JW's always say you can use you own bible, true?

by Champion 18 Replies latest jw friends

  • james_woods
    james_woods

    If I remember right, the Catholic Church came out with a new revised bible translation sometime in the 1960s. It was done mainly for better readability in modern day languages. Was it called New Jerusalem or some such?

    When I went to the overseer school in 1970, Al Schroeder (one of the instructors) was very enthusiastic about it. There seemed to be quite a lot of hatred for the conventional Catholic Bible that preceeded it. I noticed (and Ed Dunlap confirmed it) that the higher ups of Witness leadership harbored a great deal of animosity for the Catholic Church. He made the ironic comment that many things the witnesses did were in fact very like the Catholics.

    They also used to have a very nice interlinear translation of the NT called Emphatic Diaglot. The story went that Freddy was not happy with it because of embarrasing conflicts with his precious NWT - so they refigured it into the Kingdom Interlinear Translation and stopped publishing the original. The rights to the original had been given to the Society by the widow of its non-witness author - she thought that the really were a fair and decent bible publishing society!

  • Casper
    Casper

    Usually what happens is someone offers a NWT (sometimes engraved w/name) once the person is approved for baptism or right after baptism. There also of course is the peer pressure to conform and be a model JW.

    That is what happen to me.

    When I was a study... I used a Bible called "The Way". I really liked it, it was in modern English and easy to understand.

    I took it to meetings, even tho I noticed my Study Conductor really didn't approve...

    Then right after my Baptism... She presented me with a beautifully bound NWT, engraved and had another book bound with it..(?? lol, loosing some of the memory of that, good sign..!!)

    Anyway, she made such a production of it being a wonderful gift... I started using it at the meetings. (so obvious in hindsight..).

    I still have that old "The Way" Bible... don't think I will ever get rid of it.

    Cas

  • james_woods
    james_woods

    Question - Casper or somebody with recent contact:

    So, if they do not make books or bibles with the old-style hardbound (or "softbound in leather-like material") bible anymore, do witnesses go out and have their own bible bound at some book service? Or, is this considered "vanity"?

    I think I even saw a link on Amazon.com one time for "special book binding services for JWs".

    And, do they still publish either of the interlinear translations that I mentioned above?

  • hillbilly
    hillbilly

    Yea.. but you would get some sideways glances. They will let you study with whatever you want... but the JW will turn it into a comparison shopping experience. Goal: prove how off your version is.

    Using the occasional 'off brand' quote is done from the platform or in literature by most to perpetuate a intellectual fraud... and the verse will only be cited if it makes the point the JW wants made.

    I read a lot of Altathasius posts (he is not around here much anymore)... he is the kind of guy who could dig a hole for himself in the WT... a true student. I'd venture the guess that he "studied" himself right into freedom. A top notch guy.. I wish he was around more.

    Hill

  • Casper
    Casper

    James,

    I've been out for almost 14 years now...was in for 13.

    I did during that time have a special Bible made up for my Husband, I used a place called Stoops... but, I think WTS was still making the leather bound ones at the time.

    Not sure what they are doing today.

    Cas

  • Eyes Open
    Eyes Open

    James,

    Personalisation of literature with names is something I saw around about a year ago. I don't know where they had it done.

  • Quirky1
  • GetOverIt
    GetOverIt

    I gave a, man I forget the name of it now, demonstration on stage I guess. And my H/H was allowed to use her bible. I keep everything I did, I have to pull it out so I can read over everything I wrote and how I convinced her about the JW's. Can't believe i was flim flam and bamboozled.

  • Athanasius
    Athanasius

    In our KH when the sisters gave their talks in the TMS and they had their householder read a Scripture from their own Bible, the householder always read from the NWT. So when I became the School overseer I asked the audience how many of them found people in the territory who used the NWT as their personal Bible. Nobody raised their hand. So I suggested to the sisters that if the setting for their talk was a door to door demonstration or a new return visit that to be realistic they should have the householder use a Bible version other than the NWT. Of course very few of the sisters followed this advice, probably because most of them only had NWT Bibles in their home libraries.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit