2 Timothy 3:14
2 Timothy 3:1414But as for you, continue in the things you have learned and firmly believed, since you know from whom you have learned them.
"You, however, continue in the things you learned and were persuaded to believe, knowing from what persons you learned them" is read by JWs as a charter for trusting "Jehovah's organisation" as the source from which one was taught. Witnesses are trained to remember who taught them the "truth" — usually a conducting publisher or elder — and to remain loyal to that chain of transmission. The "persons you learned them" clause is taken as an endorsement of the Watchtower teaching structure itself.
Paul is telling Timothy to hold on to what Paul personally taught him — and the next verse makes explicit what that content is: "the holy writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (, NWT). The "persons you learned them" are apostolic eyewitnesses and scripture-anchored teachers, not a later institutional successor. Timothy's loyalty is to the content, not to an office.
The apostolic foundation is poured once (). Paul hands Timothy Scripture and sound doctrine, plus the qualifications for elders (1 Timothy 3, Titus 1) — not an apostolic charism, not a permanent ruling council, not new revelation. Eldership transmits; apostleship does not. When the Watchtower moves from "continue in what you learned" to "continue in what the Governing Body teaches now," it conflates these two categories — and claims an authority the apostles never transferred.