t t t
And the JW stance is to allow their Translators to add anything theywanted to the inspired Text, to make the Scriptures say EXACTLY what THEY wanted them to say,
instead of what GOD really inspired the Prophets and Apostles to say.
Now that may sound like a very BOLD statement, but I have absolute PROOF that the Watchtower Society's TRANSLATORS actually admitted to doing EXACTLY WHAT I JUST STATED.
Ask any Jehovah Witness, "Do you believe that anyone who adds their own words to the Word of God is a False Prophet?" If they say "Yes", then ask them to read the FOREWORD of the Second Edition of the New World Translation copyright 1961, THAT GREEN HARDBACK THEY USED TO HAND OUT IN THE 60's & 70's:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 17, 1961, New York, N.Y.
And the JW stance is to allow their Translators to add anything theywanted to the inspired Text, to make the Scriptures say EXACTLY what THEY wanted them to say,
instead of what GOD really inspired the Prophets and Apostles to say.
Now that may sound like a very BOLD statement, but I have absolute PROOF that the Watchtower Society's TRANSLATORS actually admitted to doing EXACTLY WHAT I JUST STATED.
Ask any Jehovah Witness, "Do you believe that anyone who adds their own words to the Word of God is a False Prophet?" If they say "Yes", then ask them to read the FOREWORD of the Second Edition of the New World Translation copyright 1961, THAT GREEN HARDBACK THEY USED TO HAND OUT IN THE 60's & 70's:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FOREWORD
IT IS a very responsible thing to translate the Holy Scriptures from their original languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, into modern speech. Translating the Holy Scriptures means a rendering into another language the thoughts and sayings of the heavenly Author of this sacred library of sixty-six books, Jehovah God, which holy men of long ago put down in writing under inspiration for our benefit today. That is a sobering thought. The translators who have a fear and love of the divine Author of the Holy Scriptures feel especially a responsibility toward Him to transmit his thoughts and declarations as accurately as possible. They also feel a responsibility toward the searching readers of the modern translation who depend upon the inspired Word of the Most High God for their everlasting salvation. It was with such a sense of solemn responsibility that the committee of dedicated men have produced the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, over the course of many years. As soon as each part of the translation became available for publication it was turned over to the publishers for printing, all together in six volumes. The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, containing the twenty-seven books from Matthew through The Revelation, first appeared in 1950. In due order the volumes of the New World Translation of the Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures appeared, the first volume in 1953, the second in 1955, the third in 1957, the fourth in 1958, and the fifth in 1960. From the start of the work it was the desire of the translators to have all these contemplated volumes brought together in the form of one book, inasmuch as the Holy Scriptures are in fact one book by the One Author. To this end, as soon as the final volume of the series had been issued in 1960, the committee set to work to prepare the entire translation for publication under one cover. The committee was then able to take under survey the translation as a whole and to discern where improvements could be made. An effort was put forth to bring about even greater consistency in the renderings of the related parts of the Holy Scriptures, such as in harmonizing with the original Hebrew readings of the reading of quotations made in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Since the one-volume edition of the Holy Scriptures was to contain no footnotes,
many footnote readings that had appeared in the earlier translation
in six distinct volumes were lifted and put into the main text of the
one-volume edition.
This does not mean that the earlier rendering that was now replaced was rejected. Rather, the purpose was to attain to closer conformity to the literal reading in the original languages. All this process has resulted in revisions in the main text of the translation.
The now completed one-volume edition may therefore be properly called a revised edition of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. In releasing it for publication we do so with a deep sense of gratitude to the Divine Author of the Holy Scriptures, who has thus privileged us and in whose spirit we have trusted to co-operate with us in this worthy work. We hope for His blessing upon the published translation in behalf of all who read and use it in learning his holy will.
New World Bible Translation Committeemany footnote readings that had appeared in the earlier translation
in six distinct volumes were lifted and put into the main text of the
one-volume edition.
This does not mean that the earlier rendering that was now replaced was rejected. Rather, the purpose was to attain to closer conformity to the literal reading in the original languages. All this process has resulted in revisions in the main text of the translation.
The now completed one-volume edition may therefore be properly called a revised edition of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. In releasing it for publication we do so with a deep sense of gratitude to the Divine Author of the Holy Scriptures, who has thus privileged us and in whose spirit we have trusted to co-operate with us in this worthy work. We hope for His blessing upon the published translation in behalf of all who read and use it in learning his holy will.
January 17, 1961, New York, N.Y.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DOES THAT NOT SOLIDLY IDENTIFY THE WATCHTOWER SOCIETY AS A FALSE PROPHET.
A lot of us Christians started pointing out to them that the New World Bible Translation Committee admitted that they lifted their footnotes into the text, thus adding their words to the Word of God. The Watch Tower Society, responded by publishing a third edition, totally changing the FORWARD, and deleting that paragraph entirely.
Prov 30:6 (KJV)6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
DOES THAT NOT SOLIDLY IDENTIFY THE WATCHTOWER SOCIETY AS A FALSE PROPHET.
A lot of us Christians started pointing out to them that the New World Bible Translation Committee admitted that they lifted their footnotes into the text, thus adding their words to the Word of God. The Watch Tower Society, responded by publishing a third edition, totally changing the FORWARD, and deleting that paragraph entirely.
Prov 30:6 (KJV)6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
There 518 different languages that the full Bible has been translated into. There is 2,798 different languages that have a partial translation of the Bible. So that means there are at least 2,798 different versions of the Bible. I did a study in the Bible Gateway and found at least 30 translations of the Bible in English, and I'm sure there are more. The interesting thing about those 30 is that there is not 1 that agrees word for word with any other of them.
So read the forward of any translation and you will find similar results as you did when you read the JW forward. They were rather naive to tell us all of what they did to come up with their version of the Bible. But at least they told you. Not like the other versions, they did not tell you all their dirty little secrets. One which comes to mind in reference to the Trinity is
1 john 5:7-8. Now I'm sure you have used this scripture to support your position of the Trinity. But this scripture was for a long time just a footnote made by a scribe that was finally included in the text by a good-minded copiest that thought he was doing good for God. Well, was he doing good or is he a false prophet and who knows what other changes he made. Does that make false all Bible translations that have those verses in their text?
Who even knows what the original said so we can really know what was written? There is no originals to refer to. That's part of the reason that Bowman can read Matthew 3:16-17 and get a rock solid confirmation of the Trinity and I can read the same scripture and get a rock solid condemnation of the Trinity. However, all of the English translations of the Bible (I use the KJV) render Matthew 3:16-17 the same way, with an exception of the few words added or substracted.
You don't want to open up the discussion of translation purity, you will lose that debate. But we do the best we can and we have these debate forums to try to express an opinion about scripture in the hope that one might learn from me and I might learn from you all. I am not JW, but I lean closer toward their view of the nature of God (which is not correct in my opinion) than I do to the Trinity.
Last edited: