Ahab, King of Israel

Ahab was first identified in 1882 with the kings or kingdoms of Europe that were allied with the papal "mother church." In 1897 this was broadened to civil government, identified with the symbolic Dragon of Revelation; the civil-government interpretation was repeated in 1904 and 1913, refined in 1915 as worldly governments claiming to be Christ's kingdoms, and retained under Rutherford in 1919. In 1932 the standing identification was reversed: Ahab and Jezebel pictured Satan and his organization; by 1936–1937 Ahab was explicitly the Devil or Satan, and Knorr-era publications repeated Ahab as Satan in 1947 and 1955. A 1961 retrospective Elijah drama nevertheless reused "modern King Ahab" contextually for the political State or political forces of Christendom, and a 1971 Yearbook field report likewise used "modern Ahab" for a persecuting governmental decree; these contextual uses did not explicitly retract the identification of Ahab with Satan. No verified prophetic identification of Ahab himself was found in the Franz period, 1977–1980.