Jehovah's Witnesses - officially known as 'The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society'

Court cases

Charles Russell	Frederick Franz	The Jellyfish Pastor

Charles Taze Russell sued J.J.Ross for defamatory libel on March 1913, because Ross had written in his booklet called

“SOME FACTS AND SOME MORE FACTS ABOUT THE SELF STYLED PASTOR - C.T.RUSSELL”

in which he wrote “Russell does not know the dead languages”

In court Russell proved it.

Attorney Staunton “Do you know the Greek Alphabet?”
Russell “Oh yes”
Attorney . “Can you tell me the correct letters if you see them?”
Russell. “Some of them, I might make a mistake on some of them”
Attorney “Would you tell me the names of those on top of page 447 I have got here” (Wescott & Hort Greek NT)
Russell “Well I don’t know”
Attorney “You can’t tell what those letters are,look at them and see if you know?”
Russell. “My way..” Staunton interrupts here
Attorney “Are you familiar with the Greek language”
Russell. “No”
xxx

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Fred. W. Franz (1893 - 1992) was regarded as the best scholar of all the Jehovah's Witnesses' leaders.

This is an extract from a court case Walsh vs. Latham - Scottish Court - 11/1954

Attorney. “Have you made yourself familiar with Hebrew?
Franz. “Yes”
Attorney . “So you have a substantial linguistic apparatus at your command?”
Franz. “Yes, for use in my biblical work”
Attorney “I think you are able to read the Bible in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, German and French?”
Franz. “Yes” (pursuer’s proof page 7)
Attorney “You yourself read and speak Hebrew do you?”
Franz. “I do not speak Hebrew”
Attorney . “You do not?”
Franz. “No”
Attorney “Can you yourself translate that into Hebrew?”
Franz. “ Which?”
Attorney “The fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis”
Franz. “You mean here?”
Attorney . “Yes”
Franz. “No I wouldn’t attempt to do that” (pursuer’s proof page 102)

(The passage he was being asked to translate was a simple exercise with which an average first or second year Hebrew student in seminary would have no difficulty with. This conclusion was stated
by a qualified teacher of Hebrew. More untruths followed..)

Attorney “I think you yourself left Cinncinnati University without taking a degree, as Mr. Leslie elicited, but I do not think you told us of one other matter. Is it the case that you sat for and were offered a Rhodes Scholarship?”
Franz. “Yes, I was offered a Cecil Rhodes Scholarship, I took an examination for that in the University of Ohio, the State University at Columbus, Ohio.
Attorney . “What year was that when you were nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship?
Franz. “That was in 1914, but in view of my decision as to the ministry as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, I turned that down”

William J. Barber - Secretary of THE RHODES SCHOLARSHIP TRUST said however: “I have checked our records and do not find that Frederick Franz was elected to a Rhodes Scholarship”

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The Jellyfish Pastor

When Charles Taze Russell was 61 his wife Maria Ackley, whom he married in 1879 filed for a legal separation in 1903 and then for a divorce The courts granted her a divorce, and he was charged with fraud and perjury (lying).

Maria publicly accused him of conceit, egotism and domination and more seriously, of taking indiscretions with both their adopted daughter and their maid. The court record included a quote from his adopted daughter who alleged that he had said to her “I am like a jellyfish. I float around here and there. I touch this one and that, and if she responds I take her to me, and if not I float on to others”. After the case he became known as the 'jellyfish pastor'.

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