What Bible do Jehovah's Witnesses use?

Question

I've heard it said that Jehovah's Witnesses use "their own Bible" not the real Bible.
If that were true, wouldn't it be impossible for them to quote Scriptures to people who don't use "their" Bible? Who wrote the Bible anyway.

"Contrary to popular belief, the Bible is not a product of the civilization of the West, nor does it glorify that civilization. Almost the entire Bible was written in Oriental countries. The men who wrote it down were all Orientals. One thousand years before Buddha, in 1513 B.C.E., Moses, who lived in the Middle East, was inspired by God to write the first book of the Bible, called Genesis. From this beginning, the Bible follows one harmonious theme right through to its final book of Revelation. The Bible was completed in 98 C.E., about 600 years after Buddha."
http://www.watchtower.org/library/lmn/article_03.htm

"A leading authority on Bible manuscripts, Sir Frederic Kenyon, says: "The last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed." Today, there are still in existence about 16,000 handwritten copies of the Bible or parts of it, some even surviving from the second century before Christ. Moreover, accurate translations have been made from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages in which the Bible was originally written into nearly all the languages of the earth."

"The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, published by Jehovah's Witnesses, is a Bible translation that replaces the archaic language of old translations with current speech forms. The foremost feature of this translation is the restoration of the divine name to its rightful place in the Bible text. To date, over 122 million copies have been printed, in whole or in part, in 45 languages."
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2004/1/22/article_03.htm

I'm sorry bobert...
I don't believe I've ever heard of the term "Oriental" being offensive... being a word to signify that a person is of the Orient, that would be like me being offended by being referred to as an Arkansan, or for that matter is it offensive to be referred to as an American? (Or a Roman?)
As to the rest of your comments, Are you asking a question? I'd like to answer but I don't think I get your point...

As to the comments regarding the "Western" influences on the Bible, I think I'd just like to say that it floors me when people are suspicious of all except the King James Version...
Regardless of the implications of the circumstances surrounding the printing of that version, it seems to me that many (American's mostly) people seem to think that the Bible was written by King James, or written in English at the very least. Which it was not. Pointing out that it WAS written chiefly by Orientals is a great way of driving that point home...

Big claims "Doug", but can you back up your claim with examples?
Incidentally, the original Bible languages include not only Greek, but Aramaic and Hebrew as well.

If you really want to know here is a link to the New World Translation Online
http://www.watchtower.org/e/bible/index.htm
Show me where it is different (other than language) from yours. I have several versions and translations of the Bible. In fact if you read any of our Publications you will see that the Branch also uses many translations. It's important to look at several sometimes to get the full meaning because, and I can't stress this enough, the Bible wasn't written in English. And it was written thousands of years ago. Meanings have changed and especialy in Hebrew, pronunciations have been lost. Languages are not as simple as you might like to believe.

Answer 1

The bible is the Word of God; Jehovah Himself is the Divine Author of the Holy Scriptures.

(2 Timothy 3:16) All Scripture is inspired of God

(2 Peter 1:20-21) No prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation. For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.

(Acts 28:25) The holy spirit aptly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to YOUR forefathers

(Acts 1:16) For the scripture to be fulfilled, which the holy spirit spoke beforehand by David’s mouth

(Mark 12:35-36) Jesus began to say as he taught in the temple: “...By the holy spirit David himself said [a particular Scripture]

(2 Samuel 23:1,2) And these are the last words of David: “...The spirit of Jehovah it was that spoke by me, And his word was upon my tongue.

(Zechariah 7:12) The law and the words that Jehovah of armies sent by his spirit, by means of the former prophets

(Luke 1:68-70) Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, because he has turned his attention and performed deliverance toward his people... just as he, through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, has spoken


Jehovah's Witnesses have distributed more than 145 million copies of "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures", 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.

The "New World Translation Committee" which oversaw the translation work request anonymity 'en perpetuity', and are likely all dead since the primary work was completed 45 years ago. Guesses at specific names have always been merely guesses. 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.

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 shaky 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 significant 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/e/20000622/
http://watchtower.org/e/pr/index.htm?article=article_04.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/na/
http://watchtower.org/e/20020915/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20050715/article_02.htm

Answer 2

The King James version has many mistakes in it. In fact the scholars that translated it felt God's name was too holy to write so they omitted it thousands of times.
The New World Translation is easy to read and no matter what translation anyone uses the meaning stays the same.

The Bible is God's instruction book for mankind. Why fight about all the unimportant things and open the book and learn what his will is for mankind.

Time is short, get on to the meaty aspects of what we are commissioned to do.....Jesus said preach, teach, and baptize . How many of you have a bible study with someone?

The whole world has to turn from their sinful ways to be saved.
Each person has to accept that Jesus Christ died for their sins so that they can get eternal life.

Work towards that promise...spread the good news of that Messianic Kingdom that Jesus instituted at the last supper..
His promise was he would be with us until the conclusion of this system of things. He is helping us...so live like it's your last day, and help someone else.

And we will make it to paradise to live forever.

Answer 3

Erm, other than using "Jehova" rather than God/Lord it's the same bible, it just is published under names other than King James and so on because of this destinction.

As for your other statments, for one thing, the term "oriental" is offensive, and it's used for rugs, not people... Secondly, though various figures from the middle east wrote the bible, it was a group of Roman priests that decided which should be included from a variety of works.... The Romans are considered to be the main representation of early western tradition, aren't they?... Likewise, the New Testament was formed almost entirely under Roman influence, Paul, directly responsible for a large portion of the New Testament, claims to have been a Roman citizen for example...

Answer 4

The Watchtower Organization did come up with their own version of the bible called the New World Translation. It is very different from other translations.

The JWs use to use the KJV but that did not really support their "theology", so they need one to support their beliefs.

Answer 5

JW's either deliberately or erroneously mistranslate the original Greek texts, in order to make their bible read the way they believe it should.

This is duplicitous at best, and sacreligious, at worst.

The boys from Brooklyn need to take some lessons is Greek translation. Then perhaps, they can finally get it right.

But then, there would be no JW's!

Answer 6

the new world tranlation of the holy scriptures
God

Answer 7

How accurate is the new world translation?