Abednego

In 1899, under Russell, the fiery-furnace account was expressly not required to be treated as a formal type, but Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were applied contextually to faithful Christians enduring religious pressure and persecution. In October 1934, under Rutherford, the interpretation became explicit: the three Hebrews represented the remnant of Jehovah's witnesses, and later that month this was refined to the faithful remnant maintaining integrity in the crucial trial immediately preceding and at Armageddon. Under Knorr, no verified statement was found that formally restated the 1934 identification of the three Hebrews as the remnant, but the account continued to be applied directly to modern Jehovah's witnesses and true Christians facing political-religious pressure, State worship and nationalism, notably in 1949 and 1969. A 1959 discussion rejected a separate interpretation in which Daniel and his three companions would represent a level of Satan's organization in the image of Daniel 2; it did not explicitly reject the 1934 interpretation of the fiery-furnace account. Under Franz, no formal antitype was verified from 1977 through 1980, but the three Hebrews continued to be applied contextually to modern Witnesses, including children refusing a national pledge in 1977 and young Witnesses needing comparable courage in 1979.