Why did Jehovah's Witnesses release the Byington and New Jerusalem Bibles in the early 70s , and forget about them in the 80s?

by Balaamsass 21 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • Doug Mason
  • Doug Mason
  • dropoffyourkeylee
    dropoffyourkeylee

    It is curious that the Byington translation is included in the tablet form of the 2013 JW bible and is quoted occasionally as a result.

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    Interesting.

    Yes the inclusion of Byington in the app seems to have stirred up interest in the version again.

  • ScenicViewer
    ScenicViewer

    JW never released the New Jerusalem Bible.

    However Watchtower did publish the Jerusalem Bible (a Catholic translation). The New Jerusalem Bible was an update of it.

    Both of these use the Divine name, in the form of Yaweh, which is probably why Watchtower wanted the Jerusalem Bible in their lineup.

    As of 1986 the Bibles being sold by Watchtower, and I assume published by them, are in the attached Cost List scan. Non NWT Bibles are highlighted in yellow.


  • dropoffyourkeylee
    dropoffyourkeylee

    I believe that in the scan in the previous post, the Bibles listed as 'Controlled Stock Items' were not printed by the WT, but were distributed by them through the literature counter. I still have a couple of the mentioned versions which I remember purchasing at the KH. The Tanakh Bible, for instance, was published by the Jewish Publication Society of America (Old Testament only, of course). On the other hand, there were other non-WT bibles which the WT society also printed on their own presses. They had a KJV, and ASV, which were published by other publishers as well. The Byington, though was published solely by the WT, and no one else has ever had the rights to it, to my knowledge. There were some bootleg PDFs floating around the internet at one time, perhaps those were the subject of the lawsuit mentioned in the OP.

  • wannaexit
    wannaexit

    I do remember in the early 1970 watchtower printing the Jerusalem Bible. And as Dropoff mentioned the Byinton is included in the app.

    Did anybody ever find out about the lawsuit connected with it? This is interesting.

  • smiddy
    smiddy

    Byingtons Bible along with other JW publications is what I dumped in the garbage bin when I had had enough of JW`s

    I do believe they only used that version because it had the name Jehovah in it.

    Maybe I should have kept the Bibles.and just thrown away their other books.

    The catholic version by Knox ? that used the name Yahweh in the Old Testament did JW`s ever print that ?

    Just wondering

  • GLTirebiter
    GLTirebiter

    Some interesting things I see in ScenicViewer's image:

    - It identifies the New American Bible (NAB) as a Catholic edition, but not the Jerusalem Bible which is most certainly a Catholic edition.

    - The (original, 1966) Jerusalem Bible is a "dynamic equivalence" translation, using a very lyrical, literary style to convey its message beyond the mere words themselves. That seems to be an odd selection given the extremely literal, prosaic interpretations used by the Watchtower Society.

    - As of 1985, the New Jerusalem Bible was in print. So the book listed may have been that revised version, though they list the older title. It still translated the tetragram as Yahweh, which remained until a later revision in 2007 used Lord (as it was to be read during Mass and other services.)

    - It's curious that they would offer any 73 book (Catholic) editions. The seven deuterocanonical books contain passages not at all consistent with Watchtower doctrines.

  • dropoffyourkeylee
    dropoffyourkeylee

    The availability at the literature counter of non-WT published Bibles or other publications (like the Strong's Concordance) came to an abrupt halt, at least in the US, when the donation arrangement came in around 1990.

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