New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

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New World Translation
New World Translation
Full name: New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures
Abbreviation: NWT
NT published: 1950
Complete Bible published: 1961
Textual Basis: NT: Westcott & Hort. OT: Masoretic Text.
Translation type: Formal Equivalence with occasional ventures into Dynamic equivalence[1]
Copyright status: Copyright 1950 Watchtower Society
Genesis 1:1-3
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep; and God's active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters. And God proceeded to say: "Let light come to be." Then there came to be light.
John 3:16
For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.
The Bible in English
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The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) is a modern-language translation of the Bible published by Jehovah's Witnesses[2], first published in 1950. It is not the first Bible to be published by the group, but is their first original translation of ancient Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic Biblical texts. Harper's Bible Dictionary lists the New World Translation as being one of the major modern bible translations.[3] As of 2008, this Bible translation was available in whole or part in 71 languages with 143 million copies in several editions having been printed.[4] It is also available in electronic format on the Watchtower Society official web site


Contents

[edit] History

Until the release of the NWT in 1950, Jehovah's Witnesses in English-speaking countries generally used the King James Version or American Standard Version of the Bible. In the literature they have produced, Jehovah's Witnesses have quoted liberally from the King James Version and many other translations of the Bible over the years.

According to the publishers, one of the main reasons for producing a new translation was that the majority of existing Bible versions in common use employed archaic language. The English language has changed significantly since 1611, when the Authorised (King James) Version was first published, and many words in the KJV are no longer in common use today, or are used in a sense different from that in which the translators intended them.[5] The stated intention was to produce a fresh translation, free of archaisms.

Additionally, over the centuries since the King James version was produced, more copies of earlier manuscripts of the original texts in the Hebrew and Greek languages have become available. In the publishers' view, better manuscript evidence has made it possible to determine with greater accuracy what the original writers intended, particularly in more obscure passages. Additionally, they feel that certain aspects of the original Hebrew and Greek languages are better understood by linguists today than previously.

In October 1946, the president of the Watch Tower Society, Nathan H. Knorr, proposed a fresh translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Work began on December 2, 1947 when the "New World Bible Translation Committee" was formed. On September 3, 1949, Knorr convened a joint meeting of the board of directors of both the Watch Tower Society's New York and Pennsylvania corporations to announce that work on a modern-language English translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures was completed and had been turned over to the Society for printing. It was assigned to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania for publication.

The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) was released at a convention of Jehovah's Witnesses at Yankee Stadium, New York, on August 2, 1950. The translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) was released in five volumes in 1953, 1955, 1957, 1958, and 1960, and the complete New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released as a single volume in 1961. Since then, it has undergone minor revisions on a number of occasions, most recently in 1984. The 1984 edition is in much the same style as previous editions, the primary difference being the revised marginal (cross) references. These had been included in the six volumes released between 1950 - 1960 but were not included in the single volume editions from 1961 onward.[6] The basic layout style much resembles the American Standard Version 1901 edition.

[edit] Translators and Editor

The New World Bible Translation Committee is responsible for renderings found in the NWT.[7] This committee was originally formed sometime in or around 1947, and it has remained active at least until 2006 when the latest editions were published.[8][9] The New World Bible Translation Committee was financed by the Watchtower organization.[10]

The New World Bible Translation Committee requested that the publisher, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, never publish names of its members.[11][12] According to its agreement the Watchtower organization has never confirmed or denied any names or biographical data regarding this committee. However, former high ranking Watchtower staffers have presented names.[13][14] In 1950 when the first volume of the NWT was released, news reports citing Nathan Knorr stated the translation was the product of “an international commission of Biblical scholars in New York City”.[15] Rather than offering their credentials, the Watchtower organization states "the particulars of their university or other educational training are not the important thing" and that the translation testifies to their qualification.[16] Despite not knowing the committee members’ identities or credentials, Dr. Bruce Metzger states “On the whole, one gains a tolerably good impression of the scholarly equipment of the translators”.[17]

