Jeremiah 10:3
Jeremiah 10:33For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.
The flagship rs proof-text for the JW prohibition on Christmas trees. Reasoning From the Scriptures argues that — a tree cut from the forest, worked by a craftsman, decorated with silver and gold — is a prophetic warning against Christmas trees. The verse is read as if Jeremiah were describing a sixteenth-century Lutheran-German custom twenty-one centuries before it appeared.
Read to verse five. Jeremiah is describing a Babylonian cult statue, not a decorated evergreen — feet that cannot walk, mouth that cannot speak, metal plating, textile clothing, carried in procession, consulted for guidance. Verses 9 and 14-15 confirm the picture: silver from Tarshish, gold from Uphaz, blue and purple textile, "a metal image," "a delusion." This is the same idol mocks at greater length. Lit indoor Christmas trees did not appear until around AD 1539 in Strasbourg; no Old Testament prophet delivers a warning whose referent is invisible to their audience for two thousand years. Pair the verse with in the NWT — Paul's own ruling on festival liberty in the JW's own translation.