The New World Translation?

Question

how can JW say that they have researched their NWT if the people they had on the job new nothing about translatiing the Bible. I think they are all frauds. You decieve weak minded people and try to get every one to convert with that nonsense, get some one who can translate correctly.

Translator
Qualifications

Franz, Frederick
Probably the only person to actually translate. Franz was a liberal arts student at the University of Cincinnati:

21 semester hours of classical Greek, some Latin.

Partially completed a two-hour survey course in Biblical Greek in junior year.

Self-taught in Spanish, biblical Hebrew and Aramaic

Gangas, George
No training in biblical languages. Gangas was a Turkish national who knew Modern Greek. Translated Watchtower publications into Modern Greek.

Henschel, Milton
No training in biblical languages.

Klein, Karl
No training in biblical languages.

Knorr, Nathan
No training in biblical languages

Schroeder, Albert

Answer 1

The KJV is the only trustworthy translation for the English language!

PS...Don't worry, papa bear, ya didn't pop my bubble at all...I've done comparison studies,and it's clear to see WHY God has honoured the KJV down throughout the yrs since it's translation. It doesn't add to or take away from His Holy Word! Case closed.

Answer 2

So what you're saying is that only people whose income and academic advancement depended on translating something that would be acceptable to everyone, rather than just a few, that makes them dependable?

In saying the KJV is the only acceptable translation, you forget what the "V" stands for, Version not Translation. There is a scripture about the Trinity that was added at the time of its creation, which was condensed from five other Bibles.

You may not like the NWT, but those who use it live their lives, as a whole, closer to Christ than any other religion.

What does it say about the KJV, that all those who use it live their lives so far away from the teachings of Christ. What does it say that when you ask most who uses KJV what day do they observe the Memorial on, they give a day in May, instead of the day Christ said to do it.

Consider this, it immortalizes King James I whose dissatisfaction with the Geneva Bible's puritanism led to its creation.

As for being an expert, anyone can go to any Bible Book Store and buy an Interlinear Translation of the New Testament. Look at the writings of John. He spelled the word god four different ways in Greek. He never used the same spelling when referring to God the Father and god the Word. He did use the same spelling when referring to the Word as a god, the devil as a god, and men who cosnider themsleves a god. So, is the Devil and Men also God Almighty? Or, are all the books, by legitimate translators, found in non-JW book stores also wrong? Of course, you have to compare to see it, as they still put the word God under the term when referring to the Word, but not under the terms referring to the devil and men. I'm not a translator and I can see this, so why can't you? Or don't you even care and also believe we should immoralize King James I?

Sorry to pop your bubble.

Answer 3

Putting names to those who translated the NWT into English is pure speculation,

As to the quality of the translation please read:

Old Testament:
In fact, the New World Translation is a scholarly work. In 1989, Professor Benjamin Kedar of Israel said:
"In my linguistic research in connection with the Hebrew Bible and translation, I often refer to the English edition as what is known as the New World Translation. In doing so, I find my feeling repeatedly confirmed that this kind of work reflects an honest endeavor to achieve an understanding of the text that is as accurate as possible. Giving evidence of a broad command of the original language, it renders the original words into a second language understandably without deviating unnecessarily from the specific structure of the Hebrew....Every statement of language allows for a certain latitude in interpreting or translating. So the linguistic solution in any given case may be open to debate. But I have never discovered in the New World Translation any biased intent to read something into the text that it does not contain."

New Testament:

While critical of some of its translation choices, BeDuhn called the New World Translation a “remarkably good” translation, “better by far” and “consistently better” than some of the others considered. Overall, concluded BeDuhn, the New World Translation “is one of the most accurate English translations of the New Testament currently available” and “the most accurate of the translations compared.”—Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament.

“Here at last is a comprehensive comparison of nine major translations of the Bible:

King James Version,
New American Standard Bible,
New International Version,
New Revised Standard Version,
New American Bible,
Amplified Bible,
Today's English Version (Good News Bible),
Living Bible,
and the New World Translation.

The book provides a general introduction to the history and methods of Bible translation, and gives background on each of these versions. Then it compares them on key passages of the New Testament to determine their accuracy and identify their bias. Passages looked at include:

John 1:1; John 8:58; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:15-20; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8; 2 Peter 1:1

Jason BeDuhn
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, and Chair
Department of Humanities, Arts, and Religion
Northern Arizona University

Per Jason BeDuhn, only the NWT correctly translated all the above verses correctly.

That includes the "a" in John 1:1.

I think it's interesting that: Edwin H. Palmer, Th.D., Executive Secretary for the NIV’s committee stated:

"We are the victims of 350 years of the King James tradition."

Answer 4

No, what he's saying is that how they have no right to claim they're translators when they have little knowledge of the language they're translating from, much less how their translation is the most accurate.

