New False Translation

Although last year (2013) the Jehovah's Witnesses released a new edition of their Bible, commonly referred to as the 'Silver Sword Edition' because of the color of the Bible it was mainly a re-working of the previous 1984 version with the main change being the layout. Some textual changes were also made - most notably the removal of some of John 8, and the end of Mark in the New Testament.

But every release since 1970 has been based on the original release. And that is where the problem lies. The people involved, and named, as the translators have no qualifications to translate.

The five translators were named as: Nathan H. Knorr, Fredrick W. Franz, Albert D. Schroeder, George Gangas, and Milton Henschel. The qualifications held by these five are laughable when you consider that over 7 million Jehovah's Witnesses use the New World Translation as a basis of their faith.

Franz completed two years of study in Biblical Greek and had a basic understanding of Hebrew. Gangas spoke modern Greek and was originally  at the Watchtower headquarters to translate publications. the others had no qualifications whatsoever.

The Old Testament translation was derived from:

• Original Hebrew Writings
• Aramaic Targums
• Dead Sea Scrolls
• Hebrew Consonantal Text
• Samaritan Pentateuch
• Greek Septuagint
• Latin Vulgate
• Syriac Peshitta
• Masoretic Text
• Old Latin
• Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian
• and others

Which were translated by others, outside of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and used as a basis for the New World Translation Old Testament. The main reference source for the Jehovah's Witness translators was Biblia Hebraica (Kittel), which itself is a translation of Mikraot Gedolot (Great Scriptures).

The New Testament translation was derived from:

• Original Greek Writings
• Coptic Versions
• Syriac Versions
• Old Latin
• Latin Vulgate
• Early Greek Uncial MSS
• and others

Which were translated by others, outside of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and used as a basis for the New World Translation Old Testament. The main reference source for the Jehovah's Witness translators was the Westcott & Hort text, which itself was a translation of Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus and based on the critical works of Tischendorf and Tregelles.

Without anyone qualified sufficiently to look at the oldest manuscripts, that the Jehovah's Witnesses constantly say they used, it would be a safe bet to say that the New World Translation is merely a translation of what was already translated by someone else.

When the New World Translation was released it was met with criticism. Samuel Haas, in his 1955 review of the first volume of the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, in the Journal of Biblical Literature, stated:

"This work indicates a great deal of effort and thought as well as considerable scholarship, it is to be regretted that religious bias was allowed to colour many passages." (Samuel Haas, Journal of Biblical Literature, Volume 74, Number 4, December 1955, Page 283)

In a 2003 study by Jason BeDuhn, associate professor of religious studies at Northern Arizona University, he stated:

"The introduction of the name 'Jehovah' into the New Testament 237 times was not accurate translation by the most basic principle of accuracy, and it violates accuracy in favor of denominationally preferred expressions for God. For the NWT to gain wider acceptance and prove its worth its translators might have to abandon the use of 'Jehovah' in the New Testament." (Jason D. BeDuhn, Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament)

Maybe next time the Jehovah's Witnesses come banging on the door on a Saturday morning you might want to pull out the Dead Sea scrolls and a few Coptic texts for them to look over before they leave, classing you as an apostate and putting you on the 'do not call' list.