Hi!

Thank you for your reply.

I understand that later some changes could be (and were) made to original EGW testimonies, but originally, before any edition was made, how many testimonies were written by her?

I personally have these 33 books (https://we.tl/t-eHeX3W0YdB - link expires in 7 days). Each book is 1 testimony.

But since you have 30 books and on the site it says "There are 37 volumes in the original "Testimony for the Church" series." im still confused as to how many testimonies were originally written. Is it 30, 33 or 37?

The ones in the link are:

Testimony No.1 - written in 1855

No.2 - 1856

No.3 - 1857

No.4 - 1857

No.5 - 1859

No.6 - 1861

No.7 - 1862

No.8 - 1862

No.9 - 1863

No.10 - 1864

No.11 - 1867

No.12 - 1867

No.13 - 1867

No.14 - 1868

No.15 - 1868

No.16 - 1868

No.17 - 1869

No.18 - 1870

No.19 - 1870

No.20 - 1871

No.21 - 1872

No.22 - 1873

No.23 - 1873

No.24 - 1875

No.25 - 1875

No.26 - 1876

No.27 - 1876

No.28 - 1879

No.29 - 1880

No.30 - 1881

No.31 - 1882

No.32 - 1885

No.33 - 1889

Best regards and God bless,

Mike

Sharing again just in case: https://we.tl/t-eHeX3W0YdB

After you click on the link, the download button should be visible on the left side. There is a RAR file named "TC.rar" containing 33 books which i mentioned that i have, all in PDF form. File is uploaded via wetransfer.com.

Hope this helps.

Downloaded but it wont open 

Hey!

So anyone knows what's the true number of books in the original Testimony for the Church series?

God bless!

Sorry for the very late response, Mike.

Thank you nb for notifying me.

Perhaps you've already seen the "List of Ellen G. White writings" on Wikipedia?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ellen_G._White_writings

But, to be honest, much of that has been edited by myself 

I got a lot of my information for the bibliography of Ellen White's writings from the Loma Linda Library website.  However, I can't find that web page anymore.  John Nesbitt had it on his site years ago, and while it is not available now, it is still on the Wayback Machine.  Here is the URL for that:

https://web.archive.org/web/20090106035720/http://www.nisbett.com/egw/egwhc/EGWHCbib.html

Here is the relevant information regarding the Testimony For the Church series, enclosed within "++++" symbols:

++++++++++++++++++++++

Testimony for the Church, No. 1, etc.

A series of works from Mrs. White's pen, carrying a consecutive numbering, that began to be published in 1855 under the title Testimony for the Church. Following is the list of these as they appeared, with number, year of publication, and pages.

No. 1-1855, 16 pp.

No. 2-1856, 16 pp.

No. 3-1857, 16 pp.

No. 4-1857, 39 pp.

No. 5-1859, 32 pp.

No. 6-1861, 64 pp.

No. 7-1862, 63 pp.

No. 8-1862, 64 pp.

No. 9-1863, 32 pp.

No. 10-1864, 64 pp.

No. 11-1867, 53 pp.

No. 12-1867, 96 pp.

No. 13-1867, 80 pp.

No. 14-1868, 102 pp.

No. 15-1868, 96 pp.

No. 16-1868, 104 pp.

No. 17-1869, 192 pp.

No. 18-1870, 208 pp.

No. 19-1870, 96 pp.

No. 20-1871, 199 pp.

No. 21-1872, 200 pp.

No. 22-1872, 192 pp.

No. 23-1873, 116 pp.*

No. 24-1875, 192 pp.

No. 25-1875, 192 pp.

No. 26-1876, 208 pp.

No. 27-1876, 190 pp.

No. 28-1879, 192 pp.

No. 29-1880, 192 pp.

No. 30-1881, 192 pp.

No. 31-1882, 244 pp.

No. 32-1885, 238 pp.

No. 33-1889, 288 pp.

Nos. 1-30 paper covered, with average over-all page size about 4 X 6 in.; Nos. 31-33 clothbound, with larger page size.

Nos. 1-25 published at Battle Creek, Mich., by what is now known as the Review and Herald Publishing Association.

Nos. 26, 27 published by the Pacific Press, Oakland, Calif.

Nos. 28-30 published by the Review and Herald.

Nos. 31-33 carry names of both publishing houses.

(Beyond No. 33 the Testimonies appear only as consecutive volumes of Testimonies for the Church.)

