Okay Everbody, I have mentioned that for some time I walked with the Jehovah's Witnesses. However, God called me out of their organization and led me onto another path which has been a great benefit to me and enabled my growth as a Christian in the liberty of Christ. During that time I did believe that their New World Translation was the best and most accurate one on earth, to be trusted implicitly. But a funny thing happened on the way out the door.
I started learning the Biblical languages to honor a vow I made to myself even before I got involved with the Witnesses as a teenager. At the time I'd found out that the King James Bible had thousands of errors in it, and, no, it wasn't a Witness who pointed that out to me, it was a fellow young Baptist who was a member of a conservative Baptist Church, much as I was at the time. I promised myself that I would learn the Bible Languages so no translator would stand between me and God's word. But my journey would take me first through disbelief, the occult world, and then Jehovah's Witnesses. Believe it or not, I am thankful to God for all those experiences as I believe all had a part towards preparing me for my spot in the Bride of Christ. But I digress.
So, I exited the Witnesses by fading out. So, now what to do. My self-study of Koine was starting to bear fruit and I was beginning to read the New Testament using the Master Text by Farstad and Hodges. that reading left my understanding of God changed in important ways from what I was taught in the Watchtower. I grasped his love for mankind in general and the Church into which I've been enrolled in Heaven in particular. I've since grown.
Now, we all know the scholarly community condemns the New World Translation heartily and give people plenty of reasons not to trust it, some right, some wrong, such as John 1:1 where the NWT is correct and they are wrong. The NWT uses "torture stake" instead of "cross," It inserts the word "other" in Colossians 1:17 which does not appear in the Greek Text, and inserts God's Holy name, Jehovah, into the New Testament even though it doesn't appear anywhere in the Greek Text and so on and so forth. I could go on and on giving examples the scholars put forward for not trusting the New World Translation (NWT). But why should I ever do that when there is only one reason I need and you as well?
When the Watchtower put out their CD Rom library I received it as eagerly as every one of my brothers and sisters did. I loaded it up on my computer and started reading the 1950 watchtowers as I know some others did. When I got to September I was in for a major shock! This has been scrubbed from the Watchtower indexes with the first mention of the reasons for a new translation being listed as 32 years later in the 1983 Watchtower. But it can be found right here on their website of JW.org: https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1950681
Scroll down to Paragraph 9 in the article:
"9 We acknowledge our debt to all the Bible versions which we have used in attaining to what truth of God’s Word we enjoy today. We do not discourage the use of any of these Bible versions, but shall ourselves go on making suitable use of them. However, during all our years of using these versions down to the latest of them, we have found them defective. In one or another vital respect they are inconsistent or unsatisfactory, infected with religious traditions or worldly philosophy and hence not in harmony with the sacred truths which Jehovah God has restored to his devoted people who call upon his name and seek to serve him with one accord. Especially has this been true in the case of the Christian Greek Scriptures, which throw light and place proper interpretation upon the ancient Hebrew Scriptures. More and more the need has been felt for a translation in modern speech, in harmony with revealed truth, and yet furnishing us the basis for gaining further truth by faithfully presenting the sense of the original writings; a translation just as understandable to modern readers as the original writings of Christ’s disciples were understandable to the simple, plain, common, lowly readers of their day. Jesus reminded us that our heavenly Father knows the needs of his children before they ever ask him. How has he made provision for us in this need which we now keenly feel?" (underlining and Font color mine)
That is the only time the Watchtower has ever been candid and honest about why they produced The New World Translation, period. That in effect was an admission that they wanted a Bible which conformed to their own doctrine instead of a truly accurate one to inform their doctrine. If their doctrine were correct all they would need was one which was accurate and could be easily defended against all comers. But, instead, they openly admitted to producing one which bowed down to their teaching instead of the other way around, the proper way.
Any time I see anything which smells of that written to explain why a translation was produced I immediately go on guard against it and I couldn't do any differently with the NWT. I did mention that there is much in it I agree with. I know that Frederic Franz was trained by New York Rabbis in Hebrew and they remained available to him for any question on the Tanakh or their beliefs and practices. I have that from two very different sources. And it is reflected in the quality of his work with the OT. The NWT actually clears up some of the apparent contradictions found in other Bibles. However, that doesn't make it a trustworthy Bible. Even in the Old Testament of that translation, one can find passages which reflect the theology instead of the Hebrew. And that is sad.
So, the New World Translation of The Holy Scriptures is a Bible that cannot be trusted and should be used with care. And it is condemned out of their own mouth, not ours. that is why I don't trust it and no one else should either. We don't need to go combing through it looking for the bias, they've already done that for us, all we need to do is go right here on their own website and go to paragraph 9 of the article.
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