The Editor of the NWT was Frederick William Franz.[18] The Watchtower organization’s Board of Directors tasked him to examine the NWT and determine its accuracy and acceptability as it was submitted for publication.[19] Frederick Franz attended the University of Cincinnati where he was an honor student.[20][21] His formal training concentrated on Latin and classical Greek. [22] According to A. H. Macmillan, in addition to his native tongue of English, Frederick Franz was fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and German, conversant in French, and a scholar of Hebrew, Greek, Syrian and Latin.[23]

[edit] Characteristics of the translation

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The Old Testament as found in the New World Translation is based on Codex Leningradensis B 19A as published in Rudolf Kittel's Biblia Hebraica (7th, 8th, and 9th ed.), while the New Testament is based on Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in the Original Greek. Also considered were texts by Bover, Merk, and Nestle. Newer editions make use of newer texts, such as Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1967/1977) and Novum Testamentum Graece (1983), as well as newer lexicons and dictionaries such as Zorell's Lexicon Hebraicum Veteris Testamenti (1984).

The New World Translation is a formal equivalence translation rather than a paraphrase.[24] To a very great extent, one English word has been selected for each Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic word and effort has been made to adhere to this rendering, context allowing. Some maintain that this makes the translation sound wooden, stiff or verbose, whereas others feel that it favors accuracy, facilitates cross-reference work and helps preserve the flavor of the original texts.[25][citation needed]

The translation does not contain any of the Apocryphal books, as Jehovah's Witnesses believe that any claim for canonicity on the part of these writings is without solid foundation. But it does give additional information proceeding Job 42:17 which is in the Greek Septuagint version. This additional information is only available in the reference version of the New World Translation. All the disputed parts of the New Testament are contained, such as the long and short conclusion following Mark 16:8 and the woman caught in adultery at John 7:53 - 8:1-11. Most Bibles alert the reader of the spurious nature of these two passages mentioned, and the NWT is no different in that regard.

Also, the translation refers to the Old Testament as "Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures", and the New Testament as "Christian Greek Scriptures", the latter terminology is used in order not to get confused with the Septuagint or Greek Bible. Unlike mainstream Bibles, it goes immediately into Matthew (first book of the New Testament) without any page breaks.

[edit] "Jehovah" in the Old Testament

A feature of the New World Translation is the frequent occurrence of the proper noun "Jehovah" in the Old Testament. The Hebrew Tetragrammaton ("YHWH or JHVH"), is found in Masoretic versions of the Old Testament 6,828 times. English translations of the Old Testament typically follow the convention of rendering the Tetragrammaton as "the LORD". [26][27] The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) differs significantly here from most other English Bibles by consistently rendering the Hebrew Tetragrammaton (divine name) as "Jehovah" in 6,827 instances.[28][29] NWT translators opted for "Jehovah" because they believe it "the best known English pronunciation of the divine name."[30]

In addition to the 6,827 times the Tetragrammaton is translated "Jehovah", the NWT translators cite 146 additional places where they believe the Tetragrammaton was originally present. They cite the works of C.D. Ginsburg (1831-1914) as authority for 141 instances.[31] The other 5 instances are based on readings in the LXX and footnotes in BHK and BHS.[32] Thus, a personal proper name for God appears 6,973 times in the Hebrew text portion of the NWT.

Such use of the name is intended to show deep respect for the "Author of our salvation".[33][34]

[edit] "Jehovah" in the New Testament

Although no ancient Greek text of the New Testament contains the Tetragrammaton, the New World Translation's New Testament uses "Jehovah" frequently where Greek source texts read "the Lord". The New World Bible Translation Committee built upon the theory that the divine name was removed from NT manuscripts after the first century. This view remains controversial until an early Greek, Syriac, Coptic, or Latin text can be found to support it. However, Professor George Howard, of the University of Georgia, U.S.A., made this comment: "When the Septuagint which the New Testament church used and quoted contained the Hebrew form of the divine name, the New Testament writers no doubt included the Tetragrammaton in their quotations."[35] With this in mind, they used the divine name 237 times in the New Testament. In 223 of the 237 references to "Jehovah", the Greek word Kyrios is used. In 13 other instances the word is Theos. The Committee cited several reasons as justification for the inclusion:

