@Ding: HBJ, with regard to John 8:58, didn't they tell you the NWT reads "I have been," not "I am"?
Yes they did, but I informed them that it was an incorrect translation, as the NWBTC continues to break the laws of Greek grammer to support their theology. Here was another example I offered: Research reveals that everywhere appearing in the Holy Bible where Christ is mentioned as being "in you", the watchtower had added the word ‘union', once again breaking the laws of Greek grammar in order to substantiate a flawed doctrine. The word ‘union' does not appear in the original Greek.
I also said the following to both of them yesterday. I stated that The New World Translation is defined by the Jehovah's Followers' parent organization (The Watchtower Society) as "a translation of the Holy Scriptures made directly from Greek into modern day English, by a committee of anointed followers of Jehovah." The NWT is the anonymous work of the "New World Bible Translation Committee." Jehovah's Followers claim that the anonymity is in place so that the credit for the work will go to God. This has the added benefit of keeping the translators from any accountability for their errors, and prevents real scholars from checking their academic credentials. One of the two asked me if I had any additional information to offer on the subject. I said yes, and stated the following.
I informed them that the most revealing evidence of the Watchtower's bias is their inconsistent translation technique. Throughout the Gospel of John, the Greek word "theon" occurs without a definite article. NWT renders none of these as "a god." Just 3 verses after John 1:1, the New World Translation translates another case of "theos" without the indefinite article as "God." Even more inconsistent, in John 1:18, the NWT translates the same term as both "God" and "god" in the very same sentence.
The Watchtower, therefore, has no hard textual grounds for their translation-only their own theological bias. While New World Translation defenders might succeed in showing that John 1:1 can be translated as they have done, they cannot show that it is the proper translation.
Nor can they explain the fact that that the NWT does not translate the exact same Greek phrases elsewhere in the Gospel of John the same way. It is only the pre-conceived heretical rejection of the deity of Christ that forces the Watchtower Society to inconsistently translate the Greek text, thus allowing their error to gain some semblance of legitimacy to those ignorant of the facts.
I gave them the following example: The New World Translation renders the Greek term word "staurós" ("cross") as "torture stake" because Jehovah's Followers do not believe that Jesus was crucified on a cross. The New World Translation does not translate the Greek words "sheol," "hades," "gehenna," and "tartarus," as "hell" because Jehovah's Followers do not believe in hell. The NWT gives the translation "presence" instead of "coming" for the Greek word "parousia" because JWs believe that Christ has already returned in the early 1900's. In Colossians 1:16, the NWT inserts the word "other" despite it being completely absent from the original Greek text. It does this to give the view that "all other things" were created by Christ, instead of what the text says, "all things were created by Christ." This is to go along with their belief that Christ is a created being, which they believe because they deny the Trinity.
According to the 1961 New World Translation (NWT) used by the Jehovah's Witnesses, Hebrews 1:6 agrees that all God's angels should worship Jesus. However, the more recent editions have been altered to read, "And let all God's angels ‘do obeisance' to him." This sudden alteration by the Watchtower Society was clearly an attempt to conceal that Jesus is to be worshipped. Since only God is to be worshipped (Matthew 4:10), and they deny Jesus' Deity, this change became necessary to support their theology.
Research reveals that everywhere appearing in the Holy Bible where Christ is mentioned as being "in you"; the watchtower had added the word ‘union', breaking the laws of Greek grammar. The word ‘union' does not appear in the original Greek. Their reply was, "doesn't union and being in you mean the same thing?" I told them that was not the issue. The issue is the word ‘union' does not appear in the original Greek. The wt is altering Biblical text, a BIG no no, as to support what they want YOU to believe.
They proceeded to change the subject to talk about their works in doing their works, i.e., door-to-door ministry to substantiate the WT's purpose. So I went right along with their sidetrack attempt, and pulled out some old wt literature, which said - "Jehovah witnesses have responded to Jesus' command to preach the Kingdom good news from house to house." (Watchtower 1960 11/1 p. 648) I said that The watchtower is teaching that door-to-door preaching is the identifier of the true religion. This is not a Bible teaching. The Bible does not specify how disciples are to preach. For the watchtower to say that Jesus commanded us to preach door-to-door, is a lie. Jesus is sending out his disciples to preach, and he's giving them very specific instructions, he says to them, "Do not be transferring from house to house." Luke: Chapter 10:7.
Ding, sorry for the long post, but I thought you would be interested in light of our recent PM's.
HBJ