The greater part of Testimony No. 4 was reprinted in 1860 as part of a work called Spiritual Gifts, vol. 2. Testimonies Nos. 1-10, except No. 4, were reprinted in Spiritual Gifts, vol. 4, with an introductory note reading in part: "It has been thought best to re-print them, as given in the following pages, omitting local and personal matters, and giving those portions only which are of practical and general interest and importance... E.G.W."

From 1871 to 1879 Nos. 1-28 appeared in bound volumes, grouped as follows:

1871-Nos. 1-11, 535 pp., reset and consecutively numbered.

1871-Nos. 12-16, 495 pp., reset and consecutively numbered.

1871-Nos. 17-19, not reset, separate paging of each No. retained.

1873-Nos. 20-22, not reset, separate paging of each No. retained.

1875-Nos. 23-25, not reset, separate paging of each No. retained.

1879-Nos. 26-28, not reset, separate paging of each No. retained.

(None were bound in this form beyond No. 28. These bound books carried the general title The Testimonies to the Church, plus a listing of the particular

* Plus 47 pp., separately numbered, by James White.

numbers included in each volume. All were published in this form by the Review and Herald.)

In 1885 began the republication of these Testimonies in what became, finally, a series of nine volumes, carrying the title: Testimonies for the Church, with type reset, index for each volume, and certain minor editing for purposes of grammar, etc. The nine volumes, with dates of publication, and contents, are as follows:

Vol. 1-1885, Nos. 1-14

Vol. 2-1885, Nos. 15-20

Vol. 3-1885, Nos. 21-25

Vol. 4-1885, Nos. 26-30

Vol. 5-1889, Nos. 31-33

Vol. 6-1900, No. 34

Vol. 7-1902, No. 35

Vol. 8-1904, No. 36

Vol. 9-1909, No. 37

Volumes 1-6 carry two publishers' names: Pacific Press and Review and Herald. Volumes 7, 8 carry only Pacific Press. Volume 9 carries Review and Herald in large type; below, in small type, Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal., and Southern Publishing Assn., Nashville, Tenn. The pagination is maintained to present time. The volume numbering is fixed in terms of these nine volumes.

Later, the publishers brought out an edition bound in three books. That was soon supplanted by a four-book edition, the current one. In this the 9 volumes in 4 are grouped as follows:

Book 1, old vols. 1, 2.

Book 2, old vols. 3, 4.

Book 3, old vols. 5, 6.

Book 4, old vols. 7, 8, 9.

The distinctive character of the nine volumes-separate title page, table of contents, pagination, and index-was retained. Reference to a particular volume of Testimonies for the Church, for all indexing purposes, is always in terms of the nine-volume set.

In 1936 the Southern Publishing Association published Selections From the Testimonies in three books, with contents and size of each book as follows:

Book 1-selections from Testimonies for the Church, vols. 1-3, 527 pp.

Book 2-selections from Testimonies for the Church, vols. 4, 5, 630 pp.

Book 3-selections from Testimonies for the Church, vols. 6-9, 656 pp.

In 1948 the Pacific Press published a new edition of its four-book printing of the Testimonies of the Church, the changes being a new type face and a statement, prefatory to each of the nine original volumes, giving the setting of the times in which each volume was written. There is no change in text, and the pagination is essentially the same.

In 1949 the Pacific Press Publishing Association published Testimony Treasures, in 3 volumes, consisting almost wholly of selections from the nine volumes of the Testimonies for the Church, plus a few E. G. White articles from periodicals, etc. This three-volume work was prepared primarily to provide a uniform text for abbreviated overseas editions.

Vol. 1, 605 pp.

Vol. 2, 575 pp.

Vol. 3, 591 pp.

Testimonies for the Church, volumes 1-9, consists mainly of (1) personal messages, or testimonies, to individuals or churches; and (2) general counsel on questions of holy living, church order; and discipline, and forward-looking instruction on the advancement of the institutions and world program of the church. The first half of the nine volumes of Testimonies for the Church are largely (1) and the last half largely (2). Preceding "Testimony No. 1" in the bound volumes of Testimonies for the Church are found about 100 pages of autobiographical matter, in which Mrs. White describes, chiefly, the early years of her life and labours.

++++++++++++++++++++++

So the reason that volumes 1-10 are bound in one book, is because that is the way they were reprinted in 1864.

