I came across this incredable quote in the Watchtower,
From The Watchtower 8/1/62, pg 480:
"The way these two words have been rendered in the New World Translation has given rise to the charge that the New World Bible Translation Committee let their religious beliefs influence them. That charge is true, but they did not do so wrongly, or unduly. The meaning that is to be given to these two Greek words depends upon what the entire Bible has to say about Jehovah God and Jesus Christ."
"How so? In that there is basis for translating these words either as “Deity,” “Divinity” or “Godhead” and so attributing personality to them, or as “Divine Nature,” “divine quality,” “Godship,” and having them merely denote qualities. Thus those who believe in the trinity will attach personality to these words, whereas those who do not will render them as qualities in view of the way God and Christ are described in the Scriptures and so as to harmonize the words with the rest of God’s Word. This emphasizes the fact that one simply cannot properly and accurately translate the Bible unless one clearly understands its teachings."
They are talking about the theological point of the divinity of Jesus, which to me is frankly meaningless. The important point is the last sentence: “This emphasizes the fact that one simply cannot properly and accurately translate the Bible unless one clearly understands its teachings."
So, in order to translate the Bible you have to have a Theological belief or “clearly understand(s) its teachings." Basically, you then translate the Bible, with your theological spin. So, the Witnesses here are talking about the New World Translation and basically admit they translated it the way they clearly understood its teachings or according to their theology. Basically, they bent the Bible, where necessary, to conform to their understanding.
They say “the New World Bible Translation Committee let their religious beliefs influence them. That charge is true, but they did not do so wrongly, or unduly.” It was not wrong to them because it conformed to their preconceived theology.
Incredable!!! Fred, www.isnrblog.com
An unbelievable quote by the JW's about the New World Translation
by isnrblog 18 Replies latest jw friends
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isnrblog
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oompa
please make the source material more prominent............as in seperate from your words......I like what I see so far.........oompa
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oompa
sorry, and i hate to break it to you but the Society has actually printed that no translation of the bible can be made without doctrinal beliefs influencing the translation. not only that, but there is only one sentance in one watchtower ever that admits to changing the bible and putting in `the word jehovah where it does not appear in any ancient manuscript........i take donations for infor....not......oompa
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isnrblog
I agree with that. I do not think any translation can be made without the translators theology influencing it.
The Witnesses are no exception.
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isnrblog
oompa, I guess I'm a newbie apostate. Most of this stuff is new to me. I'd be interested in whatever info you have.
fred, www.isnrblog.com
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SirNose586
All we're really looking for is a quotation box around the WT's words. You can easily reformat your post to do that. I see you have them in quotation marks, which is demarcation enough, but we're all quite lazy.
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steve2
Sorry to burst you're already deflated balloon, but I have another view of this:
At least the Watchtower translators were upfront in their answers, rather than either ignoring the question or claiming that they were being objective.
BTW, one of the main reasons there has been such a maddening proliferation of Christian groups is precisely because there is huge room for not only interpreting the Bible but translating it as well. Take your pick, I say.
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hamsterbait
The best Bible translation would be made by ATHEISTS who view the task in the same light as rendering Hans Anderson's gory tales into another tongue.
Apparently the best translation of the Yi Ching was by Legge - who did not believe in divination at all but viewed the text as linguistically valuable, as it could give insight into the meanings of obsolete ideographs.
HB
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DT
This emphasizes the fact that one simply cannot properly and accurately translate the Bible unless one clearly understands its teachings.
But how can you clearly understand its teachings until you have an accurate translation? Its all very circular. I'm glad they admitted their bias, but this makes it pointless to evaluate their teachings with the translation that is influenced by their teachings.
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LtCmd.Lore
the Society has actually printed that no translation of the bible can be made without doctrinal beliefs influencing the translation.
...
That's just stupid. You can translate Star Trek to ANY language you want, but you don't have to believe it, or let your own opinions about Klingon philosophy guide you... They speak, and you translate what they say.
If it's written, you translate what is written, you don't interject or correct what you are translating...