The manusripts used for NWT Translation

badboy

I heard on a programme about Women Bishops that they were alterations to some early manuscripts,are they the same ones that the WT is using?

Scriptures Inspired Book Study Number 5—The Hebrew Text of the Holy Scriptures *** (Note that this applies only to English, all other languagues were translated from the English NWT)

Sources

for the Text of the New World Translation—Hebrew Scriptures

Original

Hebrew Writings and Early Copies

Aramaic Targums

Dead Sea Scrolls

Samaritan Pentateuch

Greek Septuagint

Old Latin

Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian

Hebrew Consonantal Text

Latin Vulgate

Greek Versions—Aquila, Theodotion, Symmachus

Syriac Peshitta

Masoretic Text

Cairo Codex

Petersburg Codex of the Prophets

Aleppo Codex

Ginsburg’s Hebrew Text

Codex Leningrad B 19 A

Biblia Hebraica (BHK), Biblia Hebraica

Stuttgartensia (BHS)

New World Translation

Hebrew Scriptures—English; From English Into Many Other Modern Languages

[Diagram

on page 309]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

Sources

for the Text of the New World Translation—Christian Greek Scriptures

Original

Greek Writings and Early Copies

Armenian Version

Coptic Versions

Syriac Versions—Curetonian, Philoxenian, Harclean,

Palestinian, Sinaitic, Peshitta

Old Latin

Latin Vulgate

Sixtine and Clementine Revised Latin Texts

Greek Cursive MSS.

Erasmus Text

Stephanus Text

Textus Receptus

Griesbach Greek Text

Emphatic Diaglott

Papyri—(e.g., Chester Beatty P 45 , P 46 , P 47 ; Bodmer P 66 , P 74 ,

P 75 )

Early Greek Uncial MSS.—Vatican 1209 (B), Sinaitic (?),

Alexandrine (A), Ephraemi Syri rescriptus (C), Bezae (D)

Westcott and Hort Greek Text

Bover Greek Text

Merk Greek Text

Nestle-Aland Greek Text

United Bible Societies Greek Text

23 Hebrew Versions (14th-20th centuries), translated

either from the Greek or from the Latin Vulgate, using

Tetragrammaton for divine name

New World Translation

Christian Greek Scriptures—English; From English Into Many Other Modern Languages

badboy

I believe that some of those sources are those that have been altered.

NeonMadman

I believe that some of those sources are those that have been altered.

Depends what you mean by "altered". Remember, there were no printing presses in those days. Copies were made by hand. And people copying by hand make mistakes. If a mistake was made in an early copy from which other copies were made, the mistake tends to be repeated in a whole "family" of manuscripts. By identifying common variants in the text, manuscripts can be classified as to their sources and the original text identified with a high degree of certainty. The work of textual critics is to make these identifications and to develop, as closely as possible, a standard text which can be used as a basis for translation. This is what Westcott and Hort did over a century ago, and their Greek text of the NT became the primary basis for the translation of the NWT (aside from Freddie Franz's imagination, which was the real basis, that is). Nowadays, there are better texts that have resulted from advancing scholarship and newer manuscript finds, and the W&H Greek text is considered a bit outdated. Probably the best Greek text today (according to conservative scholars, at least) would be the Novum Testamentum Graecae. But there's nothing really wrong with the W&H text, any more than there is anything wrong with the King James Version of the Bible. It's just that newer and more accurate versions have arisen. Which is not to imply by any means that I think that the NWT committee actually engaged in textual scholarship of the sort I described. There wasn't a scholar among them who was capable of that. I think they basically sat down with the W&H text and a couple of lexicons, and decided how they wanted the Bible to read, then looked for arguments to back up their renderings.

badboy

What this person said that that they were deliberate alterations,eg one text had been altered so it read masculine, instead of feminine.

blondie

What this person said that that they were deliberate alterations,eg one text had been altered so it read masculine, instead of feminine.

Do you have specific examples; a reference to go to; a person's name to check with; the name of the program; what you mean by Women Bishops? Blondie

NeonMadman

It's a common accusation that the Bible has somehow been "altered" from the original by power brokers of various stripes. Even the JWs make the accusation that Jehovah's name has somehow been mysteriously removed from the Greek Scriptures. The fact is that such alterations would have been impossible. The books of the Bible were distributed too quickly and too widely. An alteration that was made in copies in one area would be easily identifiable by comparison with copies from other "families" (see my comments above). The only way that alterations could be made that would be undetectable through textual criticism would be if the actual autograph copy written by an apostle or other writer were somehow altered on the way to its destination. Of course, this would have had to happen during the lifetime of the writer, and he would have been available to correct the problem. There is no evidence whatsoever that such early alterations were ever attempted, but people whose agendas involve seeking scriptural authority for clearly unscriptural teachings continue to make the arguments.

badboy

There was a programme about the Church of England controversity about allowing women bishops, one of the arguments is, Junia/Junias mentioned in Corinthians was an apostle.

One alleged aleraltion is in Matthews's Sermon on the Mount where a masculine noun has been inserted whereas original was neuter(if I remember correctly!).

TheListener

I've found this website helpful with respect to which sources the NWT used.

http://www.tetragrammaton.org/tetrapdxa.htm

Appendix A especially.

garybuss

A Rabbi told me, with the Hebrew texts 1/3 of the words are guessed at by context and understanding. Hell and hello are spelled the same.
He told me, never believe a miracle you didn't see yourself. When I asked him if God has two wills, he laughed.

The manusripts used for NWT Translation

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