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The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) is a modern-language translation of the Bible published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. and the International Bible Students Association of Brooklyn, New York. It was not the first translation to be published by them, but it was their very first original translation of the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic texts.

History

Until the release of the NWT in 1950, Jehovah's Witnesses in English-speaking countries generally used the King James Version or American Standard Version of the Bible. In the literature they have produced, Jehovah's Witnesses have quoted liberally from the King James Version and many other translations of the Bible over the years.

According to the publishers, one of the main reasons for producing a new translation was that the majority of existing Bible versions in common use employed archaic language. The English language has undergone significant changes since 1611, when the Authorised (King James) Version was first published and many words in the KJV are no longer in common use today, or are used in a sense different from that in which the translators intended them.http://www.pronetisp.net/~diana/wcm.html list of KJV words and their modern meanings or counterparts. The stated intention was to produce a fresh translation, free of archaisms.

Additionally, over the centuries since the King James version was produced, more copies of earlier manuscripts of the original texts in the Hebrew and Greek languages have become available. Better manuscript evidence has made it possible to determine with greater accuracy what the original writers intended, particularly in more obscure passages. Additionally, certain aspects of the original Hebrew and Greek languages are perhaps better understood by linguists today than they were previously.

In October 1946, the president of the Watch Tower Society, Nathan H. Knorr, proposed a fresh translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Work got under way on December 2, 1947 when the "New World Bible Translation Committee" was formed. On September 3, 1949, Knorr convened a joint meeting of the board of directors of both the Watch Tower Society's New York and Pennsylvania corporations to announce that work on a modern-language English translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures was completed and had been turned over to the Society for printing. It was assigned to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania for publication.

The translators wished to remain anonymous, their stated intent being "to honor Jehovah God, the Divine Author of his inspired Word". This fact is very frequently cited by critics of the translation in order to suggest that its scholarship is of inferior quality, as the credentials of the translators could never be verified.

The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) was released at a convention of Jehovah's Witnesses at Yankee Stadium, New York, on August 2, 1950, to the 82,075 present. The translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) was released in five volumes in 1953, 1955, 1957, 1958, and 1960, and the complete New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released as a single volume in 1961. Since then, it has undergone minor revisions on a number of occasions, most recently in 1984. It used to be available in green hardcover with the title written in "script" lettering with the inside cover showing the map of the Ancient World. The back inside cover shows the Mediterranean, outlining Paul's three missionary journeys. The 1984 edition is in much the same style as previous editions, the primary difference being that the quality of the graphics is greatly improved. The basic layout style much resembles the American Standard Version 1901 edition.

Characteristics of the translation

The Old Testament as found in the New World Translation is based on Codex Leningradensis B 19A as published in Rudolf Kittel's Biblia Hebraica (7th, 8th, and 9th ed.), while the New Testament is based on Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in the Original Greek. Also considered were texts by Bover, Merk, and Nestle. Newer editions make use of newer texts, such as Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1967/1977) and Novum Testamentum Graece (1983), as well as newer lexicons and dictionaries such as Zorell's Lexicon Hebraicum Veteris Testamenti (1984) and Würtwein's Der Text des Alten Testaments (1988).

The New World Translation is intended to be a literal rendering rather than a paraphrase.Introduction to the NWT Reference Edition page 7. To a very great extent, one English word has been selected for each Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic word and effort has been made to adhere to this rendering, context allowing. Some maintain that this makes the translation sound wooden, stiff or verbose, whereas others feel that it favors accuracy, facilitates cross-reference work and helps preserve the flavor of the original texts.

The translation does not contain any of the Apocryphal books, as the translators believed that any claim for canonicity on the part of these writings is without solid foundation. But it does give additional information proceeding Job 42:17 which is in the Greek Septuagint version. This additional information is only available in the reference version of the New World Translation. All the disputed parts of the New Testament are contained such as the long and short conclusion proceeding Mark 16:8 and the woman caught in adultery at John 7:53 - 8:1-11. Most Bibles alert the reader of the spurious nature of these two passages mentioned and the NWT is no different in that regard.

Also, the translation refers to the Old Testament as "Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures", and the New Testament as "Christian Greek Scriptures", the latter terminology is used in order not to get confused with the Septuagint or Greek Bible. Unlike mainstream Bibles, it goes immediately into Matthew (first book of the New Testament) without any page breaks.

