wanted his warm and heartfelt thanks conveyed to Jehovah’s wonderful organization for bringing him the truth, and also to those who had visited him and written to him, helping him to gain a further knowledge of Jehovah’s purposes. Appreciation was shining in his face. He asked me to keep on encouraging all of Jehovah’s witnesses to continue faithful and to maintain integrity to the end, and his Scriptural expression was magnificent. He spoke of his desire to meet all of Jehovah’s people in the paradise of the new world. His face reflected this wonderful hope that he held. As he was led away through the door to the gallows, he looked over his shoulder, and said, ‘For a little while I will sleep, and if it be Jehovah’s will I shall meet you all in paradise.’

“So it was that, with calm confidence in that hope, on the 10th day of June, 1959, he died.”

Questions From Readers

● At Psalm 127:3, why does the New World Translation use the word “belly” instead of “womb” as other translations do?—W. P., U.S.A.

The scripture reads, in the New World Translation: “Look! sons are a possession from Jehovah; the fruitage of the belly is a reward.” The New World Translation uses the expression “fruitage of the belly” in this place because the Hebrew text uses a different word from that for the womb. This Hebrew word is consistently rendered “belly” throughout the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. The New World Translation is without fault in rendering consistently “belly” here because it is in the belly of a female that the womb is found, and thus children are the fruitage of the female belly.

● When 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know that the body of you people is the temple of the holy spirit within you which you have from God?” does it mean that the mortal human body of a Christian is the temple?—F.S., U.S.A.

In the preceding verse 1Co 6:18 the apostle Paul warns: “Flee from fornication. Every other sin which a man may commit is outside his body, but he that practices fornication is sinning against his own body.” Here he clearly refers to misuse of one’s fleshly organism. Then in 1Co 6 verses 19 and 20 he is reminding them that as a group they occupy a special place in Jehovah’s purpose. It is not the body of just one member of the congregation that is the temple, but he says: “Do you not know that the body of you people is the temple of the holy spirit within you which you have from God?” This use of the expression “body of you people” is in agreement with the statement in 1 Corinthians 10:17, directed to the 144,000 members of the body of Christ and which says: “Because there is one loaf, we, although many, are one body, for we are all partaking of that one loaf.”

The apostle Peter under inspiration described Jesus Christ as the foundation cornerstone of the temple and his 144,000 body members as “living stones,” and he said: “You yourselves also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house.” (1 Pet. 2:4-6) There are not 144,000 such spiritual houses, or temples, but just one, made up of many members. However, Christ Jesus could properly refer to himself as the temple of God because he is the prime member, the foundation cornerstone of God’s one spiritual temple.—John 2:19-22; Rev. 21:22.

Other scriptures support this understanding of the matter: “Do you not know that you people are God’s temple and that the spirit of God dwells in you? . . . for the temple of God is holy, which temple you people are.” He speaks of one temple, not many. “We are the temple of the living God.” (1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 2 Cor. 6:16) Ephesians 2:19-22 shows how all the members fit into the one spiritual temple, when it says to the 144,000 members of the body of Christ: “You have been built up upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, while Christ Jesus himself is the foundation cornerstone. In union with him the whole building,