Why did Jehovah's Witnesses Bible writers edit their version of the Bible so?

Question

They took most of the scriptures about Grace and replaced the word Grace with Undesirved Kindness?
I see a vast difference betweenthe 2 meanings. What do you think?

I was just wondreing, as I am going to church this morning, about The Grace of God.
I have stated that there is no Grace in a Kingdom Hall...This I say, because in my experience, I never even knew what Grace really was, until I left the Witnesses. Then It dawned on me that they do not even use the term, and I was wondering, why? Is this just my experience, or is it a global Witness doctrine?

Suzette R: Give me an example of a modern day bible scolar who is not on the WBTS publishing payroll, who thinks that the NWT is anything but a haritical blasphamy.....which it is, by the way.

Moises..Antonio..You have been warned..Stop trolling me.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070923080409AAnssvd&r=w

Would those of your aswering please start reporting this guy, thank you.

Answer 1

I see a vast difference between the two words as well.

Ephesians 2:8, in the King James Version reads: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

Ephesians 2:8 in the New Living Translation reads: God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God.

What does the Greek word usually translated as grace mean? According to the KJV New Testament Greek Lexicon, the Greek word which is usually rendered "grace" includes as its meaning:

grace
that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness:
grace of speech
good will,
loving-kindness,
favour
of the merciful kindness by which God . . . strengthens, increases them in Christian faith,
benefit
a gift of grace
benefit,
bounty thanks, (for benefits, services, favours),
recompense,
reward

Quite a listing. Did you notice that among all these meanings is “loving-kindness”? Also "favor"? Did you notice that the New Living translation translates it as “God’s special favor”?

Now what about the English word “grace” - what does it mean anyway? Well grace has fourteen or more different meanings, including, but not limited to:

seemingly effortless beauty;
charm or refinement;
a sense of fitness or propriety;
goodwill,
mercy,
clemency;
exemption;
reprieve.

Now which one does it mean at John 1:14 (KJV), “full of grace and truth”? Does it mean there “gracefulness”? Or “favor”? Or “the grant of temporary immunity” or "reprieve" or "exemption"? Or what?

Well the New World Translation leaves no doubt as to the meaning but renders it “undeserved kindness,” in keeping with the context, as, for instance, the succeeding verse 17.

Considering all of the above, there really is no sound basis upon which to seriously take issue with the way this Greek word is translated in the NWT.

Hannah J Paul

Answer 2

Grace is a gift that comes from God which is unearned.

This is contrary to theologies that teach works.

Grace is the divine love of God Almighty Jehovah to those that are Christian (Even the misled ones THAT love Him).

There are several Greek and Hebrew manuscripts of the Holy Bible available and in print today. There are a couple of good concordances and Greek/Hebrew lexicons and dictionaries.
It takes a lot of work but is well worth the effort to find out what is said in the bible. Dropping preconcieved ideas and letting go of teachings previously learned is very hard to do. Finding the Words of God is far more valuable than gold.

That is a nice source you took from above(kate) real clean and simple.

Answer 3

“Jehovah” is the final nicely-known English pronunciation of the divine call, in spite of if “Yahweh” is favourite by utilising maximum Hebrew pupils. The oldest Hebrew manuscripts latest the call interior the fashion of four consonants, frequently talked approximately as the Tetragrammaton (from Greek te?tra-, which potential “4,” and gram?ma, “letter”). those 4 letters (written from suitable to left) are ???? and could be transliterated into English as YHWH (or, JHVH). The Hebrew consonants of the call are hence nicely-known. The question is, Which vowels are to be mixed with those consonants? Vowel factors did no longer come into use in Hebrew till the 2d a million/2 of the 1st millennium C.E. in addition to, because of the fact of a non secular superstition that had started centuries before, the vowel pointing latest in Hebrew manuscripts does not supply the main for determining which vowels ought to look interior the divine call. My call is Darran (with an "a") yet it may additionally be spelt, Darin, Darren, or perhaps Darron. Why no longer have a observe with the guy whom your examining with? they are going to be waiting to respond to you.

