world order.
When the expected visible kingdom did not come in 1914, the movement later reinterpreted the date.

In 1886, Russell published The Divine Plan of the Ages.
This became the first volume of a larger series.
The series was first called Millennial Dawn.
Later it became known as Studies in the Scriptures.
These books explained Russell’s system of belief.
Many followers treated these writings as very important for understanding the Bible.
Russell’s writings shaped the early identity of the Bible Students.

The Bible Students grew by:
- personal Bible study groups
- public talks
- printed tracts
- books
- magazines
- travelling speakers
Russell encouraged readers of The Watch Tower to meet together.
Local groups were called ecclesias, meaning congregations.
At first, these groups had more local freedom than later Jehovah’s Witness congregations.
The movement was not yet as centralised as it became later.
Jehovah’s Witnesses’ own history says that these small classes later developed into congregations.

In 1909, Russell moved the headquarters from the Pittsburgh area to Brooklyn, New York.
Brooklyn became the central headquarters of the Watch Tower movement for more than a century.
From there, the organisation expanded its publishing and international work.
The Brooklyn headquarters became strongly connected with the identity of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Charles Taze Russell died in 1916.
His death created a leadership crisis.
His followers did not all stay together.
Some Bible Students remained loyal to Russell’s writings.
Others followed the new leadership of Joseph Rutherford.
This is important because modern Jehovah’s Witnesses developed mainly under Rutherford, not only under Russell.
Some Bible Student groups still exist separately today and do not identify as Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In 1917, Joseph Franklin Rutherford became president of the Watch Tower Society.
He was known as Judge Rutherford because of his legal background.
Under Rutherford, the movement changed greatly.
He made the organisation much more centralised.
The movement became more controlled from headquarters.
Local independence became weaker.
Literature distribution and preaching became more organised.
Britannica notes that Rutherford succeeded Russell and changed the group’s name to Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1931.

Under Russell, the Bible Students had more local study-group style.
Under Rutherford, the organisation became more like a strict central system.
Rutherford directed the movement from Brooklyn.
Local congregations were expected to follow headquarters more closely.
Door-to-door preaching became a major duty.
Members were expected to distribute Watch Tower literature.
This helped create the modern style of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Britannica’s student history says Rutherford discarded some of Russell’s ideas and made the group highly centralised.

During World War I, the movement came into conflict with the government.
Rutherford and other Watch Tower leaders were arrested under the Sedition Act period.
The issue involved their anti-war and anti-militarist position.
This period shaped the group’s identity as persecuted witnesses.
Jehovah’s Witnesses later became known for refusing military service, refusing flag salutes, and claiming political neutrality.
The First Amendment Encyclopedia says Witness leaders were arrested during World War I, and it describes their later strong legal defence of religious freedom.

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