I've recently just picked this book up by Jason David Beduhn and started giving it a read. I did a quick search of this site and was suprised to not have found any lengthy discussion of it. Is there a thread I've overlooked?
"Truth in Translation"
by Hoping4Change 5 Replies latest watchtower bible
-
-
M.J.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/91235/1.ashx
Also see: http://www.tetragrammaton.org/truthintrans.htm
I'd love to get Beduhn here to discuss his book with Narkissos, Leolaia, etc.
-
Hoping4Change
Perfect! Thanks.
-
-
jwfacts
It is almost impossible for some bias not to creep into any translation, as some verses do not make sense going from Greek to English (or any other language), requiring the translator to add their own bias to create meaningful expressions. With Truth in Translation Beduhn has allowed his own bias to enter his own summary of what would be the best wording.
Reading the book shows that Beduhn does not believe the Trinity, or that Jesus is the same as Jehovah, therefore he supports the translations that do not have a Trinitarian slant. His research predominantly looks at scriptures dealing with the nature of God, so is not a very thorough look at translations.
One area is how he deals with the word proskuneo. If no bias is to enter, then every time the word should be translated obeisance. By Beduhn saying it is acceptable to use worship for God, but not for Jesus, he is making the assumption that Jesus is not God, which is in itself a bias towards a particular doctrine.
Luckily Beduhn shows that the NWT should not use the word Jehovah in the New Testament. If it were not for this you can be sure the WTS would be all over this book, pushing the members to read it. However they can not do this as it would be quite eyeopening to many JWs to find out that YHWH never appears in the New Testament and they have spuriously added it to support their own doctrine.
-
M.J.
Also, Beduhn focuses exclusively on just a few select verses which have something to do with Christ's nature, and makes his sweeping final evaluation of the various translations based solely on these few verses.
If he would have broadened his scope, or considered other contentious NWT verses, like Romans 8:23, I'm sure it would have been increasingly difficult for him to stick up for the NWT.
Aside from that, he absolutely REAMS the NWT on the insertion of Jehovah in the NT.