JW: Can the Holy Scriptures trace its source back to the Council of Nicea?

Question

Upon examination, I found that the Holy Scriptures and the King James Bible has the same chapters in them from Genesis to Revelation. These books were selected to be in the Bible during the Council of Nicea held in 325 CE. I would like to know if this is coincidental or was the Holy Scriptures translated from the books selected by the Council? Thank you

What I am trying to say is, the same books contained in the Jehovah Witnesses Holy Scriptures are the same books contained in the King James version of the Bible. Do both bibles have a common source?

Answer 1

Jehovah's Witnesses believe all 66 books of the proto-canonical bible to be infallible and inspired of God.

Like most self-described Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept Catholicism's deutero-canonical books as inspired.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20000622/
http://watchtower.org/archives/index.htm#bible
http://watchtower.org/e/dg/index.htm?article=article_04.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/lmn/index.htm?article=article_02.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/pr/index.htm?article=article_04.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/ti/index.htm?article=article_05.htm

Answer 2

The Council of Nicea was not primarily concerned awith canonizing the books of the Bible. It was called by the Emperor Constantine to settle the issue of whether or not Christ was a created being. Ultimately it was decided that Christ was coeternal with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, if you were wondering. The belief that Christ had been created at a point in time became known as the Arian heresy, after its primary exponent, the monk Arius.

To the extent that the Council of Nicea touched on the books of the Bible, it merely confirmed the canon most Christians had already accepted for more than a century.

Edit: I missed the Jehovah's Witnesses angle, so here goes: The so called New World Translation is not a translation. It's a rewriting of the KJV in order to make it conform to JW beliefs. None of the so called translators knew any of the original languages. JWs oppose the kind of higher education that real translation would require, because it does bad things to people, like causing them to gain knowledge.

Answer 3

The Bible pre-exists the council of Nicea. The Council of Nicea and subsequent Councils, simply recognized which books would be considered canonical and therefore authoritative for the teaching of doctrine, prayer and worship, and the sacramental ministry of the Church. The last Council to provide a definitive list of the canon of the scriptures was the Council of Trent, which opposed the removal of several books from the Old Testament by protestant reformers--books which had been recognized for centuries as being canonical and authoritative.

Answer 4

The books of the Bible were selected long before the Nicean Council.
The Jewish historian Josephus, in answering opponents in his work Against Apion (I, 38-40 [8]) around the year 100 C.E., confirms that by then the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures had been fixed for a long time. He wrote: “We do not possess myriads of inconsistent books, conflicting with each other. Our books, those which are justly accredited, are but two and twenty, and contain the record of all time. Of these, five are the books of Moses, comprising the laws and the traditional history from the birth of man down to the death of the lawgiver. . . . From the death of Moses until Artaxerxes, who succeeded Xerxes as king of Persia, the prophets subsequent to Moses wrote the history of the events of their own times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of human life.”

Outside the Scriptures themselves there is evidence that, as early as 90-100 C.E., at least ten of Paul’s letters were collected together. It is certain that at an early date Christians were gathering together the inspired Christian writings.
By the end of the second century there was no question but that the canon of the Christian Greek Scriptures was closed, and we find such ones as Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian recognizing the writings comprising the Christian Scriptures as carrying authority equal to that of the Hebrew Scriptures.

The NWT of the Holy Scriptures does indeed have the same source as the King James version of the Bible (as explained above). However, it has many benefits that that the KJV doesn't.
Where the Tetragram [four Hebrew letters for the divine name] were originally used but removed because of superstition, they have been replaced in the NWT so the reader can see where it occurs.
In the KJV you can tell where the Tetragram is by the word 'lord' appearing in capital letters.

There are other benefits too, just ask if you want more info

:)

Answer 5

I would only add to the above posters that the Watchtower Society has admitted that Christendom did some good work in bringing the gospel to the world, even if it (Christendom) didn't understand it properly. it's the same Bible, except where the WS has added the name Jehovah where it wasn't in the original. (I'm not talking about translations, but the original language text)