Regarding the last few volumes (34-37?), I know I've seen somewhere that it said that while these volumes had this original designation, they were just added to the existing 5 volume compiled series, with the only the number designation being changed.  So for example, volume 34 became volume 6, 35-7, 36-8, and 37-9.  Right now I'm reading the Ellen White Letters and Manuscripts, and where I am now in 1902, she is talking about getting out Testimony #35.

You may note that my understanding of this is hazy at best, yet I think I probably have a better grasp of the facts regarding these Testimony books than frankly, even most workers at the Ellen White Estate.  I make that bold claim, because here you can see for yourself what that Estate says about these books on the supposedly "A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE COMPLETE PUBLISHED ELLEN G. WHITE WRITINGS ON COMPACT DISC":

https://whiteestate.org/legacy/cdrom-bib_com-asp/

No doubt you will be amused/saddened to see that this statement about being "Complete" is obviously not true.

I'd be happy to try and help you out more and learn more about this myself too.

God bless as you study to show yourself approved unto God.

Man, after i posted my last question i wasn't expecting a quick answer and later i forgot about it for some reason.

Thank you for this insight, thats very helpful!

God bless you!

Glad you found this response, Mike.

I'm not sure what you mean by " how some books were published under her name even though she didn't write them".

Many, or perhaps all, of her books from around 1880 on, were not written as "books" by Ellen White.  In other words, she wrote a lot about many different things, and then she had her helpers find those articles later to fit together into a new book.  About the only book after 1880 or so that I think she might have possibly sat down to write as a book was "Steps to Christ".  I don't have much information on that book, except I do know how and why the first chapter was added after the Review and Herald purchased the publishing rights from Fleming Revell.

Regarding Testimonies 34-37, currently I have no information on what, if any, changes have been made.  The main Testimony volume that I know had some major changes made, was the current Volume 5, especially in the places where she was rebuking Uriah Smith.

I read a very interesting thing in her Letters and Manuscripts recently, where she said she was sorry for having gone against God's counsel to her to have outside publishing houses do her material.  Now she did do that for Steps to Christ, so it's quite interesting, especially when one sees how our own SDA publishing houses (and I believe Ellen White's own workers) did not treat her writings with due respect.  Maybe we wouldn't be in this situation today wondering what she really wrote or not, if she had heeded God's counsel better.

Why are you personally interested in the Testimonies, and how much of Ellen White's writings have you read?  Do you believe that what she actually wrote with a "I was shown" or "The Lord has shown me" etc. is from God, like I do?

Thank you for responding, Mike.

Praise God that you believe in the prophetic office of Ellen White! I believe with all my heart that she was given words by God to write in her original published works.

One caution: I wouldn't use the terminology that "she didn't write them". I would say something like: "she didn't write them in the form of books" or "she didn't directly write them as books", or probably best: "Some books were published under her name, but were compiled and edited by other people".

You see, many of the things in the later books were actually written by Ellen White in the form of letters or other things, then were compiled into books.

For original books, of course this earlysda website has many, if not most, of the original Ellen White writings. Up to the time of her husband's death in 1881, books with her name on them appear to be taken care of quite well. Then, in 1882, five leading men, including her own son Wille White, signed a document saying that they didn't believe the words she wrote or even the Bible writers wrote were from God. Soon after, in 1882, we get Early Writings with a Foreword saying that there are no changes from her earlier works, but actually there are lots of changes.

God bless as you read Ellen White's works, and may you be inspired by the Testimonies to want to live a closer walk with Jesus. 

Mike, I condemn that video.

You can read my comments I made on it several weeks ago, but the facts are that the Bible is dictated by the Holy Spirit, and that Ellen White wrote many times that what she wrote was from God, and that not one word was to be changed.

Yes there are things purporting to be from Ellen White where, just a few weeks after writing that not one word of the pioneer SDA writings is to be changed, and with no comment in the intervening time regarding editing her books, she suddenly comes out with a glowing report on the editing of her Great Controversy in 1911 - it's ridiculous. 

Regarding the Testimonies, several of the ones pointing out sins of Uriah Smith and some others were omitted from later editions.

Do you believe that was a good thing? Will you believe some random guy on Youtube who doesn't know what he is talking about?

Recently I had an interesting conversation online with a man who used to be SDA but fights it all tooth-and-nail now. He made the incredible comment that he had read all of Ellen White's material, and when pressed on how many of the Testimonies he had read, he said "9".  He wasn't amused when I showed him there are 37 volumes!

Please study deeper Mike.