what version of the Bible do you use in your church? why jehovah witnesses have their own version of the bible

Question

this question for all the churches!!

Answer 1

Some responses are so predictable. Many have seen your question as another golden opportunity for people to cite the same mantras: "Jehovah's Witnesses are a cult"; "Jehovah's Witnesses have their own version of the Bible;" "Jehovah's Witnesses have wrong doctrine."

All else aside, I personally have, and use, about twelve different Bible translations. This includes Hebrew Bibles. It also includes two Catholic Bibles. By and large, I don't have a problem, however, with these "Catholic" Bibles. Curiously, why did Catholicism feel the need for a new translation? Was something wrong with the old King James?

I have the NIV as well. Notice comments below concerning the New International Version (NIV): Copyright, 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

"You will be pleased to know that a portion of the purchase price of your new NIV Bible has been provided to International Bible Society to help spread the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.

"The New International Version (NIV) is a translation made by more than one hundred scholars working from the best available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. It was conceived in 1965 when, after several years of study by committees from the Christian Reformed Church and the National Association of Evangelicals, a trans-denominational and international group of scholars met at Palos Heights, Illinois, and agreed on the need for a new translation in contemporary English. Their conclusion was endorsed by a large number of church leaders who met in Chicago in 1966. Responsibility for the version was delegated to a self-governing body of fifteen Biblical scholars, the Committee on Bible Translation, and in 1967, the New York Bible Society (now International Bible Society) generously undertook the financial sponsorship of the project."

Did you notice the part about the need for a new translation? What was wrong with the King James?

In truth, there are countless Bible translations out there. The Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses use dozens of them. Including the King James Version.

Hannah J Paul

Answer 2

Last year 2006, we "brainwashed" as some of you like to say, 248,327, that became Jehovah's Witnesses and everyone of these had to change their minds pertaining to the false teachings that they had been taught, these were people that used their own Bible, King James, Catholic, American Standard, etc.

There is more than one Bible translation from which to choose. Show discernment in the selection of the Bible you use. (Proverbs 19:8) If a translation is not honest about the identity of God himself, removing his name from his inspired Word on whatever pretext, might the translators also have tampered with other parts of the Bible text? When in doubt about the validity of a rendering, endeavor to compare it with older translations. If you are a teacher of God’s Word, favor the versions that hold closely to what is in the original Hebrew and Greek text.

Translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into Spanish, Portuguese, German, English, French, and many others, honestly included God’s personal name. By the 16th century, the personal name of God also began to appear again in various Hebrew translations of the Christian Greek Scriptures; by the 18th century, in German; by the 19th century, in Croatian and English. Even though people might try to push God’s name into a corner, when “Jehovah’s day” arrives, then, as God declares, ‘the nations will have to know that I am Jehovah.’

The Bible we use, has Jehovah's name where it should be, not "Lord, or God" which are titles but his real name, over 7000 times, there are two scriptures in the Bible which says: "Everyone that calls upon the name of Jehovah will be saved." If you have a Bible that does not have his name, how are you going to know him or call upon his name.

Answer 3

They use the New World Translation which was translated from the same Hebrew and Greek manuscripts that all other Bibles are translated from. In many ways, it's very good and accurate. In other ways, however, it reflects the bias of the Jehovah's Witnesses who translated it. The first thing most people notice about the NWT is that the name Jehovah is everywhere. As already stated, the NWT replaced it in scriptures where it (YHWH, actually) had appeared in the original Hebrew language. So that should not actually be objectionable to anyone, unless they object to "Jehovah" being used instead of YHWH. However, the NWT then went beyond that and ADDED it to over 200 verses in the New Testament where the name did NOT appear in any of the original language manuscripts. One example of this is Romans 13:10 which reads in the Greek that "he who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." It is obvious from the context that the Lord in this case is Jesus. However, the NWT translates it as "Jehovah" even though virtually ALL the Greek manuscripts ever known to exist, plainly say 'lord', and not 'Jehovah'. One of its good points is that it translates "cross" as "torture stake" which is good because the original word is "stauros" and it refers to all kinds of torture stakes, not only those that had crosspieces. So 'torture stake' is a better translation in that regard. (The basic meaning of the word 'stauros' is not 'torture stake', but 'stake'. But the secondary meaning of 'stauros' is a stake that is used for punishment or torture, and that includes crosses as well as simple stakes, trees, or any other wooden instrument with a frame or not, on which people were hung.) So it has good features and bad features. That's just one of each.

