A question for Jehovah's Wtinesses?

Question

What version of the Bible do you use? Is it only the New World Translation? Someone told me that all versions are used.....

Answer 1

It would seem that most bible readers are unaware of the convention used to describe modern bibles...

...a bible "translation" is a current-language bible translated directly from original-language ancient manuscripts

...a bible "version" is a current-language bible translated from some intermediary language

Thus, the "King James VERSION" was translated from LATIN into Old English (a current language in 1611), rather than translated from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. This is one of the reasons KJV can be (at best) a common frame of reference with which other bibles might be compared.

Jehovah's Witnesses continue to use and even distribute KJV in many languages because of its historical, cultural, and literary significance and value. But in most larger languages, Jehovah's Witnesses prefer to use "New World TRANSLATION", and this is the bible primarily quoted in their publications.

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.


When anti-Witnesses pretend that JW beliefs depend on NWT, they perhaps ignore the fact that Witnesses continue to refer their adherents and students to any convenient bible. In fact, NWT was not completed until the 1960's (long after Jehovah's Witnesses had become an established religion).

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 Jehovah's Witnesses prefer the New World Translation because of its accuracy. But they use and other translations without any problem.
For example the JW from Romania received the NWT last year on November 15. Until then they've used other translations.


http://www.watchtower.org/library/na/article_06.htm

Answer 3

Jehovah's Witnesses do not exclusively use the New World Translation. If you look in any of their publications, you will find quotes from a number of different Bibles. In my home, I have the King James Version, the American Standard Version, the Revised Standard, and the Emphatic Diaglot.

The NWT has gotten a bad rap because it does not fit in with the trinitarian view of God and Jesus. At John 1:1, it says: The word was a god." Most other Bibles say: "The Word was God." Critics of the NWT say that Jehovah's Witnesses changed the Bible. But what they seem to overlook is that the NWT was not the first Bible to say: "a god." Take a look at what other Bibles say at John 1:1

1808: "and the word was a god." The New Testament in an Improved Version, Upon the Basis of Archbishop Newcome's New Translation: With a Corrected Text.

1864: "and a god was the word." The Emphatic Diaglott, interlinear reading, by Benjamin Wilson.

1928: "and the Word was a divine being." La Bible du Centenaire, L'Evangile selon Jean, by Maurice Goguel.

1935: "and the Word was divine." The Bible—An American Translation, by J. M. P. Smith and E. J. Goodspeed.

1946: "and of a divine kind was the Word." Das Neue Testament, by Ludwig Thimme.

1958: "and the Word was a God." The New Testament, by James L. Tomanek.

1975: "and a god (or, of a divine kind) was the Word." Das Evangelium nach Johannes, by Siegfried Schulz.

1978: "and godlike kind was the Logos." Das Evangelium nach Johannes, by Johannes Schneider.

So to say that Jehovah's Witnesses changed the Bible is bold-faced lie.

Answer 4

The order I first used them, as far as I can recall, is:

KJV; Scofield; NWT; ASV; KIT; tBILE; Douay-Rheims; YLT; Darby; NASV; WEB; tBEB; tLB; & a few others I've not recently been using. The NWT is not available in all languages yet, so many of Jehovah's Witnesses have as yet benn unable to read it. But they use whaatever Bibles are available in their tongue. Such as are represented in:

The Struggle for a Bible in Modern Greek
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2002/11/15/article_01.htm

A Hidden Treasure Comes to Light
--The Story of the Makarios Bible
http://watchtower.org/library/w/1997/12/15/article_01.htm

The "Septuagint"--Useful in the Past and the Present
http://watchtower.org/library/w/2002/9/15/article_01.htm

Answer 5

Contact them. They're just like the Reader's Digest. Once they bought your title, there's no situation on the planet wherein you'll be able to disguise. Like the Reader's Digest, they're regularly at the prowl for contemporary idiots, pardon my French, equipped converts.

Answer 6

Jehovah's Witnesses make use of a wide variety of bibles in languages all over the world.

In my personal library, I have over 40 english translations, 3 ancient greek, 2 ancient hebrew, and 3 spanish translations.

While I don't make regular use of them all, I do have about half a dozen favorites.

- Bob

Answer 7

We have the New World Translation, but it's exactly the same as the other bibles. The only difference is that ours doesn't speak in the "old way". You know, like "thy" and "thou" and stuff.

Answer 8

While we often use the NWT, we will use any translations.

Answer 9

King James I believe--unless they changed it from 30 years ago. They do change things alot, like when armageddon was to happen three or four times since the early 1900s. Last time I believe was in 1974!

Answer 10

They just read the watchtower and believe whatever it tells them to that week.