Is the New World Translation a Better Bible?Is the New World Translation a Better Bible?The New World Translation was first published in1950 by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah'sWitnesses). This Bible has now been translated into. Is this new translation truly abetter Bible?The Bible is God's written Word. It is the message Godwants men and women to read so that they can know Him. However,the Bible was not written in the language we speak today, so itmust be translated before we can read it.God used approximately 36 men over a period ofalmost 2,000 years to write the 66 books of the Bible. Yeteverything that each man wrote agrees just as if one author hadwritten the whole Bible. In fact, that is what actually happened.The real author of the Bible is God.The Bible was written in three languages and is dividedinto two parts.
The Old Testament was written first. Almost allof these first 39 books were written in the Hebrew language.(Only eight of a total of 929 chapters were written in Aramaic.)The Old Testament contains some of the earliest written historyof our world and it describes the beginning and history of God'sspecial people.
It contains poetry and books showing God's peoplehow to live. The Old Testament also tells of the Savior who wouldcome to rescue all humanity from their sin.The second part of the Bible is about the Savior Jesusand His followers. This second part is called the New Testament.It records how Jesus lived a perfect life and yet was hatedbecause He said He was from God.
Jehovah's Witnesses regard The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures as “an accurate, easy-to-read translation of the Bible” (jw.org). The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) is a modern-language translation of the Bible published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. And the International Bible Students Association of Brooklyn, New York.
It recounts how His enemieskilled Him, and then how He came back to life three days later toshow that He really was God. The New Testament tells how Jesus'followers learned to be obedient to Him and spread the messagethat Jesus was the Savior of everyone who believes in Him.The New Testament was written in Greek, and wascompleted about 40 years after Jesus lived. It was written by menwho either knew Jesus personally or were His early followers.But the Bible is more than just history. The Bible isGod's Word for each of us today. It tells us about God.
It tellsus how Jesus came to save us from our sin. And it tells us how weshould live in a way that pleases God. Therefore, we need to beable to read the Bible and understand exactly what God wants usto know. However, because the Bible was written in Hebrew andGreek, it must be translated into a language we understand beforewe are able to read it. We must have an accurate translation ifwe are to learn what God wants us to know.Translations of the Bible have been made in manylanguages.
In fact, the Bible has been translated into morelanguages than any other book in the history of the world. As alanguage changes, new translations must be made. But not alltranslations have been made simply because the language changed.Regrettably, sometimes translations were made because thetranslators wanted to publish a Bible that taught theirdoctrine.Since the Bible is God's Word, we want the Bibletranslator to translate the exact thoughts of the Hebrew andGreek languages into the language we speak today. Therefore, thebest Bible translations will follow this simple rule: The best Bible translation will tell us the exactthoughts of the original writers of the Hebrew and Greekportions of the Bible in a way that is easily understood in ourown language.Of course, a Bible translation may be good inone area of translation but faulty in others. The best Bibletranslation for us today will be the one that most accuratelytells us all of the thoughts of the original writers.
However, aBible translation should never be used to make the reader thinkthat God is favoring a particular religious group'sdoctrine.Some basic Bible facts.The writers of each of the 39 Old Testament books and 27New Testament books used pen and ink and wrote on some formof animal skin or reed paper. The New Testament books are themost recent. Yet, even these were written almost 2,000 yearsago. The original authors wrote a single copy on a reed papercalled papyrus.
We believe that the original account writtenby each author was inspired by God and was written withoutany errors. It was written exactly as God intended. Everyword was perfect. However, the original copies have longsince been lost.Many copies of each book were madeimmediately after they were written.
Then copies of thecopies were made. Yet these were all hand-written documentsand each contained some copying mistakes. Do we know todaywhat the original authors wrote?
Surprisingly, we do. Manyvery old copies of the Bible survived in countries with dryclimates like Egypt. The oldest known New Testament documentis very small, but it was copied less than 60 or 70 yearsafter the Apostle John wrote it. These hand-made copies arecalled Greek manuscripts.
There are a number of ancient NewTestament Greek manuscripts that were copied within 150 to200 years after the original was written. In the last 200years, over 5,000 copies of ancient Greek manuscripts of theNew Testament have been discovered. After careful study ofeach of these manuscripts, the copying mistakes can beidentified.
It has been a slow and difficult process, but ithas resulted in a reconstruction of the original Greek textof the New Testament that is almost exactly the same as itwas written by the original writers.We know much about the history of the Bible manuscriptsbecause of the writings of early Christians. Large numbers ofancient manuscripts written by Christian authors survived inthe same way that the ancient Greek manuscripts of the Biblesurvived. These authors often quoted Scripture in theirwritings. This tells us the words used in the Bibles theywere copying. There were also many debates between theseauthors in the first 400 years of the life of the Church.Because we can read their answers to each other, we oftenknow exactly what was happening during the earliest historyof the Church.The Old Testament uses the Hebrew name of God over 6,800times.
