The new JW Bible

by silas hobbs 17 Replies latest jw friends

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  silas hobbs

  I was recently informed that the new JW Bible was reviewed by some academic type person who rated it as one of the best translations available.

  Has anyone heard of this person and if so what is his reasoning for giving it such a compliment?
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  nowwhat?

  Well you heard wrong
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  careful

  Perhaps you heard, or the source you got this info from heard, about comments on the NWT by Jason BeDuhn in his 2003 book Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Bible Translations of the New Testament. Since it came out 10 years before the revised NWT, it can't have covered the revised edition. BeDuhn is a religious studies professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. In his book he discusses a number of translations, but he seems to spend an exceptional amount of time defending the NWT against its critics.
  
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  sir82

  FWIW:

  All translations, 100% of them, will have some bias somewhere. It's impossible to not have bias when translating such a large collection of books written by different men with different viewpoints from different cultures over many centuries.

  The NWT, after discounting its obvious biases*, is probably a pretty decent translation for 98 - 99% of its contents.

  * examples: the comma in Luke 23:43, 1 Corinthians 7:36 (bad enough when it was "toward his virginity", now it is inexcusably biased as "by remaining unmarried"), many if not most of its insertions of "Jehovah" into the NT, etc.
  
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  silas hobbs

  Thanks for the feedback. I saw it on a JW facebook page and it was Jason BeDuhn who said such complimentary things.Its not so much the fact that someone complimented JW accomplishments but it is that the whole JW community does not believe in truth by rigid scrutiny but by proclamations from on high and by selective quotes.

  Science requires peer review,,,different points of view are floated and then new arguements are brought to bear on the subject until some consensus is reached. but in WT world what is put out, many times does not meet the standards of science,ancient history or theology.
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  Diogenesister

  I don't know about that particular review being "new", I seem to recall that name a couple years back?

  One interesting thing I did learn yesterday, however, is one of the main reasons scholars are certain Paul didn't write the pastoral epistles (Titus, the Timothys, replete with infamous statements about both woman and slavery), is because these epistles are hierarchical. Ie they are written to "church leaders". A hierarchy among Christians was unknown in the first century and within the new testament.

  The pastoral's were written by the same man, almost certainly inserted much like watchtower has, when it became obvious the church was going to become a long term institution and as such these epistles became a method of control.

  Paul believed Jesus' arrival was imminent and as such no other authority was needed.
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  RubaDub

  Very interesting thread so far.

  Rub a Dub
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  Pete Zahut

  Jehovah's Witnesses condemn the world and view it as being ruled by Satan and they dismiss anything non JW Bible Scholars have to say about the Bible. That is until a worldly authority with even the most feeble of credentials, gives them a compliment. They still condemn the one making the compliment but they enthusiastically embrace his or her words as proof that they have the truth and they quote them as much a possible.
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  niknak

  I was raised reading the NWT from JWs from age 4, and It wasn't until I picked up another bible at age 35 that I found the Truth and now live the happiest life I ever have. I learned about the Holy Spirit and the 9 gifts in which we can get according to God's Will and I have a new personal relationship with Jesus.

  The NWT is a really good translation until you get to the point where Jesus should be described as He is and then it down plays his position and thus hinders the readers relationship with the only person that can save them. That is my conclusion after comparing NWT against itself from the different years. Starting with the green bible from the 60s on. then I compared KJV (which JW printed before coming up with their own).

  Anyway, it's a good translation but remember that the devil knows scripture better than us and although very subtle the changes that are made in the NWT can damage your chances of salvation if not careful.
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  TD

  JW sources tend to omit the fact that BeDuhn raked them over the coals for their use of the name Jehovah in the NT.