the cost would be HUGE.
The profits would be huger.
1 million + US JWs, prompted to contribute for brand new Bibles. They'd all want 1 for meetings, 1 for field service, 1 for personal study, and a couple for Aunt Suzy & Uncle Tom who came to Memorial 5 years ago.
They'd unload 4-5 million in the next service year, minimum - just in the US.
They'd have several talks with the following thought: "Have you been to a bookstore or looked on Amazon lately? A good Bible will cost $40 or $50 or more - and those don't even have Jehovah's name! How much more valuable is your NNWT!"
They'd rake in a couple hundred million in "extra" contributions - while the printing costs per Bible might be a few dollars each.
And then starts the translation work! Spanish, German, etc. etc. A "simplified" Bible would be relatively quick to translate into dozens of languages quickly, and then 100+ more as time goes on.
Millions more copies distributed, hundreds of milllions more in donations....
I kind of see it as a publishing industry's last gasp to wring profits out of the old business model before they are forced to move on.
Very stupid speculation, since one cannot just "put words into" the Bible if it is to be a translation.
Why not? They "put words" into the Bible as it is in their literature.
"When Jesus said paradise, he really meant on the earth....when Thomas said 'my Lord and my God', he really meant the small-g god...when Luke wrote 'abstain from blood', he clearly meant transfusions as well....when the gospel writers wrote about Herod's birthday, they clearly intended it to be a warning to true worshippers..."
Need I go on?
Of course you are right, it wouldn't be a true translation. If the WTS tried to pass it off as one, they'd be pilloried by anyone with Biblical knowledge.
But as I noted earlier, the WTS already receives copious condemnation and criticism all the time. At this point, they don't much care about that. Their audience is the loyal JW contingent, who are trained to treat every word dripping from Brooklyn's mouth as golden coated ambrosial nectar of the gods.
Imagine the hundreds of thousands of grateful letters, the full throated cheers, the standing ovations, the hundreds of millions of dollars pouring in...these guys crave stuff like that.
So a bunch of "Biblical scholars" criticize them. So what? Those guys are part of "Babylon the Great" anyway, or are demon-possessed mentally diseased apostates, or god-forsaken atheists anyway. It's a small price to pay for all the potential benefits.