Can someone fill me in on the translators of the New World Translation the Jehovah witnesses use?

Question

I have studied with this bible a bit, and I find it to be easier to understand, but very different from my bible.

Also I am not sure about all the Bible study aides that they give to me.

Answer 1

During the past twenty years or so Jehovah's Witnesses have concentrated on translating, publishing, and printing a day-to-day bible in languages which may not have had a quality bible, and especially a bible which consistently respects the divine name of God (יהוה or YHWH or Jehovah).

In 1989, 56 million copies of New World Translation had been distributed, in whole or in part in only 11 languages. By 1994, that had increased to 72 million in 18 languages. By 1997, it was 91 million in 27 languages. By 2000, it was 100 million in 34 languages, yet still only 80% of Jehovah's Witnesses had a NWT in their mother tongue.

By 2002, it was 114 million in 42 languages. By 2006, New World Translation was available in whole or in part in FIFTY-EIGHT LANGUAGES. Jehovah's Witnesses had distributed over 140 million bibles. Their work continues.

In some of these languages, New World Translation is the ONLY bible printed in a single volume. In other languages, NWT became the first new translation in perhaps a century (and perhaps the first quality translation).


Altogether, Jehovah's Witnesses have distributed more than 145 million bibles, 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/na/
http://watchtower.org/e/20020915/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20050715/article_02.htm

Answer 2

It is basically the same as any other Bible. The thing is it was translated from the original scrolls instead of old translations of said scrolls. This provides more accuracy.

Although no ancient Greek text of the New Testament contains the Tetragrammaton, the New World Translation's New Testament uses Jehovah frequently where Greek source texts read "the Lord". The New World Bible Translation Committee built on the theory that the divine name was removed from NT manuscripts after the first century. This view remains controversial until an early Greek, Syriac, Coptic, or Latin text can be found to support it. However, Professor George Howard, of the University of Georgia, U.S.A., made this comment: "When the Septuagint which the New Testament church used and quoted contained the Hebrew form of the divine name, the New Testament writers no doubt included the Tetragrammaton in their quotations."[15] With this in mind, they used the divine name 237 times in the New Testament. In 223 of the 237 Jehovah references the Greek word Kyrios is used. In 13 other instances the word is Theos. The Committee cited several reasons as justification for the inclusion:

* Passages where the NT writers quote Old Testament Scriptures that contain the divine name. There are seventy-eight passages where this occurs.[16]
* New Testament scriptures that suggest, according to Jehovah's Witnesses, that the name would be there if 1st century manuscripts were discovered, most notably Jesus' words as recorded at John 17:6, "I have made your name manifest to the men you gave me out of the world..."[17]
* A first century B.C. Septuagint copy of the Book of Deuteronomy contains the Tetragrammaton in paleo-Hebraic script within the Greek text.[18] The Name was indeed known by some Greek speaking Jews of the time, albeit not readable to the average Greek reader.[citation needed]
* The Watchtower cites 28 Hebrew translations (ranging from 1533 A.D. to present) of the New Testament that contain the Divine name, commonly known as the "J texts". Because the practice of using the tetragrammaton (YHWH) in the New Testament was particularly common in translations of the NT into Hebrew, these texts are cited to show where other translators also believed the tetragrammaton should belong in the New Testament.[19]
* Four instances in the book of Revelation contain a transliterated Hebrew word: "Hallelujah!" (Literally: "Praise Jah!") (Revelation 19:1, 3, 4, 6). "Hallelujah" does not contain the full tetragrammaton (YHWH), although "Jah" (YH) is the abbreviated form of "Jehovah".[20]

Answer 3

This translation is one that was done for their sect.

There are also other easy to understand translations... New Living Translation, The Living Bible, The Message etc.

As far as study aids go, there are many bible studies available from Christian denominations, on the internet... I take a bible study in my home as well, so I am sure there are meny other Christians that actively evangelise and would do a study with you at their home or yours.

Please test everything that you hear, so you know it to be true and not just what someone tells you. Find a church that encourages you to 'work out your own salvation' and to study for yourself and not just accept blindly.

Please email and I can provide further info, and help ~ if you wish.

Take care, God bless

Answer 4

i'm able to assure that there's no longer something "each and every residing Bible pupil" is of a similar opinion on. it particularly is an extremely fake assertion. in basic terms Jehovah's Witnesses evaluate their translation the superb. I particularly have examine that the superb translation is a Catholic translation through fact they do no longer declare to be a Bible based church. maximum of their doctrines come from traditions, that they say, predate the Bible. consequently, they have not got an time table of translating to verify their theology (in spite of the fact that the greater writings in a Catholic Bible do help a number of their doctrines). the main broadly usual English translation via Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants interior the U.S. is the Revised usual version.

