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1972 "The Bible In Living English", By Stephen Byington/Watchtower Bible And Tract Society. Steven T. Byington
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Steven Tracy Byington (birthname "Stephen") (December 10, 1869 - October 12, 1957) was a noted intellectual, translator, and American individualist anarchist. He was born in Westford, Vermont, and later moved to Ballardvale, Massachusetts. A one-time proponent of Georgism, he converted to individualist anarchism after associating with Benjamin Tucker. He was a firm believer in the promotion of individualist anarchism through education. He said "Anarchism has undertaken to change men's minds in one point by removing their faith in force" (Quasi-Invasion and the Boycott in Liberty, X, 2). He began a "Letter Writing Corps" in 1894 which targeted specific individuals, including newspapers, to familiarize others with the philosophical doctrine. He is known for translating Max Stirner's The Ego and Its Own into English from German. Byington based his individualist anarchism (my belief) on egoism.
Byington was a cum laude graduate of the University of Vermont in 1891 and a member of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa. He was considered a master of at least twelve languages. Over the course of sixty years he translated the Bible from original texts and entitled it The Bible in Living English. It was published posthumously in 1972 in New York by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_T._Byington
What does this Bible look like?
Click here:
http://m1.freeshare.us/view/?143fs234958.jpg
What are some of the important factors about this Bible published by the Watchtower?
1. What does this Bible say about the name 'Jehovah'?
"As to the Old Testament name of God, certainlythe spelling and pronunciation "Jehovah" were originally a blunder. But the spelling and the pronunciationare not highly important." (See p. 7 par. 3)
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2. What does this Bible say at John 1:1?
"At the first there was the Word, and the Word was where God was, and the Word wasGod." (See p.1365)
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3. What does this Bible say at John 19: 17-19?
"So they took Jesus over, and, carrying the cross for himself, he went out to the so-called Skull-Place, of which name the Hebrew is Golgotha, where they crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side and Jesus in the middle. And Pilate also wrote a sign and put it on thecross; and what was written was "Jesus the Nazarene," (See p.1395)
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Byington's comments on the New World Translation.
(The following is from "The Christian Century", November 1, 1950)
N. W. T.
New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Rendered from the Original Language by the New World Bible Translation Committee. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Brooklyn, $1.60.
JEHOVAH'S Witnesses have made their own translation of the book for which they consider "New Testament" an illegitimate name. It is well supplied with faults and merits.
In accordance with human nature, the reader will first notice faults. The first to catch his eye will be the unwise typographical trick of distinguishing the second person plural from the singular by printing the word in small capitals when the meaning is plural. Possibly he may notice next that instead of "cross" we have everywhere "torture stake," in favor of which translation something can be said, and instead of "crucify" always "impale," in favor of which nothing can be said, for "impale" has in English the settled meaning of thrusting the stake through the vitals, not of fastening the body to a stake outside the body. An appendix says very positively that Jesus was fastened to a simple upright pole, not to a pole with a crosspiece. This agrees with Fulda's book Das Kreuzbut is against the weight of evidence, though the appendix says there is no evidence at all for the crosspiece.
The specialty which the book itself most emphasizes is the use of the name Jehovah instead of "the lord" in 237 places, besides 72 more in the margin. Fifteen pages of the preface present the arguments to justify this.I think the justification insufficient; but the "Jehovah" does not shock a reader.
The version purports to be modern in idiom.Actually this is the most uneven thing about it.Archaic expressions like "minister" (usually as verb) and "tribulation" are not rare in it. Along with them we find homely current idiom which sometimes comes with a Moffatt-like vividness. Luke 14: 18, ". . . they all in common started to beg off." Acts 16: 15, "And she just made us come." Rev. 18: 16, "Too bad, too bad, as great a city as she was." The verb "resurrect" is used freely.
Conjunctions are treated loosely; de in particular is commonly rendered as an adverb, and becomes a surprisingly wide variety of adverbs.
The main fault is overtranslation. I mean that, where a Greek word may he found to carry an implication in addition to its rough meaning, this implication is made explicit, frequently by an added word. This fault is common to various translators, who usually claim it as a merit, but the New World Translation goes rather far. The tenses of verbs are rendered not only by such forms as "would say" or "was saying" but also by inserting "begin to" or "continue to" where the tense is deemed to be inceptive or continuative. Other words have an extra word added to "bring out the meaning"; a bad case is the regular insertion of "undeserved" or the like before whatever translation is given for "grace." Compound verbs suffer especially by overtranslation of the prefix, in which (as in other distinctions of synonyms) an imaginary meaning is sometimes brought in. The translators trusted their dictionary too much, not realizing that dictionaries are uninspired. What may happen to the words for "go" is seen in Luke 9:56-57, "So they traveled to a different village . . . I will follow you to wherever you may depart." Yet a little work with the Greek concordance to examine the renderings elsewhere given to these same words for "go" will decidedly increase your respect for the skill and good taste of the translators.
Another aspect of "bringing out the meaning" is exemplified by the occasional substitution of "means" for "is." This is commentary rather than translation.
Of course where there is controversy over the exegesis of a text the translators have used their own judgment, sometimes radical, sometimes conservative. And of course, where a traditional mistranslation is not customarily pointed out by commentators, the translators have not usually corrected it. Yet sometimes they have done so. They have inserted "is," required by both Hebrew and Greek grammar, in the translation of "Immanuel." They have recognized that birds lodge not in nests but on roosts, and that the Greek word is the conventional biblical Greek equivalent for the Hebrew word for roost. In the parable of the mustard seed they have recognized the importance of the definite article, "the seeds" (i.e., those that men plant), "the vegetables" (the botanists' "herb" is, in the usage of Greek botanists, a different word).
"Bishop," as the designation of a functionary not over the local church but within it, has become "overseer" (trusting to the uninspired dictionary again). Would not "church visitor" have corresponded better to the meaning of episkeptomai? Or is that a delusive argument?
The arrangement of verse numbers is that of the Revised Standard Version. But where the hasty eye confuses the R.S.V. verse numbers with quotation marks, the N.W.T. escapes this confusion by making its verse numbers much lighter. The use of a cheap quality of paper enables the publishers to cut the price below the already low price of the R.S.V.
The book does not give enjoyable continuous reading; but if you are digging for excellent or suggestive renderings, this is among the richer mines.
STEVEN T. BYINGTON.
http://www.freeminds.org/doctrine/byington.htm
You may download clipping scans of "The Christian Century" 1950-1953 containing Byington's comments here:
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To download the (entire), 1972 "The Bible In Living English" by Stephen Byington/Watchtower Bible And Tract Society, the download instructions will be the same as above. (Approx. 19.5MB)
(Includes bookmarks)
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Cheers! Atlantis-