Answer 4

Not according to the dictionany, but anyway have you notice that Jehovah´s witnesses are the only group that know what will be the blessing thatGod´s kingdom will bring to this planet after Armageddon?

Every time I ask what will Jesus do after Armageddon with this planet and if is alie that Jesus will trasform this planet in a paradise during his millenial kingdom, Christians never know , apostate avoid the answer for not recognize that JWs are telling that important message?

why ? in 238 countries around the world and only JWs are preaching God´s kingdom? why the rest of Christians group don´t talk about that?

Answer 5

We have spent a great deal of time researching the ORIGINAL meanings of the words in order to get the MOST ACCURATE understanding of the scriptures. The word 'grace' does not even appear in the original scriptures. We have Hebrew/English and Greek/English interlinear bibles so you can check up for yourself. Ask the next JW who knocks on your door to get one and show you.
Undeserved Kindness is the most accurate meaning and is straight to the point and self explanatory.
I know this is a little out there for you but have you considered what you have been taught just might be wrong. I know its not easy to question what you have been told for so long but look into these things with an open mind.

Answer 6

All versions of the Bible have been edited at one time or another throughout history. Most times, they had to do with particular social, ideological or political reasons — not whether they were considered closer to God's will. By the way, all these editors also happened to be men, too.

Answer 7

The New World Translation (NWT) is defined by the Jehovah's Witnesses’ parent organization (The Watchtower Society) as "a translation of the Holy Scriptures made directly from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into modern day English by a committee of anointed witnesses of Jehovah." The NWT is the anonymous work of the “New World Bible Translation Committee.” Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that the anonymity is in place so that the credit for the work will go to God. Of course this has the added benefit of keeping the translators from any accountability for their errors, and prevents real scholars from checking their academic credentials.

The New World Translation is unique in one thing – it is the first intentional systematic effort at producing a complete version of the Bible that is edited and revised for the specific purpose of agreeing with a group's doctrine. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Watchtower Society realized that their beliefs contradicted Scripture. So, rather than conforming their beliefs to Scripture, they altered Scripture to agree with their beliefs. The “New World Bible Translation Committee” went through the Bible and changed any Scripture that did not agree with Jehovah’s Witness’ theology. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that as new editions to the New World Translation were published, additional changes were made to the Biblical text. As Biblical Christians continued to point out Scriptures that clearly argue for the deity of Christ (for example), the Watchtower Society would publish a new edition of the New World Translation with those Scriptures changed. Following are some of the more prominent examples of intentional revisions:

The New World Translation renders the Greek term word "staurós" ("cross") as "torture stake" because Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that Jesus was crucified on a cross. The New World Translation does not translate the Greek words “sheol,” "hades,” "gehenna," and "tartarus," as "hell” because Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in hell. The NWT gives the translation "presence" instead of “coming” for the Greek word “parousia” because JW’s believe that Christ has already returned in the early 1900’s). In Colossians 1:16, the NWT inserts the word “other” despite it being completely absent from the original Greek text. It does this to give the view that “all other things” were created by Christ, instead of what the text says, “all things were created by Christ.”

The most well known of all the New World Translation perversions is John 1:1. The original Greek text reads, “the Word was God.” The NWT renders it has “the word was a god.” This is not a matter of correct translation, but of reading one's preconceived theology into the text, rather than allowing the text to speak for itself.

There is no indefinite article in Greek (in English - "a" or "an"). So any use of an indefinite article in the English translation must be added in by the translator. This is grammatically acceptable in English, so long as it does not change the meaning of the text.

