Jehovah's Witnesses reference works

Jehovah's Witnesses have published various reference works outlining their interpretations of the Bible. Their most current doctrinal encyclopedia is the two-volume set, Insight on the Scriptures.

Aid to Bible Understanding
Aid to Bible Understanding, now out of print, was the first doctrinal and biblical encyclopedia of Jehovah's Witnesses, published in part in 1969, and in full in 1971 by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. It is also referred to informally as the Aid Book.

Content
The first 544-page volume contains articles on biblical topics listed alphabetically from Aaron through to Exodus. The completed 1,696-page volume contains cross-referenced articles on over 4000 subjects. It has color maps on its end sheets and some black and white illustrations within the main text.

Background
The writing of and research for Aid Book lead to different interpretations of Bible verses and seems to have been a catalyst for Jehovah's Witnesses to adjust doctrines after its publishing. For example, in the mid 1970's the Watchtower Society delegated oversight of congregations and branch offices to committees of elders. The commentary on the subjects "Older Man" and "Overseer" in the 1971 publishing of this book had called into question the use of individual elders as overseers, or single points of authority, within the religion's organizational structure.

Controversy also arose regarding the Aid Book as high-profile members of the religion who contributed to its articles eventually left the organization. Officially, the encyclopedia has an anonymous author, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, though the organization states that over "250 researchers ... contributed to the work". Raymond Franz, a former member of the Governing Body who claimed to be one of the researchers, stated that the many of the contributions submitted could not be used because of credibility or superficiality. Franz adds that Nathan H. Knorr appointed Lyman Swingle (who later became a member of the Governing Body), Edward Dunlap of the Gilead school staff, along with Franz in the Writing Department, as the primary writers. Frederick W. Franz, the organization's vice president, advised these writers when scholarly questions arose, or referred them to secular Bible commentaries held at the world headquarters' library.

Insight on the Scriptures
Insight on the Scriptures is a two-volume hardcover biblical reference work, published in 1988; each volume has 1280 pages, which superseded Aid to Bible Understanding.

The works contain full-color illustrations, graphs, charts, maps and other visual aids, as well as detailed analyses of all subjects found in the Bible as interpreted by Jehovah's Witnesses. Biblical views on subjects such as mercy, death and others are also discussed. The Insight books contain articles on every book of the Bible (except for the deuterocanonical books which are discussed in the article, Apocrypha) with an outline of the principal ideas of each.

Reasoning from the Scriptures
Reasoning From the Scriptures is a 456-page doctrinal handbook, published in 1985. It is designed as a quick reference work for use in evangelizing activity and source for Bible speeches, and common responses to questions a Witness might encounter. It is mainly for use by the Witnesses, and is not generally offered to the public, though can be made available to anyone who requests a copy.

Seventy-six doctrinal topics such as the Trinity, apostolic succession, abortion, dating, and sin are discussed, including scriptural and secular references to support conclusions and statements made. Sections include: "Introductions for Use in the Field Ministry" contain commonly used scriptural conversation starters; "How You Might Respond to Potential Conversation Stoppers" contains techniques to use in overcoming objections and negative responses when preaching to others in the ministry; “Scriptures Often Misapplied,” on page 445, which comments on 85 scriptures the Witnesses consider to be commonly misapplied.