I questioned a JW today on the reliability of the NWT
His cut&paste response was as follows.
Who werethetranslators?
When presenting as a gift the publishing rights to their translation, the New World Bible Translation Committee requested that its members remain anonymous. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania has honored their request. The translators were not seeking prominence for themselves but only to honor the Divine Author of the Holy Scriptures.
Over the years other translation committees have taken a similar view. For example, the jacket of the Reference Edition (1971) of the NewAmericanStandardBible states: “We have not used any scholar’s name for reference or recommendations because it is our belief God’s Word should stand on its merits.”
Various scholars were impressed. For example, British Bible scholar Alexander Thomson noted that the NewWorldTranslation is outstanding in accurately rendering the Greek present tense. To illustrate: Ephesians 5:25 reads “Husbands, continue loving your wives” instead of saying merely “Husbands, love your wife.” (KingJamesVersion)
“No other version appears to have exhibited this fine feature with such fulness and frequency,” said Thomson regarding the NewWorld Translation. Some CommentsbyGreekScholarsonThe New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures “I am interested in the mission work of your people, and its world wide scope, and much pleased with the free, frank and vigorous translation. It exhibits a vast array of sound serious learning, as I can testify.”—Letter, December 8, 1950, from Edgar J. Goodspeed, translator of the Greek “New Testament” in AnAmericanTranslation.
“The translation is evidently the work of skilled and clever scholars, who have sought to bring out as much of the true sense of the Greek text as the English language is capable of expressing.”—Hebrew and Greek scholar Alexander Thomson, in TheDifferentiator, April 1952, pages 52-7. “The translation of the New Testament is evidence of the presence in the movement of scholars qualified to deal intelligently with the many problems of Biblical translation.”—AndoverNewtonQuarterly, January 1963
“The New Testament translation was made by a committee whose membership has never been revealed—a committee that possessed an unusual competence in Greek.”—AndoverNewtonQuarterly, September 1966.
“This is no ordinary interlinear: the integrity of the text is preserved, and the English which appears below it is simply the basic meaning of the Greek word. . . . After examining a copy, I equipped several interested second-year Greek students with it as an auxiliary text. . . . The translation by the anonymous committee is thoroughly up-to-date and consistently accurate. . . . In sum, when a Witness comes to the door, the classicist, Greek student, or Bible student alike would do well to bring him in and place an order.”—From a review of TheKingdomInterlinearTranslationoftheGreekScriptures, by Thomas N. Winter of the University of Nebraska, appearing in TheClassicalJournal, April–May 1974.**