The BAD Bible
March 19, 2021 E-Letter
In their past, the Watchtower Society has published the King James Version and the American Standard Version. These are highly regarded translations.
But these translations put the Watchtower in the position of defending their false doctrines using translations that refuted that doctrine. Thus, beginning in 1950, the Watchtower published their own Bible, The New World Translation.
We are posting a number of e-letters Make Sure Ministries has received from David Henke, founder of Watchman Fellowship, Inc., an apologetics ministry, on a variety of subjects. They will post on Tuesdays into the foreseeable future. As always, we appreciate your comments. Please consider clicking on the link following this blog to learn more about Watchman Fellowship and what they have to offer. E-letters have been slightly edited for clarity.
The New World Translation is a mistranslation of the Scriptures. It has been changed in key places to promote the doctrines of the Watchtower Society.
Revelation 22:18,19 condemns such adding to, or, taking away from what God has said to us.
The following are some examples of tampering:
- At Matthew 25:46 the words ‘cutting off’ are substituted for ‘punishment’ in order to support their doctrine of annihilation.
- In John 1:1 they call Jesus ‘a god.’ There is neither grammatical nor contextual support for such a rendering. It makes Jesus a creature and presents the Watchtower with belief in plural deities.
- Colossians 1:16, 17, and 20, have the word ‘other’ inserted five times to make the text say Jesus is one of the things created rather than being the Creator of ‘all things.’
- At Philippians 2:9 they also have the word ‘other’ added to the text. Without it Jesus has the name above every name.
Greek and Hebrew scholars have been very outspoken about the New World Translation. Dr. Bruce Metzger of Princeton called it “a frightful mistranslation.” Dr. Julius Mantey, co-author of A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, said it was “a shocking mistranslation.”
Dr. William Barclay of the University of Glasgow said, “The deliberate distortion of truth by this sect is seen in their New Testament translations … It is abundantly clear that a sect which can translate the New Testament like that is intellectually dishonest.”
Dr. Eugene A. Nida, head of the Translation Department of the American Bible Society said, “… the New World Translation was apparently done by persons who did not take seriously the syntax of the Greek.”
The Watchtower did try to defend the NWT by pointing out that another New Testament translation also translated John 1:1 as “the Word was a god.” However, this came back to bite them when it was pointed out that its translator, Johannes Greber, was a former Catholic priest who translated according to what the “spirits” told his wife, a spirit medium.
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Email: dhenkewatchman@gmail.com
