Anthony Byatt

Anthony Byatt
Born	(1928-02-23)23 February 1928 London, UK
Died	17 September 2014(2014-09-17) (aged 86)
Occupations	Bible collector postcard publisher photographer antiquarian publisher editor writer
Organizations	Golden Age Books International Society of Bible Collectors (ISBC)
Movement	Jehovah's Witnesses
Spouse	Sue
Children	2
Website	goldenagebooks.org

Anthony "Tony" Byatt (23 February 1928 – 17 September 2014)[1] was an English postcard publisher, photographer and writer. Byatt's works cover a broad range of subjects: reproduction of historical photographs and picture postcards,[2][3][4] Bible translation,[5] New Testament metaphors,[6] water systems and population of Jerusalem,[7][8][9] human body and clothing.[10]

Life

Private life

Byatt and his wife had two daughters.[11]

Religious activity

Byatt joined Jehovah's Witnesses in c. 1939,[12] and he was appointed to special service within the denomination by 1956.[13] Apart from preaching, his activity included collecting books for the library of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead with future Governing Body member Albert Schroeder.[14]

Golden Age Books

Byatt directed the publishing company Golden Age Books, which was based at his residency in Malvern.[15] Byatt had been an antiquarian bookseller since 1981[11] and Golden Age Books also dealt in second-hand literature.[16]

Writings

He published a book on the interpretation of New Testament metaphors in 1995.[6]

In 2004, Byatt and other Jehovah's Witness writers published the anthology 'Your Word is Truth', Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1950, 1953), which included essays defending the New World Translation against criticism from non-Witnesses and a bibliography of works on the translation.[17][18][5][19] While most doctrines defended by Byatt continue to be accepted by Jehovah's Witnesses, some of the views[20][21] have been retracted by the organization in the course of more scholarship.[22]

As a member of the International Society of Bible Collectors (ISBC), Byatt was an Associate Editor of The Bible Collector, changed to Bible Collectors' World in 1985.[23][24][11]

Bibliography

Books

• Byatt, Anthony (1974). Picture Postcards and Their Publishers: An Illustrated Account Identifying Britain's Major Postcard Publishers 1894 to 1939 and the Great Variety of Cards They Issued. London: Golden Age Postcard Books. ISBN 978-0-9506212-0-3. OCLC 641778625.
• ———— (1982). Collecting Picture Postcards: An Introduction. Malvern, Worcestershire: Golden Age Postcard Books. ISBN 978-0-9506212-1-0.
• ———— (1995). New Testament Metaphors: Illustrations in Word and Phrase. The Pentland Press. ISBN 978-1-85821-239-5.
• ———— (1997). Building a Theocratic Library. Malvern, Worcestershire: Golden Age Books. ISBN 978-0-95062-123-4.
• ————; Flemings, Hal, eds. (2004). 'Your Word Is Truth', Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1950, 1953). Malvern, Worcestershire: Golden Age Books. ISBN 978-0-95062-126-5.
• ———— (2012). Reminiscences Towards a History of Jehovah's Witness in London–1881 to 1977. Exeter: Golden Age Books. ISBN 978-0-95577-504-8.

Articles

• Byatt, Anthony (1973). "Josephus and Population Numbers in First Century Palestine". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 105 (1): 51–60. doi:10.1179/peq.1973.105.1.51.
• ———— (1984). "Daniel Mace's New Testament". The Bible Collector. 20 (78).
• ———— (1987). "Handling The Tetragrammaton In English Translations". Bible Collectors' World. 3 (4): 3–8. ISSN 0883-9204.
• ———— (1989). "The Holy Spirit - A Further Examination". The Expository Times. 100 (6): 215–216. doi:10.1177/001452468910000605. eISSN 1745-5308. ISSN 0014-5246.
• ———— (2005-09-17). "Response to Lynn Lundquist's Criticisms". OnlyTrueGod.org.

References

1. Ancestry.
2. Twyman 2018, p. 764.
3. Samuel 2012, p. 347.
4. Gillen 2023, p. 35.
5. Williams 2006.
6. Lim 2017, p. 6.
7. Ong 2015, p. 165.
8. Wilkinson 1974, p. 51.
9. Spigel 2012, p. 79.
10. Sandnes 2002, p. 5.
11. Golden Age Books.
12. Byatt 2004a, p. 109.
13. "Ordained Ministers Appointed to Special Service". 1956 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses. Brooklyn: Watch Tower Society. 1955. p. 49.
14. Byatt 1997b, p. 8.
15. Paul 2009, p. 201.
16. Byatt, Anthony. "Welcome to Golden Age Books". Golden Age Books. Archived from the original on February 7, 2014.
17. Byatt 2005.
18. Lundquist.
19. Lang 2006, p. 14.
20. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (February 1, 1999). ""Jehovah" or "Yahweh"?". The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom. pp. 30–31. A two-syllable pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton as "Yahweh" would not allow for the o vowel sound to exist as part of God's name. But in the dozens of Biblical names that incorporate the divine name, this middle vowel sound appears in both the original and the shortened forms, as in Jehonathan and Jonathan.
21. Byatt 2004b, p. 151.
22. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (2023). Insight on the Scriptures. Vol. 2 (Revised ed.). Wallkill: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. p. 7. Also, the forms Yehohʹ, Yoh, Yah, and Yaʹhu, found in the Hebrew spelling of the names Jehoshaphat, Joshaphat, Shephatiah, and others, can all be derived from Yahweh.
23. "12 Bible Collectors' World journals 1960s-80s - Watchtower Jehovah's Witnesses". WorthPoint. Retrieved May 8, 2024.
24. "Handling The Tetragrammaton - Anthony Byatt 1987 Watchtower Jehovah's Witnesses". WorthPoint. Retrieved May 8, 2024.