  • Passages where the NT writers quote Old Testament Scriptures that contain the divine name. There are seventy-eight passages where this occurs.[36]
  • New Testament scriptures that suggest, according to Jehovah's Witnesses, that the name would be there if 1st century manuscripts were discovered, most notably Jesus' words as recorded at John 17:6, "I have made your name manifest to the men you gave me out of the world..."[37]
  • A first century B.C. Septuagint copy of the Book of Deuteronomy contains the Tetragrammaton in paleo-Hebraic script within the Greek text.[38] The Name was indeed known by some Greek speaking Jews of the time, albeit not readable to the average Greek reader.[citation needed]
  • The translators cite 28 Hebrew translations (dating from 1533 C.E. to the present) of the New Testament that contain the Divine name, commonly called the "J texts" due to how these texts are cited in the reference edition's critical apparatus. Because the practice of using the tetragrammaton (YHWH) in the New Testament was particularly common in translations of the NT into Hebrew, these texts are cited to show where other translators believed the tetragrammaton should belong in the New Testament.[39]
  • Four instances in the book of Revelation contain a transliterated Hebrew word: "Hallelujah!" (Literally: "Praise Jah!") (Revelation 19:1, 3, 4, 6). "Hallelujah" does not contain the full tetragrammaton (YHWH), although "Jah" (YH) is the abbreviated form of "Jehovah".[40]

The mainstream practice of rendering the proper name YHWH as a title results in the use of "LORD" (or "God") throughout the Old and New Testaments, although many translations do render the name, in some form, in a handful of Old Testament passages. Dr. Jason BeDuhn (Truth in Translation pg. 170) notably wrote that this mainstream practice of using "Lord" in the Old Testament and the NWT's practice of using "Jehovah" in the New Testament "both [...] violate accuracy in favor of denominationally preferred expressions for God."

See also: Tetragrammaton in the New Testament and List of Hebrew versions of the New Testament that have the Tetragrammaton.

[edit] Other characteristics

  • It translates the word staurós, rendered as "cross"[41] in almost all other translations of the New Testament, as "torture stake". (Jehovah's Witnesses, and certain scholars, maintain that "staurós" refers to a single piece of timber or pole rather than a cross.)[42].
  • It leaves untranslated the words "sheol," "hades," "gehenna," and "tartarus," where other translations predominantly use "hell" for some, or all, of the above.
  • It uses "presence" as the equivalent of Greek Παρουσία Parousia.
  • It consistently uses "soul" for the Hebrew word ne'phesh and the Greek word ψυχή psykhē.
  • It consistently uses "congregation" where other translations use "church" for the Greek word έκκλησία ekklesia.
  • It uses "system of things" where other translations use "world" for the Greek word αίών aion, using "world" for the Greek word κόσμος kosmos.
  • Unlike many Bibles (though like the King James Version), it does not use subheadings. Only running heads used at the top of the pages are given.
  • Because the word "you" in English can be both singular and plural, the New World Translation uses "YOU" printed in small capitals for the plural form and "you" in lower case for the singular form.

[edit] Editions and languages

As of 2008 the NWT has been published in 71 languages. Translation into other languages is based on the English text, possible because of the literal nature of the English translation itself, supplemented by comparison with the Hebrew and Greek.[43]

The complete translation the Holy Scriptures is available in Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Cebuano, Chinese (Standard, Simplified, Pinyin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (also Braille), Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hungarian, Igbo, Iloko, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (also Braille), Romanian, Serbian (Cyrillic and Latin scripts), Sesotho, Shona, Slovakian, Spanish (also Braille), Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tsonga, Tswana, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu.

The Christian Greek Scriptures (commonly known as the New Testament) is available in American Sign Language, Armenian, Bulgarian, Chichewa, Cibemba, Efik, Ewe, Hiligaynon, Italian Braille, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Lingala, Malagasy, Maltese, Ossetic, Russian, Samoan, Sepedi, Sinhala, Slovenian, Sranantongo, Thai, Turkish, Twi, and Ukrainian.

[edit] Critical Review

See also: Controversies regarding Jehovah's Witnesses#New World Translation

The New World Translation has received commendation and severe criticism. "Dr. William Barclay concluded that 'the deliberate distortion of truth by this sect is seen in the New Testament translation….It is abundantly clear that a sect which can translate the New Testament like that is intellectually dishonest.'"[44] Contrarily, Dr. Jason BeDuhn states the NWT is a ‘remarkably good translation’.[45]

Critics and reviewers have objected to and commended renderings of the NWT from various perspectives.