Jehovah in the Old Testament
The most common proper name of God, the Tetragrammaton ("YHWH"), is found in Masoretic versions of the Old Testament 6,828 times. Most English translations of the Old Testament follow the standard convention of rendering the Tetragrammaton as "LORD" in all capitals. J. M. Powis Smith's and Edgar J. Goodspeed's translation of the Bible in 1935, explained in a preface: “In this translation we have followed the orthodox Jewish tradition and substituted ‘the Lord’ for the name ‘Yahweh’ and the phrase ‘the Lord God’ for the phrase ‘the Lord Yahweh.’ In all cases where ‘Lord’ or ‘God’ represents an original ‘Yahweh’ small capitals are employed.”The preface to the Revised Standard Version: “For two reasons the Committee has returned to the more familiar usage of the King James Version the name of God: (1) the word ‘Jehovah’ does not accurately represent any form of the Name ever used in Hebrew; and (2) the use of any proper name for the one and only God, as though there were other gods from whom he had to be distinguished, was discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era and is entirely inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church.” A few versions (such as the King James,Exodus 6:3, Psalm 83:18 and Isaiah 12:2 and 26:4. Living Bible, or Holman Christian Standard Bible) render the Tetragrammaton as either "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" only a handful of times. The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) differs significantly here from most other Bibles. In similiar manner to Young's Literal Translation,http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=jehovah&qs_version=15 Rotherham's Emphasized Bible, the American Standard Versionhttp://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=jehovah&qs_version=8 (and later the Catholic Jerusalem Bible), the NWT consistently renders all 6,828 instances of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton (divine name) as a proper name: "Jehovah". They chose the translation "Jehovah" because: "Jehovah is the best known English pronunciation of the divine name."Insight on the Scriptures Vol 2 p. 5

In addition to the 6,828 instances of the Tetragrammaton, the NWT translators introduce 145 more instances where they believe the name should be. They cite the works of C.D. Ginsburg (1831-1914) as justification for the additional 145 instances. Such consistent use of the name is done out of what they believe to be a deep respect for the "Author of our salvation."

Jehovah in the New Testament
See main article: Jehovah in the New Testament.

The name 'Jehovah' is a rendering of the Hebrew word (transliterated as "YHWH"), but does not appear in any Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. Moreover the New Testament overwhelmingly quotes the ancient Septuagint version of the Old Testament (Greek), not Medieval Masoretic versions (Hebrew).Jones, R. Grant, Ed. Various Religious Topics, "Occasions where the Septuagint is quoted in the New Testament against the sense of the Hebrew text." Complete copies of the Septuagint(LXX) do not contain forms of the word YHWH.Brenton, Sir Lancelot Charles Lee, Trans. The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English, Facs, Hendrickson. (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1851). However older fragments of the Septuagint do contain YHWH.The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology Volume 2, page 512

The New Testament is attested by over 5,000 Greek extant manuscripts. Also, papyrus fragments of the New Testament dating back to the middle of the second century have been discovered. One of the most ancient fragments, the papyrus codex designated Chester Beatty Papyrus No. 2 * is dated prior to 200 AD and contains nine of the apostle Paul's letters. Of all 5,000 extant manuscripts, none contain either the Hebrew (YHWH) or Greek transliterations (Iabe) of the Hebrew.

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 has been controversial. 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."(Biblical Archaeology Review, March 1978, page 14) 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.BeDuhn, Truth in Translation, pg. 174: "There are actually seventy-eight passages where a New Testament author rather directly quotes an Old Testament passage in which YHWH appears in the original Hebrew."
  • 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..."New World Translation w/ References, Appendix 1D pg. 1564
  • A first century B.C. septuagint of the Book of Deuteronomy contains the Tetragrammaton in paleo-Hebraic script within the Greek text.LXXP (septuagint) Fouad Inv. 266 renders the divine name by the Tetragrammaton written in square Hebrew characters 49 times in identified places in Deuteronomy. In addition, in this collection the Tetragrammaton occurs three times in unidentified fragments, namely, in fragments 116, 117 and 123. This papyrus, found in Egypt, was dated to the first century B.C.E. The Name was indeed known by some Greek speaking Jews of the time, albeit not readable to the average Greek reader.
  • 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.In the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures — With References, 1984, p. 1565, the translators state: "To avoid overstepping the bounds of a translator into the field of exegesis, we have been most cautious about rendering the divine name in the Christian Greek Scriptures, always carefully considering the Hebrew Scriptures the Old Testament as a background. We have looked for agreement from the Hebrew versions to confirm our rendering." (Italics added.)
  • 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".Smith's Bible Dictionary for "Jah": "“Jah” means Jehovah - Jah: the abbreviated form of Jehovah, used only in poetry."