Because of the way ancient Hebrew was written, it isnot easy for a translator today to decide exactly how thatname should be pronounced. The name has often been writtenJehovah. Many Bibles have simply written God's name asLORD using all capital letters. But it is important toremember that the Old Testament authors frequently used God'sHebrew name.The New Testament does not use God's Hebrew name. None ofthe more than 5,000 ancient Greek manuscripts that we havetoday use the Hebrew name of God written in either Hebrew orGreek letters.
It is abbreviated as Jah in the wordhallelujah four times (Revelation 19:1, 3, 4, and 6). But inthese four instances, it is written in Greek and not Hebrewletters. All 5,000 surviving Greek manuscripts use a singleword that is most frequently applied to Jesus. That word isLord. This single word is also used in quotations ofthe Old Testament where God's Hebrew name is written. The useof this single word for Lord is one of the most importantissues concerning the accuracy of the New WorldTranslation.The New Testament frequently quotes the Old Testament. Inmany of these quotations, either the Hebrew name ofGod-which is often written Jehovah-is in the actualOld Testament quotation, or the quotation is saying somethingthat is true of only Jehovah.
As we will see, it is veryimportant to know if the New Testament writer actuallyapplied these quotations containing the Hebrew name of God toJesus, or if the writer intended them to apply only toJehovah.Some examplesBefore we go further, we need to look at twoexamples that show us why the debate regarding the Hebrew name ofGod in the New Testament is important.Certain verses talk about God. There are verses inthe New Testament that specifically identify the one referredto as God. Revelation 11:17 is one example. It says, 'We giveThee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty.' The New WorldTranslation translates this same verse as, 'We thank you,Jehovah God, the Almighty.'
It makes a great deal ofdifference if the one who is 'God, the Almighty' is theLord (Jesus) or Jehovah. Revelation 4:11 says'Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God.' The New WorldTranslation reads, 'You are worthy, Jehovah,' even ourGod.' There are a number of similar examples in Revelation inwhich the New World Translation uses Jehovahrather than Lord. (Revelation 1:8, 4:8, 15:3, 16:7,18:8, 19:6, 21:22, and 22:5-6.) Yet, in each of theseexamples, the Greek text from which the New WorldTranslation was translated (the Kingdom InterlinearTranslation published by the Watch Tower Society) alwaysuses the Greek word for Lord.
It does not use the Hebrew nameof God because there is no ancient manuscript evidence thatthe New Testament writers used it.The Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament.The New Testament frequently quotes the Old Testament. TheNew Testament quotation sometimes includes a verse that usesthe Hebrew name of God. Matthew 3:3 is an example.
It says,'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready theway of the Lord, make his paths straight.' Matthew quotedIsaiah 40:3 and applied it to John the Baptist who made theway ready for Jesus. Isaiah 40:3 used the Hebrew name of God.However, when Matthew quoted the verse he applied it to Jesusby using the Greek word for Lord.
However, the NewWorld Translation says, 'Someone is crying out in thewilderness, 'Prepare the way of Jehovah, you people! Make hisroads straight.' ' Again, the Greek text from which the NewWorld Translation was translated uses the Greek word forLord and not the Hebrew name of God.Sometimes, however, the Hebrew name of Godis not included in the verse that is quoted from the OldTestament.
In Romans 14:11, the Apostle Paul said, 'As Ilive, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and everytongue shall give praise to God.' Paul quoted Isaiah 45:23which says, 'I have sworn by Myselfthat to Me everyknee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.' TheHebrew name of God is not in the actual Old Testament versethat Paul quoted, though Isaiah said that these were thewords of God Himself. So Paul knew that it was God who said,'to Me every knee will bow.' That worship belongs only toGod.
Yet in Romans 14:11, Paul says that it was the Lordspeaking. However, the New World Translation says,'As I live.' Says Jehovah, 'to me every knee will benddown, and every tongue will make open acknowledgment toGod.' ' (Notice that the New World Translation usesextra quotation marks to show that God is speaking.)However, the Apostle Paul repeats thisquotation in Philippians 2:10-11. He says, 'That at the nameof Jesus every knee should bow and that every tongueshould confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of Godthe Father.' Paul said that the worship that belonged only toGod in the Old Testament was also to be given to Jesus.
Thetranslators did not want to use the word Jehovahbecause this verse referred to Jesus. So the New WorldTranslation says, 'So that in the name of Jesus everyknee should bendand every tongue should openlyacknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God theFather.' In the verse in Philippians they omit quotationmarks as though it is not a verse from the Old Testament.