Answer 5

How accurate is the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures:

Old Testament:
In fact, the New World Translation is a scholarly work. In 1989, Professor Benjamin Kedar of Israel said:
"In my linguistic research in connection with the Hebrew Bible and translation, I often refer to the English edition as what is known as the New World Translation. In doing so, I find my feeling repeatedly confirmed that this kind of work reflects an honest endeavor to achieve an understanding of the text that is as accurate as possible. Giving evidence of a broad command of the original language, it renders the original words into a second language understandably without deviating unnecessarily from the specific structure of the Hebrew....Every statement of language allows for a certain latitude in interpreting or translating. So the linguistic solution in any given case may be open to debate. But I have never discovered in the New World Translation any biased intent to read something into the text that it does not contain."

New Testament:

While critical of some of its translation choices, BeDuhn called the New World Translation a “remarkably good” translation, “better by far” and “consistently better” than some of the others considered. Overall, concluded BeDuhn, the New World Translation “is one of the most accurate English translations of the New Testament currently available” and “the most accurate of the translations compared.”—Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament.

“Here at last is a comprehensive comparison of nine major translations of the Bible:

King James Version, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, Amplified Bible, Today's English Version (Good News Bible), Living Bible, and the New World Translation.

The book provides a general introduction to the history and methods of Bible translation, and gives background on each of these versions. Then it compares them on key passages of the New Testament to determine their accuracy and identify their bias. Passages looked at include:

John 1:1; John 8:58; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:15-20; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8; 2 Peter 1:1

Jason BeDuhn
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, and Chair
Department of Humanities, Arts, and Religion
Northern Arizona University

(Please note that according to Dr. Jason BeDuhn, only the NWT translated John 1:1 correctly)


Please note what is said about the NIV:

Why did the recently published “New International Version” (NIV) of the Bible fail to use the name of God where it appears about 7,000 times in ancient Bible manuscripts? In response to a person who inquired about this, Edwin H. Palmer, Th.D., Executive Secretary for the NIV’s committee wrote:

“Here is why we did not: You are right that Jehovah is a distinctive name for God and ideally we should have used it. But we put 2 1/4 million dollars into this translation and a sure way of throwing that down the drain is to translate, for example, Psalm 23 as, ‘Yahweh is my shepherd.’ Immediately, we would have translated for nothing. Nobody would have used it. Oh, maybe you and a handful [of] others. But a Christian has to be also wise and practical. We are the victims of 350 years of the King James tradition. It is far better to get two million to read it—that is how many have bought it to date—and to follow the King James, than to have two thousand buy it and have the correct translation of Yahweh. . . . It was a hard decision, and many of our translators agree with you.”

Concerning the NIV:

Bruce Metzger: (NIV) "It is surprising that translators who profess to have 'a high view of scripture" should take liberties with text by omitting words or, more often, by adding words that are not in the manuscripts."

.

Answer 6

The JW Bible is in no way related to the actual Bible that has been passed through the centuries...so you will not find a coherent correlation between the two. I couldn't tell you exactly what the differences are, as that is not my thing. I have a friend who was raised a JW and converted to Christianity when his parents forbade him to research the faith of his family. Apparently he found some serious inconsistencies. Now his parents won't speak to him, or anyone else from his former faith. He lost his money for college, and is not paying for his education on his own, seeking a degree in Comparative Religions.

Answer 7

The names of the translators of the New World Translation (NWT) are not known. The official reason for their anonymity is humility. But the truth is that if their names were known, people would be able to check their skills in Hebrew and Koine (Greek) and realize they were not qualified enough to undertake the translation of the Bible. MOST Christian scholars will tell you the same: this translation is biased in order to support the doctrines of the Watchtower Society. Of course, Jehovah's Witnesses will only quote the few so-called experts (who often are Jehovah's Witnesses themselves) who support their slanted translation. If you want a reliable translation of the Bible, don't pick the New World Translation. It was undertaken with the purpose of conforming to Jehovah’s Witness doctrines (that are not based on the original text of the Bible). Here's an example:

John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (Most English translations - e.g., KJV, NIV, NASB)

John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god." (NWT)

Answer 8

Keep your old Bible..It has suited you well in the past, and it is fine...The NWT is the first bible in history that is changed to follow the dogma of a religion...It has an agenda.

Ask a lot of questions from other Christians and look up everything...they are good at taking things out of context...Pray for God to direct your study every time they come over.

http://freeminds.org

Answer 9

One major difference between the Jehovah witnesses bible and the King James version is that the Jehovah witnesses do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They do not seek Him for salvation which is what the King James shows.

Answer 10

They are supposed to be anonymous, but I think Raymond Franz, who used to be a governing body member, revealed who they were in one of his books. You could probably find out on google who he said they were.

According to the web page I have linked below, the translators were: Nathan H. Knorr, Frederick W. Franz, George D. Gangas, and Albert D. Schroeder.