Sources

• Ancestry. "Mr Anthony Byatt in the England and Wales, Death Index, 1989-2022". ancestry. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
• Byatt, Anthony (1997b). "Introduction". Building a Theocratic Library. Malvern, Worcestershire: Golden Age Books. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-9506212-9-6. When I lived in London, I sometimes had the privilege of going round the bookshops with Brother Bert Schroeder when he was on a visit, looking for books for Gilead. By 1962 Gilead had some 10,000 volumes
• Byatt, Anthony (2004a). "Chapter 8: Distinguishing the 'Lords': Does Jesus Take Jehovah's Name? § Reviewers' Criticisms". In Byatt, Anthony; Flemings, Hal (eds.). 'Your Word is Truth', Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1950, 1953). Malvern, Worcestershire: Golden Age Books. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-95062-126-5. On the Elder's remark, we would ask Lundquist, what about Jehovah's Witnesses before the NWT was published in 1950; did they not have a faith in Jehovah then? Of course they did! I myself was a Witness for eleven years before 1950, and the NWT did not change my faith, for it is the Hebrew Scriptures which fully establish so much about Jehovah.
• Byatt, Anthony (2004b). "Chapter 9: The Theological Importance of the Name Jehovah". In Byatt, Anthony; Flemings, Hal (eds.). 'Your Word is Truth', Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1950, 1953). Malvern, Worcestershire: Golden Age Books. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-95062-126-5. The crucial question to ask of all Bible translators is why they render all those Israelite names in an English form beginning with 'Jeho' as Jehoash, Jehoram, Jehoshaphat, etc., but they do not use 'Jehovah' at all? 'The Jerusalem Bible' and 'The New Jerusalem Bible' are to be commended for at least using the form 'Yahweh', but why do they thus create such an inconsistency with all other Biblical names which commence with the two syllables 'Jeho'?
• Gillen, Julia (2023). The Edwardian Picture Postcard as a Communications Revolution: A Literacy Studies Perspective. Routledge Research in Literacy. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781000903911.
• Golden Age Books. "Welcome to Golden Age Books". Golden Age Books. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
• Lang, Bernhard (2006). "Text — Versions § 60. Anthony Byatt et al. (Eds.) "Your word is truth": Essays in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures". International Review of Biblical Studies. Vol. 51. Brill. p. 14. doi:10.1163/9789047408703_004. ISBN 978-90-47-40870-3.
• Lim, Kar Yong (2017-05-05). Metaphors and Social Identity Formation in Paul's Letters to the Corinthians. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 9781498282895.
• Lundquist, Lynn. "Your Word is Truth, Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1950, 1953) by Anthony Byatt and Hal Flemings". tetragrammaton.org.
• Ong, Hughson T. (2015). The Multilingual Jesus and the Sociolinguistic World of the New Testament. Linguistic Biblical Studies. Vol. 12. Brill. ISBN 9789004304796.
• Ong, Hughson T. (2021). Sociolinguistic Analysis of the New Testament: Theories and Applications. Biblical Interpretation Series. Vol. 195. Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004499744. ISBN 978-90-04-49974-4.
• Paul, William E. (2009). "English Language Bible Translators § Rutherford, W. G.". English Language Bible Translators. McFarland. p. 201. ISBN 9780786442430.
• Samuel, Raphael (2012). "The Discovery of Old Photographs". Theatres of Memory: Past and Present in Contemporary Culture. Verso Books. ISBN 9781844679355.
• Sandnes, Karl Olav (2002). Belly and Body in the Pauline Epistles. Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series. Vol. 120. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139434720.
• Spigel, Chad S. (2012). Ancient Synagogue Seating Capacities: Methodology, Analysis and Limits. Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum [Texts and studies in ancient Judaism], ISSN 0721-8753. Vol. 149. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 9783161518799.
• Twyman, Michael, ed. (2018). Encyclopedia of Ephemera: A Guide to the Fragmentary Documents of Everyday Life for the Collector, Curator and Historian. Routledge. ISBN 9781136787782.
• Wilkinson, J. (1974). "Ancient Jerusalem: its Water Supply and Population". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 106 (1): 33–51. doi:10.1179/peq.1974.106.1.33. PMID 11620410.
• Williams, J. T. (2006). "'Your Word is Truth': Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1950, 1953)". Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. 30 (5): 54. ISSN 0309-0892.