These are similarly titled books I found and the various revisions of the NWT and the explanation thereof. Interestingly there is not a case by case listing of the changes that were made.
Book You
Can
Live
Forever
in
Paradise
on
Earth (1982, revised 1989)(referred to as Live Forever book)
Brochure Enjoy
Life
on
Earth
Forever! (1982)
Book From
Paradise
Lost
to
Paradise
Regained (1958)
Booklet Can You Live Forever In Happiness On Earth? (1950)
1961 New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (revision)
1970 New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (deluxe )
1981 New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (large print)
- New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (with references
*** w81 12/15 11-13 Your Bible-How It Was Produced ***
EXAMINING
THE
1981
"NEW
WORLD
TRANSLATION"The 1981 edition of the New
World
Translation
of
the
Holy
Scriptures is the culmination of 35 years of studious translation and careful revision. The translating project was initiated back in 1946, and by 1960 both the Hebrew and the Greek portions of Gods Word had been rendered into English directly from the original languages. During those years of translation a great deal of careful research was done by the New World Bible Translation Committee to assure that the translation was internally consistent in word choice and that the best possible readings of various manuscripts were used in the text. Jehovahs Witnesses, who use the New
World
Translation as their primary Scriptural reference, have greatly appreciated and benefited from this scholarly work.
However, the work of the translation committee (whose members remain anonymous at their request) was not finished in 1960. The New
World
Translation was first issued as a single volume in 1961, and this edition incorporated a careful revision of all the previous work. Since the 1961 edition contained no footnotes, a number of footnote readings from the earlier editions were put in the main text to conform more closely to the literal meaning of the original languages. A second revision, in 1970, took note of changes both in English usage and in the understanding of the ancient languages being translated. Over 100 words or expressions used in the 1961 edition were therefore altered. In 1971, the New
World
Translation was issued in a larger-print format with footnotes, and another revision of the text was made.
It is the desire of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, which holds the copyright to the New
World
Translation, that this excellent translation be kept up to date. The New
World
Translation
of
the
Holy
Scriptures aims to render Gods Word accurately and literally in harmony with the living, changing languages currently understood by its readers. This translation values reliable transmission of Gods Word above stylistic or literary considerations that mark many modern idiomatic or paraphrased Bible versions.
The 1981 edition of the New
World
Translation is the result of a further careful review of the preceding editions, made with the above guiding principles in mind. This review was greatly facilitated by the recent installation of advanced computerized typesetting and composition equipment at the Watchtower Societys main printing plant in Brooklyn, New York.
In December 1979 operators sitting at computer terminals began entering the Bible into the Societys computer. In a little over five months, the typing of two different editions of the New
World
Translation into the computer had been completed. One was the 1970 revision and the other was the larger-print 1971 edition.
This dual entry method served two purposes. First, it helped to reduce the amount of time spent proofreading the Bible. To this end, the Societys data processing department designed a computer program to compare these two editions letter by letter. What would happen when the slightest difference was detected? The computer was instructed to print out the entire verse containing the discrepancy, indicating precisely where it occurred in the verse.
So this minimized the proofreaders work in searching for text entry errors. The computer found most of them! True, once in a very great while the two typists made the very same mistake on the very same word. But that occurred only once in every 500,000 keystrokes, and these errors were located by the proofreaders and corrected.
Additionally, the entry of two different editions of the New
World
Translation allowed the computer to locate every verse in which the two versions differed, no matter how slight the variation. The New World Bible Translation Committee then reviewed each of these differences and decided which rendering to use in the 1981 edition. With the help of the computer, proofreaders were able to find very slight variations in the text of the New
World
Translation. For example, some proper names were divided into two syllables in one part of the Bible (A'dam, E'sau), and in another part appeared as one word without the syllables indicated. Minor differences involving quotation marks, parentheses and brackets also were located and cleared up. The final result is that the 1981 edition of the New
World
Translation
of
the
Holy
Scriptures is the most accurate and consistent edition the Society has ever published.
*** w85 11/1 28 Modern Stewardship of God's Sacred Word ***
At the "Kingdom Increase" District Conventions of Jehovahs Witnesses, held in the summer of 1984, a new edition of the
New
World
Translation with references was released in English.
This contains not only a revision of the New
World
Translation text but also 125,000 marginal, or cross, references, as an aid in Bible study. Additionally, there are more than 11,400 enlightening footnotes, containing vital textual information as well as alternate renderings, that make this Reference
Bible, in effect, a multiversion translation. There are indexes of Bible and footnote words, and 43 Appendix sections giving important information about the transmission of the text and Bible authenticity. Truly, this new
Reference
Bible makes up-to-date Bible scholarship available to the student of the Sacred Scriptures.
*** km 12/84 1-2 What Does the Bible Mean to You? ***
How grateful we are for the revised and updated 1984 edition of the
New
World
Translation. It contains thousands of marginal references that confirm the interlocking harmony of all 66 Bible books. It will surely prove to be an invaluable aid to student and teacher alike.
During December, after first placing all the 1971 and 1981 edition Bibles on hand, we will start distribution in the field of the regular-size 1984 edition. We will offer this new Bible along with a 192-page book, for a contribution of $4.50.