[edit] Linguistic

Dr. Bruce Metzger characterizes the NWT’s use of “Jehovah” in the New Testament as an “introduction.” He writes, “The introduction of the word ‘Jehovah’ into the New Testament text, in spite of much ingenuity in an argument filled with a considerable amount of irrelevant material (pp. 10-25), is a plain piece of special pleading.”[46] Of the NWT’s introduction of “Jehovah” into the New Testament, Dr. Jason BeDuhn states “To use ‘Jehovah’ where the original Greek reads kurios is no more legitimate than using “Lord” where the original Hebrew reads YHWH.” [47]

Regarding the NWT’s use of English, Dr. Harold H. Rowley is critical of what he calls “wooden literalism” and “harsh construction.” He characterizes these as “an insult to the Word of God” and offers a few sample renderings from Genesis. Specifically he cites Genesis 15:5, 4:13, 6:3, 18:20, 4:8, 19:22, 24:32 and 24:66. Rowley concludes these criticisms by writing, “From beginning to end this volume is a shining example of how the Bible should not be translated.”[48] Holding a contrary opinion commentator Alexander Thomson writes of the NWT, “It escapes the frigidity produced by the over rigidity of being too strictly concordant.”[49]

[edit] Theological

Critics have accused translators of conforming the NWT "to their own preconceived and unbiblical theology."[50]

To support a view of theology overriding appropriate translation, Drs. John Ankerberg and John Weldon cite several examples, one being the NWT's use of "for all time" in Hebrews 9:27: “And as it is reserved for men to die once for all time, but after this a judgment.” Ankerberg and Weldon cite Dr. Julius Mantey on this text as saying, “Heb. 9:27, which without any grounds for it in the Greek, is mistranslated in the J. W. Translation… the phrase “for all time” was inserted in the former versions without any basis in the original for it.”[51]

Of the NWT, Reachout Trust writer Tony Piper concludes it is not a "faithful translation of the Scriptures…", giving as examples Acts Acts 2:42, 46 and 20:7, 11 and he objects that “the NWT translates it to read that the church simply shared meals together” rather than using the phrase “breaking of bread [...] to disguise the fact that the early church celebrated the Lord's Supper more than once a year.” [52]

Bruce Metzger cites NWT renderings as instances of translating to support doctrine. He references the NWT’s comma placement at Luke 23:43 as “In the interest of supporting the doctrine of "soul sleep" held by Jehovah’s Witnesses.”[53] Of the NWT’s rendering “…and the Word was a god” at John 1:1, Metzger states it “is not justifiable” and “entirely in accord with the Arian theology of the sect.” Dr. Jason BeDuhn disagrees with Metzger on this point, stating of the NWT that its “translation of John 1:1 is superior to” translations with the rendering Metzger recommends.[54]

Another example Metzger offers is the insertion of the word “other” four times in Colossians chapter 1 “thus making Paul say that Jesus Christ is one among ‘other’ created things.” Of this insertion, Metzger states it is “In the interest of providing support of [Jehovah’s Witnesses’] Unitarianism” and that the insertion is “totally without warrant from the Greek”.[55] Dr. Jason BeDuhn disagrees on this point by stating “‘Other’ is implied by ‘all,’ and the NW simply makes what is implicit explicit.”[56]

