Watchtower Society: From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained

From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained

Watchtower Society Publication

(New York: International Bible Students Association, 1958)

(Image by Tanya Olmstead, at Amazon.com)

Yesterday, I posted an entry about the Jehovah's Witnesses' interest in John Milton's theological views, which bear some similarities to their own that have not gone unnoticed.

A visitor with the intriguing name "Eklektekuria" posted a comment to inform me that the Jehovah's Witnesses had earlier published on themes familar to readers of Milton:

In 1958, the Watchtower Society published a book entitled "From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained". It was commonly used with children, but was not originally intended to be a children's book, and it gives a JW view of the Bible from creation to Armageddon and the future millennium. The book is best remembered for its graphic portrayal of Armageddon on pp. 208-209 which terrified many a JW child.

I was curious:

Eklektekuria, thanks for visiting and for the interesting detail. Was the book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained dependent in any way on Milton's two, similarly titled poems? I can imagine that Milton's depiction of Hell would frighten many a child as well...

I haven't heard back from Eklektekuria on this point, nor have I been able to discover any substantive link to Milton from my online search for the book mentioned. Perhaps other readers will know.

Here's another angle on what the book's cover looked like, this one from Tanya Olmstead, also at Amazon.com:
I wonder why the Watchtower Society chose the color red for their book's cover. In 1958, the color red was strongly associated with Communism, a connection to iconic that merely six years later, in 1964, the Chinese government published Quotations from Chairman Mao ZeDong as the famous "Little Red Book."

The book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained, however, was more frightening than anything Mao said. Here's an image from the book supplied by an ex-JW at Watch the Tower:


With images like this one, no wonder that the book "terrified many a JW child," as Eklektekuria phrased it. Still, it's not much more frightening than Milton's depiction of hell:

Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night [50]
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe
Confounded though immortal: But his doom
Reserv'd him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain [55]
Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes
That witness'd huge affliction and dismay
Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:
At once as far as Angels kenn he views
The dismal Situation waste and wilde, [60]
A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great Furnace flam'd, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv'd onely to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace [65]
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all; but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
With ever-burning Sulphur unconsum'd: (PL 1.50-69)

Here's a related scene from Paradise Lost, as visualized by Terrance Lindall:

Terrance Lindall, John Milton's Paradise lost:

Synopsized and with illustrations (1982)

(Image from Williamsburg Art and Historical Center)

Not an especially comforting sight, even if the image does depict the fate endured by the enemy of God and mankind.

While we ponder the doom reserved for Satan and his angels, perhaps some kind reader will inform us if the Watchtower Society had Milton's poems in mind when they titled their book From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained...

UPDATE: Apparently, the image above depicting Jehovah's wrath comes not from the book but from a JW brochure depicting the end of the world.