It would be like getting a college student in his first semester of French, his buddy from Montreal who has no knowledge of 17th century Mainland French grammar and his buddies who are all business and music majors in college translating the entire works of Alexandre Dumas (Of 3 Musketeers Fame) and expecting his or her translation would be superior to a translation done by a group of grad students who majored in French and minored in Middle Ages history.

It's not about money or finances, but rather, who has more knowledge on how to translate? The casual student, or the expert?

If you choose the casual student, then you deserve to knock on doors in the middle of winter and have nobody invite you in.


*Edit* Heiss, always drinking the WT Kool Aid as usual. There's a court case where Fred Franz ADMITTED to being the lead translator for the NWT, so the translators aren't anonymous.

So it's either the WT lied under oath about who the translators were. If that's the case, the WT were liars, and Jehovah will destroy them. (Hope they didn't swear on a bible) or Fred Franz and company are horrible translators and incompetent when it comes to preaching the good news. Which way is it?

Answer 5

*sigh*

Earl - I know quite a few Israelis who would be surprised to learn that Hebrew is a dead language. Also, none of the Scriptures are written in Arabic. You're thinking of Aramaic - a different language.

Papa Bear - Yes, there are flaws in the KJV, most of them politically motivated. There are flaws in the New World translation as well. I will not speculate on the motivation there. For instance, there are no definite articles in the Greek dialect used in the New Testament, but there are well-established rules to determine when they are appropriate - rules which are completely ignored in the New World translation, particularly in the writings of John.

The best possible thing to do is to study the languages and read the Scriptures for yourself. Otherwise, you're simply reading someone's idea of what it says. This applies to all translations.

Answer 6

The members of the New World Translation Committee have always requested anonymity, and no member has ever been publicly identified. It seems likely that many or most of the original members have passed on, since the primary work was completed 45 years ago.

Interestingly, Jehovah's Witnesses discerned the true teachings of the bible many decades before they commissioned the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, which was not completed until the 1960's.

Jehovah's Witnesses attach no particular infallibility or inspiration to NWT; Witnesses actually use many different translations in their personal bible reading and research. As many householders are well-aware, Jehovah's Witnesses are happy to use any translation which an interested person may prefer, and in fact Jehovah's Witnesses themselves distribute other translations besides NWT.

Incidentally, there are about 6.5 million active Jehovah's Witnesses around the globe. By comparison there are over 130 million copies of NWT in print. Even if every Witness has four bibles, that still implies that 80% of these bibles are being used by non-Witnesses. A printed copy can be requested using the online form or by writing to a local branch address:
https://watch002.securesites.net/contact/submit.htm
http://watchtower.org/how_to_contact_us.htm

The entire text of NWT is freely available at the official website of Jehovah's Witnesses:
http://watchtower.org/bible/

The NWT easily stands on its own merits, and is actually recognized and appreciated by secular scholars of biblical Hebrew and Greek. Since the same manuscripts used by the NWT translators are still widely available for study, and since there are dozens of alternate translations for comparison, anyone who chooses to use NWT does so informedly.

When critics of Jehovah's Witnesses extend their criticism to the New World Translation, their blind hatred for this Christian religion is exposed. Since its publishing, secular experts of Hebrew and Greek have consistently refused to condemn any particular verse or phrase as an unacceptable translation. Instead, it is religionists with preconceived theologies who bigotedly insist upon particular wordings, since these are necessary to prop up the shakey tenets of their false worship.

(2 Timothy 4:3-5) For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, whereas they will be turned aside to false stories. You, though, keep your senses in all things, suffer evil, do the work of an evangelizer, fully accomplish your ministry.

It seems signficant that the relatively small religion of Jehovah's Witnesses are the ones best known for their worldwide preaching work. Yet Jesus commanded that ALL who would call themselves "Christian" perform this public work:

(Matthew 28:19,20) Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. And, look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/library/pr/article_04.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/na/
http://watchtower.org/e/20020915/article_01.htm
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20050715/article_02.htm

Answer 7

Nice try but now kewpie doll you didnt do your homework well or you would have known that theese men were not the translators of the Bible but some of the top translators on the planet were involved over many years and did extensive research to produce the finest translation and the most accurate I would go into more detail but it obvious by the venom you spew out that your mind is closed to important details like facts so go do your homework and when you can present an intelligent well thought out answer mabey we will discuss this further gorbalizer

Answer 8

Unfortunately few people today know Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew!

They've all be dead langauges for over 1,000 years.

I have a friend who is teaching English in Turkey right now who is majoring in Ancient Greek.

Answer 9

I made a similar statement earlier today. You are absolutely correct. Their so-called translation is biased and worthless.