[edit] Commendation

A 2004 book by Dr. Jason BeDuhn states, “While it is difficult to quantify this sort of analysis, it can be said the NW emerges as the most accurate of the translations ... judging by the passages we have looked at.” [57] Commentator Alexander Thomson wrote, “We heartily recommend the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, published in 1950 by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.”[58] Thomas Winter considers the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures (part of the NWT project) as “highly useful” toward mastery of biblical Greek.[59] Winter relates that the translation "is thoroughly up-to-date and consistently accurate.” [60] In addition, Charles Francis Potter has stated about NWT: "Apart from a few semantic peculiarities like translating the Greek word stauros, as "stake" instead of "cross," and the oftenstartling use of the colloquial and the vernacular, the anonymous translators have certainly rendered the best manuscript texts, both Greek and Hebrew, with scholarly ability and acumen."[61]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jason David Beduhn, Truth in Translation - Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament...Also see All Scripture Is Inspired by God and Beneficial published in 1990 pg. 326 pars. 32-33 Study Number 7—The Bible in Modern Times: New World Translation A Literal Translation....This requires an almost word-for-word correspondency between the rendering in English and the Hebrew and Greek texts...the degree of literalness should be as high as the original-language idiom permits... There have been occasional departures from the literal text, for the purpose of conveying in understandable terms the difficult Hebrew or Greek idioms. However, in the reference edition of the New World Translation, these have been called to the reader’s attention by means of footnotes that give the literal rendering.
  2. ^ Using the not-for-profit corporations Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. and the International Bible Students Association of Brooklyn, New York
  3. ^ "English Bible, The", Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. Harper's Bible dictionary (1st ed.). Harper & Row: San Francisco 1985.
  4. ^ Awake!, November, 2007 p. 30
  5. ^ http://www.pronetisp.net/~diana/wcm.html list of KJV words and their modern meanings or counterparts.
  6. ^ Foreword, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, 1984.
  7. ^ NWT title page
  8. ^ The Watchtower, November 15, 2001 p. 7
  9. ^ Watchtower Publications Index 1986-2006, Watchtower Publications
  10. ^ New York Times August 3, 1950 p. 19
  11. ^ The Watchtower, September 15, 1950, p. 320
  12. ^ Walsh vs Honorable James Latham, Court of Session Scotland, 1954, cross examination of Frederick Franz pp. 90-92 “Q. Well then, which body decides? A. [by Frederick Franz] It is the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania [Corporation] that decides in these matters.” (p. 90) “Q. Were you yourself responsible for the translation of the Old Testament? A. [by Frederick Franz] Again I cannot answer that question, in harmony with the gentlemen’s agreement made by the Board of Directors and the Translation Committee.” (p. 92)
  13. ^ Martin W, Kingdom of the Cults, Expanded Anniversary Edition, October 1997, Bethany House Publishers, p. 123. “While the members of the [NWT] committee have never been identified officially by the Watchtower, many Witnesses who worked at the headquarters during the translation period were fully aware of who the members were. They included Nathan H. Knorr (president of the Society at the time), Frederick W. Franz (who later succeeded Knorr as president), Albert D. Schroeder, George Gangas, and Milton Henschel (currently the president).”
  14. ^ Wills T, M.A., A People For His Name – A History of Jehovah’s Witnesses and An Evaluation, Lulu, 2006. Originally published in 1967 by Vantage Press. “[Frederick] Franz is a language scholar of no mean ability—he supervised the translation of the Bible from the original languages into the New World Translation, completed in 1961.” (p. 253) Of author Tony Wills, the Preface reads “The Author has been intimately associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses for many years, close enough to be able to think as one, but never, at the same time, losing his objectivity.”
  15. ^ New York Times August 3, 1950 p. 19
  16. ^ The Watchtower, December 15, 1974, p. 768
  17. ^ Metzger, Bruce M, The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, The Bible Translator 15/3 (July 1964), pp. 150-153.
  18. ^ Walsh vs Honorable James Latham, Court of Session Scotland, 1954, cross examination of Frederick Franz pp. 87-88
  19. ^ Walsh vs Honorable James Latham, Court of Session Scotland, 1954, cross examination of Frederick Franz p. 88
  20. ^ Penton, James, Apocalypse Delayed, Second Edition, 1999, p. 79. James Penton is disfellowshipped from the Watchtower organization.
