(Investigator 107, 2006 March)

The 1260 days are a period mentioned in The Bible, in Daniel 7:25; 12:7 and Revelation 11:1-3.

Here are the interpretations as found in official JW or Watchtower Society (WTS) publications:

In 1881. Counted as 1260 years from 538 to 1798, which Charles T Russell believed was the "long reign of the Papacy". (Watch Tower Reprints 1881 December p. 307)

In 1889. Brought forward one year and counted as 1260 years from 539 to 1799. (Watch Tower Reprints 1889 January-February p. 1093; Studies in the Scriptures Vollume III, pp 58, 63-64)

In 1930. Counted as 1260 literal days starting November 7, 1914, to the arrest warrant of Joseph Rutherford and other WTS Directors on May 7, 1918. (Light I 1930, p. 199; Your Will Be Done On Earth 1958, pp 181, 331)

In 1969. Changed to run from October 4/5 1914 to the Memorial on March 26/27 1918. (Then Is Finished The Mystery of God 1969, pp 261-263)

In 1977. Changed again to run from December 28 1914 to June 21 1918 – i.e. from when the Watchtower Cult expected persecution to when Rutherford and other WTS directors were imprisoned. (Our Incoming World Government – God's Kingdom 1977, pp 127-133)

In 1988. Changed back to the 1969 interpretation or similar to it – the reference says "starting from the outbreak of the first world war in the latter part of 1914 and continuing to the early part of 1918." (Revelation – Its Grand Climax Near At Hand! 1988 p. 164)

In 1993. Changed back to the 1977 interpretation i.e. the 1260 days runs from December 1914 to June 21 1918. (The Watchtower 1993 November 1 pp 9-10; Pay Attention To Daniel's Prophecy 1999, pp 142-143)

The most drastic change – from 1260 years to 1260 days – appeared in the book Light Volume 1 (1930) authored by the then WTS president Joseph F Rutherford:

Forty-two months of thirty days each, or 1260 days, which is equivalent to three and one-half years solar time, beginning the first week in November 1914, would end on the 7^th day of May, 1918. Now note that the Revelation account says: "And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast…shall overcome them, and kill them." (Rev. 11:7) Exactly forty-two months after the publication of the aforementioned "sackcloth" article in The Watch Tower [7 November 1914], to wit, on the 7^th day of May, 1918, all the officers of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, and who were then publishers of The Watch Tower, were "overcome", in this, that they were arrested under warrant charging a violation of the espionage law and trading with the enemy, and their work stopped. They were "overcome" by stopping the work that day, and on the 20^th day of June thereafter these same officers of the Society were sentenced to eighty years' imprisonment and, symbolically speaking, the work of the Society was killed. (Light Volume 2, 1930, p. 199)

The 1260 days illustrate what has occurred in all JW doctrines and in their explanations of thousands of Bible verses.

Bible interpreters more wishy-washy than [the] JW leaders would be hard to find.