There is a perfectly good explanation for why "theos" has no definite article in John 1:1 that does not result in the New World Translation rendering. There are three general rules we need to understand to see why:

1. In Greek, word order does not determine word usage like it does in English. In English, a sentence is structured according to word order: Subject - Verb - Predicate. Thus, "Harry called the dog" is not equivalent to, "The dog called Harry." But in Greek, a word's function is determined by the case ending found attached to the word's root. In this verse, there are two case endings for the root "theo" . . . one is "s" (theos), the other is "n" (theon). The "s" ending normally identifies a noun as being the subject of a sentence, while the "n" ending normally identifies a noun as the direct object.

2. When a noun is functioning as a predicate nominative (in English a noun that follows a "being" verb such as "is") its case ending must match the noun's case that it modifies, so that the reader will know which noun it is describing. Therefore, "theo" must take the "s" ending because it is modifying "logos." Therefore, John 1:1 transliterates to: "kai theos en ho logos." Is "theos" the subject or is "logos"? Both have the "s" ending. The answer is found in the next rule.

3. In cases where two nouns appear, and both take the same case endings, the author will often add the definite article to the word that is the subject in order to avoid confusion. John put the definite article on "logos" (the Word) instead of "theos." So "logos" is the subject, and "theos" is the predicate nominative. In English, this results in John 1:1 being read as: "and the Word was God," (instead of "and God was the word").

The most revealing evidence of the Watchtower's bias is their inconsistent translation technique. Throughout the Gospel of John, the Greek word “theon” occurs without a definite article. The New World Translation renders none of these occurrence as “a god.” Just 3 verses after John 1:1, the New World Translation translates another case of "theos" without the indefinite article as "God." Even more inconsistent, in John 1:18, the NWT translates the same term as both "God" and "god" in the very same sentence.

The Watchtower, therefore, has no hard textual grounds for their translation - only their own theological bias. While New World Translation defenders might succeed in showing that John 1:1 can be translated as they have done, they cannot show that it is the proper translation. Nor can they explain the fact that that the NWT does not translate the exact same Greek phrases elsewhere in the Gospel of John the same way. It is only the pre-conceived heretical rejection of the deity of Christ that forces the Watchtower Society to inconsistently translate the Greek text, thus allowing their error to gain some semblance of legitimacy to those ignorant of the facts.

It is only the Watchtower's pre-conceived heretical beliefs that is behind the dishonest and inconsistent translation that is the New World Translation. The New World Translation is most definitely not a valid version of God’s Word. There are differences between all the major English translations of the Bible. No English translation is perfect. However, while other Bible translators make minor mistakes in the rendering of the Hebrew and Greek text into English; the NWT intentionally changes the rendering of the text to conform to Jehovah’s Witness’ theology. The New World Translation is a perversion, not a version, of the Bible.

Recommended Resource: Reasoning from the Scriptures with the New World Translation by Ron Rhodes.

Answer 8

You are right. "grace" is not merely an unmerited kindness... It is true that all of God's blessings are unmerited by us but they have been merited for us by Jesus Christ. That is why grace comes through faith in the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour. But grace is not a mere favour. The grace of God is His Spirit. Unless we receive His grace, the Spirit of Christ, to help our infirmities, we cannot form a Christian character.

It is true that JW do not recognize the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ any more than the Mormons do or the Jews or the Muslims. This fact alone tells us whether their claims are true or not, whether they follow the living God or not. Of course, there are honest ones among these groups and the Lord will guide them into all truth. But the leaders of these movements are not walking in the path of truth by denying the Divinity of Christ.

The best translation available is the King James version because it is was translated directly from the original language.

Answer 9

The bible, especially Protestant versions, has been edited so many times that it's hard to tell how far from the original it has strayed. Since the original documents no longer exist, people can never be sure how accurate any version is.

Answer 10

YOU are a former JW and now apostate. Why post something to appear to be asking a question?(Rhetorical question since I know why.) You know this is a lie. It is your desire to disseminate lies, partial truths, and misinformation. You will fail.

Jilly, you are absolutely correct.

Jimi4950, that is also untrue. The NWT is considered one of the most accurate Bibles available today. If you have a problem with the truth it's YOUR problem.