Answer 4

'conundrum ' spoke well concerning the New World Translation , as well as the other translations he mentioned. Jehovah's Witnesses have no desire what-so-ever to alter the accurate word of God.

There have been many who give false information about the witnesses and the NWT : this translation was very well researched in order to get the most accurate translations possible of the original Hebrew and Greek languages that were used by the first 40 some writers of the original 66 books that we call the Holy Bible.

also please note this verse: " ALL SCRIPTURE is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3 : 16,17

We believe very strongly in the teachings of the bible and want to be able to use the translation that is the best while we endeavor to share the message concerning God's kingdom (as we were directed by Jesus Christ before He ascended to his Father --see Matthew 28 : 19,20 )

Answer 5

Did you all know that the "New Jerusalem Bible" (NJB) has God's original name throughout the Bible? The NWT Bible has God's english translation name in it Jehovah, but the NJB has God's original name *Yahweh* in it.
I know I saw the NJB in Barnes and Nobles and was flipping through pages and saw God's original name on the pages! I think I will go back and buy that Bible. That is the ONLY Bible so far that I know of that contains the original name. It looked and sounded so good while I was reading it. It also comes complete with ALL OF the Books; including ALL the Wisdom Books. Awesome!

Answer 6

i have so many bibles and I get so sick of hearing that Jehovah's Witnesses have their own bible. We more than most use lots of different translations. I have a new english bible that is almost like the NWT.
also, when a bible is printed in Spanish and it says the same thing does that mean they changed the Spanish language to fit their bible?

Answer 7

It is true that many or most Jehovah's Witnesses prefer "New World Translation", but they have never attached any particular infallibility or inspiration to that translation. Each Jehovah's Witness decides for himself which translation he will use. Of course, 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.

Sadly, this so-called "question" seems less concerned with magnifying the Divine Author and more concerned with demeaning Jehovah's Witnesses. Why?

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

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/na/
http://watchtower.org/e/20020915/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20050715/article_02.htm

Answer 8

IN RECENT years a number of modern Bible translations have been published that have done much to help lovers of God’s Word to get to the sense of the original writings quickly. However, many translations have eliminated the use of the divine name from the sacred record. On the other hand, the New World Translation dignifies and honors the worthy name of the Most High God by restoring it to its rightful place in the text. The name now appears in 6,973 places in the Hebrew Scripture section, as well as in 237 places in the Greek Scripture section, a total of 7,210 places all together.
The New World Translation is not the first version to restore the divine name in the Christian Greek Scriptures. From at least the 14th century onward, many translators have felt forced to restore God’s name to the text, particularly in places where the Christian Greek Scripture writers quote from Hebrew Scripture texts that contain the divine name. Many modern-language missionary versions, including African, Asian, American, and Pacific-island versions of the Greek Scriptures, use the name Jehovah liberally, as do some European-language versions.
The older Bible translations contain many obsolete words that belong to the 16th and 17th centuries. Though not understood now, they were readily understood then. For example, one man who had much to do with putting them in the English Bible was William Tyndale, who is reported as saying to one of his religious opponents: ‘If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy who drives the plow to know more of the Scriptures than you do.’ Tyndale’s translation of the Greek Scriptures was easy enough for a plowboy to understand in his time. However, many of the words he used have now become archaic, so that ‘a boy who drives the plow’ can no longer clearly grasp the meaning of many words in the King James and other older versions of the Bible. Thus, it has become necessary to remove the shrouds of archaic language and to restore the Bible to the ordinary language of the common man.
The New World Translation makes every effort to be consistent in its renderings. For a given Hebrew or Greek word, there has been assigned one English word, and this has been used as uniformly as the idiom or context permits in giving the full English understanding. For example, the Hebrew word ne′phesh is consistently translated “soul.” The corresponding Greek word, psy·khe′, is translated “soul” in every occurrence.
Substance enough.

Answer 9

The King James version or the Geneva Bible. The JW Bible was written by those with no training in Greek or Hebrew but a a strong desire to prove Charles T. Russel to be a great man of God.

Answer 10

The reason the have their own translation is because they have been very creative with it.
For example, in John 1:1 ...and the Word was God... a definitive statement of Jesus being God; they translate it as ....and the word was a god.....

their reason is that there is no defenite article before "theos" in the Greek text, so it does not mean "God"

The problem is that several times, in the same chapter, they translate "theos" without a definite article as "God".