  21. ^ The Watchtower, May 1, 1987 pp. 23-24, Frederick Franz states he left the University of Cincinnati near the end of his junior year. According to Franz his early departure from the University of Cincinnati was at a sacrifice. He states, “I have never regretted that, shortly before the announcements by the educational authorities regarding the outcome of the examinations for the Cecil Rhodes Scholarship, I wrote a letter to the authorities and advised them that I had lost interest in the Oxford University scholarship and that they should drop me from the list of contestants. This I did even though my professor in Greek at the university, Dr. Joseph Harry, informed me that I had been chosen to receive it.”
  22. ^ 1911-1913 University of Cincinnati transcript for Frederick W. Franz. Between 1911 and 1913 Franz attended the University of Cincinnati. He earned 15 hours of Latin, 21 hours of classical Greek, and a single 2-hour credit class in a course titled “The New Testament—A course in grammar and translation.”
  23. ^ MacMillan AH, Faith on the March, Prentice Hall, 1957, p. 181-182. This author, Alexander Hugh MacMillan, sat on the Board of Directors of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Incorporated, the publisher of the New World Translation.
  24. ^ Introduction to the NWT Reference Edition page 7.
  25. ^ Rowley, H.H., Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Translation of the Bible, The Expository Times, 1956; 67; 106
  26. ^ J. M. Powis Smith's and Edgar J. Goodspeed's translation of the Bible in 1935, explained in a preface: “In this translation we have followed the orthodox Jewish tradition and substituted ‘the Lord’ for the name ‘Yahweh’ and the phrase ‘the Lord God’ for the phrase ‘the Lord Yahweh.’ In all cases where ‘Lord’ or ‘God’ represents an original ‘Yahweh’ small capitals are employed.”
  27. ^ The preface to the Revised Standard Version: “For two reasons the Committee has returned to the more familiar usage of the King James Version [omitting the name of God]: (1) the word "Jehovah" does not accurately represent any form of the Name ever used in Hebrew; and (2) the use of any proper name for the one and only God, as though there were other gods from whom he had to be distinguished, was discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era and is entirely inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church.”
  28. ^ Alden Robert comments on that fact: "Most translations use all capital letters to make the title “LORD.” Exceptions are the ASV and New World Translation which use "Jehovah," Amplified which uses “Lord,” and JB which uses “Yahweh.” (Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., & Waltke, B. K. 1999, c1980. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed.) . Moody Press: Chicago). Other translations that similarly use God's name are the Young's Literal Translation, the Rotherham's Emphasized Bible, the Darby and the Jay Green's Modern KJV.
  29. ^ New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures with References (1984) Appendix 1A, p. 1561, par. 8.
  30. ^ Insight on the Scriptures Vol 2 p. 5
  31. ^ New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures with References (1984) Appendix 1B, p. 1562.
  32. ^ New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures with References (1984) Appendix 1A, p. 1561, par. 9, 10.
  33. ^ The Watchtower, January 1, 2004 pg 9 para 3
  34. ^ Online Bible: Revelation 19:1-21 New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures - Jehovah's Witnesses Official Web Site
  35. ^ (Biblical Archaeology Review, March 1978, page 14)
  36. ^ BeDuhn, Truth in Translation, pg. 174: "There are actually seventy-eight passages where a New Testament author rather directly quotes an Old Testament passage in which YHWH appears in the original Hebrew."
  37. ^ New World Translation w/ References, Appendix 1D pg. 1564
  38. ^ LXXP (Septuagint) Fouad Inv. 266 renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in square Hebrew characters 49 times in identified places in Deuteronomy. In addition, in this collection the Tetragrammaton occurs three times in unidentified fragments, namely, in fragments 116, 117 and 123. This papyrus, found in Egypt, was dated to the first century B.C.E.
  39. ^ In the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures — With References, 1984, p. 1565, the translators state: "To avoid overstepping the bounds of a translator into the field of exegesis, we have been most cautious about rendering the divine name in the Christian Greek Scriptures, always carefully considering the Hebrew Scriptures [i.e. the Old Testament] as a background. We have looked for agreement from the Hebrew versions to confirm our rendering." (Italics added.)
  40. ^ Smith's Bible Dictionary for "Jah": "'Jah' means Jehovah - Jah: the abbreviated form of Jehovah, used only in poetry."
  41. ^ The standard lexicographical work of the Greek language indicates that the basic meaning of the word as used by Greek writers of three or more centuries before Christ (Homer, Thucydides, Xenophon, Herodotus) was an "upright pale or stake" or a "pile" driven in to serve as a foundation, but indicates that by the first century before Christ it meant "cross" in the writings of Diodorus Siculus (c. 90 - c.27 B.C.) and that this is the meaning in Matthew 27:40 (see Liddell and Scott: σταυρός.
