In the Jehovahs Witnesses version of the Bible, The New World Translation. Who did the translation.?

Answer 1

This so-called "question" seems to focus on "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures", which is distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses. There are more than 130 million copies of this modern-language bible in print, in dozens of languages.
http://watchtower.org/languages.htm

The entire text of NWT is freely available at the official website of Jehovah's Witnesses, and a personal printed copy can be requested at no charge:
http://watchtower.org/bible/
https://watch002.securesites.net/contact/submit.htm
http://watchtower.org/how_to_contact_us.htm


Jehovah's Witnesses certainly like NWT, but they are happy to use any translation which an interested person may prefer, and in fact Jehovah's Witnesses themselves distribute other translations besides NWT. Jehovah's Witnesses attach no particular infallibility or inspiration to NWT.

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. The translation committee chose to remain anonymous, and most likely have passed on as the primary translation work was completed more than fifty years ago.

It seems that the vast majority of the criticism against the New World Translation is actually as a proxy for blind hatred against Jehovah's Witnesses. The hatred must be "blind" since secular experts of biblical 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.

Answer 2

For many bibles today, you would be hard press to find the names of the translators, not just the NWT committee.

Is is an honest, accurate 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


I also like the NRSV, NASB,

I also like the NKJV, where it has restored God's name in the "NT" by using LORD in all caps.

Answer 3

The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) is published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. and the International Bible Students Association of Brooklyn, New York.

In October 1946, the president of the Watch Tower Society, Nathan H. Knorr, proposed a fresh translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Work got under way 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 TRANSLATORS WHICH TO STAY ANONYMOUS, stating their intent "to honor Jehovah God, the Divine Author of his inspired Word".

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, to the 82,075 present. 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.

Answer 4

I can guarantee that the majority of the people who responded to this question have never even read the NWT, or at least, very little of it. In fact, they probably have never read any Bible in it's entirety.

The real relevant questions that should be asked instead is: "How well does it keep its integrity in comparison to the original texts, and what merit can it be evaluated at by examining ONLY the text itself?"

On the above basis, the NWT has received high acclaim. Of course, those who make presuppositions before even looking at it already have their answer - and quite frankly, what value does such an answer have?

Moreover, the individual names of the translators are inconsequential. Remind me, please, of what qualifications the Apostle John had? How about James? Mark? Moses? Jeremiah? Etc. Were they qualified - according to today's condescending academics - to be the authors of the most propagated of book in living history? According to them, of course not. But to God, they were just fine. And if God saw them as good enough, then what anybody else thinks is irrelevant, period.

This is not an admission of a lack of scholarship by the NWT translators, but demonstrates a powerful point: The most important thing, really, is the message of the book, and not who wrote the message. As they say: "Don't shoot the messenger".

Answer 5

The Jehovah Witnesses translated their own New World Translation. The Watchtower Bible came about because Charles Russell didn't like some of the parts of the Bible. He was a false prophet and then Joseph Rutherford took over. Rutherford was just as bad he built a mansion for the returning patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and when they didn't return he moved into the mansion himself. Also proven a false prophet.

Nathan Knorr took over and this is when the Bible went through their own translation which is called The New World Translation.
Five Greek scholars in the Watchtower did the translation.

Jehovah Witness is a false religion with many false prophets.

Answer 6

It was translated from the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek manuscripts by a group of scholars who "wish to remain anonymous even after death."

Answer 7

Jehovahs witnesses say the entire bible is inspired of God and that they believe all of it. However they have a different idea of inspiration than most Bible believing Christians and don't believe in the verbal inspiration of scripture. They teach the authors of the Bible were only inspired in their basic ide or thought and then each writer put these ideas into his own words. They teach the bible can't be taken literally, but must be illuminated by the WATCHTOWER SOCIETY. In the early days Charles Taze Russell was the only one who could. The next two presidents continued this practice.

They teach that inspiration comes directly from God through THEIR organisation. They don't believe the Bible as God has written it. In fact many of their teachings are contrary to the Bible.

Bible study to them means an examination of Watchtower literature under the guidance of a Jehovahs Witness. They talk about reading the Bible but in reality they don't read much of it. In fact they are almost forbidden to read it on their own. Official watchtower publication MUST be used in every Bible study.

They teach that only a small portion of the Bible was written for the average JW. Most of the bible is said to be written only for the anointed class (144,000) the average witness feels that he has no reason to read the Bible when most of it is not written for him and what is written can only be interpreted by the society.

The watchtower August 1st 1980 pp. 19 -20 SAYS

Thus the one who doubts to the point of becoming an apostate sets himself up as a judge. He thinks he knows better than his fellow Christians, but also than the 'faithful and discreet slave' through whom he has learned the best part, if not all that he knows about Jehovah God and his purposes. He developes a spirit of independence, and becomes proud in heart....... some thing detestable to Jehovah' Proverbs 16:14. Some apostates even think they know better than God, as regards his ordering the events in the outworking of his purposes.

You see if you are a JW you are not allowed to read and understand your bible your self.

Interestingly and sadly some other cultic (not occult) groups say the same thing about people that disagree with their doctrine.
Remember God gave you a mind and you need to use it where the Bible is concerned. If someone starts telling you their literature is more important or as important as your bible RUN FOR THE HILLS it's most likely a cult.

Answer 8

The original was a "translation" by that sect's founder. It has undergone at least four revisions since then.

Seems deciding you know what even Christ said He didn't know, isn't a sound idea, unless you got access to a really big printing press and lots of paper and ink for whenever you gotta redo your estimates.

On the other hand, it's a nifty way to sell more books, since the faithful gotta keep up with the stuff and that means buying the revisions hot off the press.

Answer 9

the same as all the other Holy Books, a man, or men, this is how it was in the first place, man using God's words in his way and not God's, of course the prove here is how much money they con you out of, I think it's 10% of what you earn, and it goes where?

Answer 10

Allen B. Snoid did the translation. He was a cross-eyed truck driver who had a penchant for really short hairy woman, but he was holy and erudite, almost to a fault; which was belied by his appearance, for he himself was tall and had no hair, not even eyebrow hair.