The Watchtower Society's view is that the perpetuation of Jewish superstitionWatchtower reference online to render the proper name as an ambiguous title culminates into the quasi-consistent use of "God" (or "LORD") throughout the Old and New Testaments of other Bible translations. "Quasi-consistent" means that many of these mainstream translations do render the name, in some form, in a handful of Old Testament passages, thus they are not entirely consistent in either usage. Dr. BeDuhn (Truth in Translation pg. 170) wrote: "Both practices violate accuracy in favor of denominationally preferred expressions for God."

Rendering of σταυρός (staurós)
The Greek word "staurós", rendered "cross" in most other translations, is rendered "torture stake" in the NWT. Jehovah's Witnesses maintain that "staurós" refers to a single piece of timber or pole and that there is nothing in the New Testament itself that says that two pieces of wood were used to crucify Jesus Christ. Another translation that also renders "stauros," as used in Jesus' case, as "stake" is David Stern's translation. For instance, Galatians 2:20 has Paul writing: "When the Messiah was executed on the stake as a criminal..."-Complete Jewish Bible: An English Version by David H. Stern, 1998.

The Anchor Bible Dictionary says about "crucifixion":

The act of nailing or binding a living victim or sometimes a dead person to a cross or stake (stauros or skolops) or a tree (xylon) ... Under the Roman Empire, crucifixion normally included a flogging beforehand. At times the cross was only one vertical stake. Frequently, however, there was a cross-piece attached ... – Volume 1, pp. 1207, 1208

Comments by such scholars as W. E. Vine in his Expository Dictionaryhttp://www.menfak.no/bibelprog/vines?word=%AFt0000616 support this, as do others, such as A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament, by E. W. Bullinger, which states:

Used here for the stauros on which Jesus was crucified. Both words [stauros, xylon disagree with the modern idea of a cross, with which we have become familiarized by pictures. The stauros was simply an upright pale or stake to which the Romans nailed those who were thus said to be crucified. Stauroo verb, merely to drive stakes. It never means two pieces of wood joining each other at any angle. Even the Latin word crux [root of the English word "cross" means a mere stake. – p. 819

Other characteristics
  • It leaves untranslated the words "sheol", "hades", "gehenna", and "tartarus", where other translations predominately use "hell" for some, or all, of the above.
  • It uses "presence" as the equivalent of Greek Παρουσία Parousia.
  • It consistently uses "soul" for the Hebrew word ne'phesh and the Greek word ψυχή psykhē.
  • Unlike many Bibles, it does not use subheadings. Only running heads used at the top of the pages are given.

Editions, languages and scripts

The English translation now comes in several editions, including a pocket-sized edition, a standard edition with cross-references, a reference edition with extensive footnotes and a four-volume large-print edition for the visually impaired. It is also available on audiocassettes and CDs (in MP3 format).

The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures contains three Bible texts. The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881), by B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort, is presented with a literal word-for-word translation by the New World Translation Committee in 1969 underneath, and the 1984 revision of the English NWT alongside.

The Watchtower's goal is to make the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures accessible to as many people as possible. To that end, the NWT has been released in 61 languages and/or scripts, all of which (except English) were themselves translated from the English translation.

The complete translation is available in: Afrikaans, Arabic, Cebuano, Chinese (standard and simplified characters), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (also Braille), Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Iloko, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (also Braille), Sesotho, Shona, Slovakian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tsonga, Tswana, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu.

The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures is available in: Albanian, Bulgarian, Cibemba, Croatian, Efik, Georgian, Igbo, Italian Braille), Lingala, Macedonian, Malagasy, Maltese, Romanian, Russian, Sepedi, Serbian (Cyrillic and Latin scripts), Sinhala, Slovenian, Spanish Braille, Sranantongo, Turkish, Twi and Ukrainian.

Portions are also available in American Sign Language.

References

External links

Supportive

  • Stafford, Greg: Jehovah's Witnesses Defended. 0965981479 - Note: Author is one of Jehovah's Witnesses
  • Furuli, Rolf: The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation: With a special look at the New World Translation of Jehovah's Witnesses, 1999. 0965981495 - Note: Author is one of Jehovah's Witnesses
  • Byatt, Anthony and Flemings, Hal (editors): ‘Your Word is Truth’, Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1950, 1953), 2004. 0950621269 - Note: The essays' authors, including Rolf Furuli (above), are Jehovah's Witnesses.
  • In Defense of The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

Neutral

Critical

Unclassified

1950 books | Bible versions and translations | Jehovah's Witnesses literature

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures".

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