  42. ^ John Denham Parsons - The Non-Christian Cross. Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words says, "STAUROS denotes, primarily, an upright pole or stake...Both the noun and the verb stauroo, to fasten to a stake or pole, are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two-beamed cross. The shape of the latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea (Babylon), and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name)...By the middle of the 3rd century A.D. the churches had either departed from, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross piece lowered, was adopted..."
  43. ^ Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom (1993) Chap. 27 p. 611, subheading Translation Into Other Languages.
  44. ^ Rhodes R, The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions, The Essential Guide to Their History, Their Doctrine, and Our Response, Zondervan, 2001, p. 94
  45. ^ BeDuhn, Jason D. Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, 2004: 165
  46. ^ Metzger, Bruce M., The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, The Bible Translator 15/3 (July 1964), pp. 150-153.
  47. ^ BeDuhn, Jason D. Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, 2004: 176
  48. ^ Rowley, H.H., How Not To Translate the Bible, The Expository Times, 1953; 65; 41
  49. ^ Thomson, A., The Differentiator, 1952, 55 No. 2, 6
  50. ^ See Ankerberg, John and John Weldon, 2003, The New World Translation of the Jehovah's Witnesses, accessible from this site, which quotes a number of scholars regarding alleged theological bias of the New World Translation.
  51. ^ See Ankerberg, John and John Weldon, 2003, The New World Translation of the Jehovah's Witnesses, accessible from this site, which quotes a number of scholars regarding alleged theological bias of the New World Translation.
  52. ^ Tony Piper, member of Reachout Trust examines the New World Translation http://www.reachouttrust.org/articles/jw/jwnwt.htm
  53. ^ Metzger, Bruce M, Persistent Problems Confronting Bible Translators, Bibliotheca Sacra / July-September 1993: 279
  54. ^ BeDuhn, Jason D. Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, 2004: 133. In whole BeDuhn writes, “It may well be that the NW translators came to the task of translating John 1:1 with as much bias as the other translators did. It just so happens that their bias corresponds in this case to a more accurate translation of the Greek.”(p. 125) And, “The NW translation of John 1:1 is superior to that of the other eight translations we are comparing. I do not think it is the best possible translation for a modern English reader; but at least it breaks with the KJV tradition followed by all the others, and it does so in the right direction by paying attention to how Greek grammar and syntax actually work.”(p. 133)
  55. ^ Metzger, Bruce M, The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, The Bible Translator 15/3 (July 1964), pp. 150-153.
  56. ^ BeDuhn, Jason D. Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, 2004: 85
  57. ^ BeDuhn, Jason D. Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, 2004. Beduhn compared the King James, the (New) Revised Standard, the New International, the New American Bible, the New American Standard Bible, the Amplified Bible, the Living Bible, Today's English and the NWT versions in Mattthew 28:9, Phillipians 2:6, Colossians 1:15-20, Titus 2:13, Hebrews 1:8, John 8:58, John 1:1.
  58. ^ Thomson A, The Differentiator, 1952, 55 No. 2, 6
  59. ^ Thomas N. Winter, Review of New World Bible Translation Committee’s The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, Classics and Religious Studies Faculty Publications, Classics and Religious Studies Department, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, April-May 1974: 376. “[S]ince [the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures] short-cuts the mechanical and distracting lexicon-thumbing while presenting an unretouched text, I think it is a legitimate and highly useful aid toward the mastery of koine (and classical) Greek. After examining a copy, I equipped several interested second-year Greek students with it as an auxiliary text. No assignments were made in it: the students, combining their wish to learn Greek with a natural interest in the original of the New Testament, dipped into it on their own. They read the Greek (I strongly recommended reading it aloud), picked up the English more or less subliminally, and ended up improving their Greek. After learning the proper pronunciations, a motivated student could probably learn koine Greek from this source alone…. In sum, when a Witness comes to the door, the classicist, Greek student, or Bible student alike would do well to bring him in and place an order.”
  60. ^ Thomas N. Winter, Review of New World Bible Translation Committee’s The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, Classics and Religious Studies Faculty Publications, Classics and Religious Studies Department, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, April-May 1974: 376
  61. ^ The faiths men live by, Kessinger Publishing, 1954, 239. ISBN 1425486525.

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