Jehovah's Witnesses Bible

[Ross]

Much debate has taken place over the change the Jehovah's Witnesses made to John 1:1 rendering GOD as 'a god'. Virtually all references made to the Divinity of Jesus Christ in the NWT of the Greek Scriptures included adjustments to the literal rendering of the Koine' Greek to English, with the notable exception of John 20:28.

This translation of the Greek Scriptures was performed in secret by a Translation Committee led by the President and Vice President without the knowledge of the Governing Body who had no option but to accept this once it was revealed, as back then the Governing Body had little power.

After this they produced the Hebrew Scriptures, and It didn't take long for them to carry out similar unfaithful translation.

Almost every Bible ever written translates the second part of Genesis 1:2 as it appears to us in the Hebrew Masoretic Text:

"And The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters"

Jehovah's Witnesses assert that the Spirit of God, The Holy Spirit, is a none intelligent, none personal form of Gods power, likened in their literature to electricity that makes things work or happen.

Their official description and interpretation of the Holy Spirit is 'Gods active force'.

Genesis 1:2 reads in the New World Translation:

" and God’s active force was moving about over the surface of the waters."

Is this not the most blatant insertion of pre conceived doctrine into scripture you have ever seen?

[Miles]

Much debate has taken place over the change the Jehovah's Witnesses made to John 1:1 rendering GOD as 'a god'. Virtually all references made to the Divinity of Jesus Christ in the NWT of the Greek Scriptures included adjustments to the literal rendering of the Koine' Greek to English, with the notable exception of John 20:28.

This translation of the Greek Scriptures was performed in secret by a Translation Committee led by the President and Vice President without the knowledge of the Governing Body who had no option but to accept this once it was revealed, as back then the Governing Body had little power.

After this they produced the Hebrew Scriptures, and It didn't take long for them to carry out similar unfaithful translation.

Almost every Bible ever written translates the second part of Genesis 1:2 as it appears to us in the Hebrew Masoretic Text:

"And The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters"

Actually, only 9 of the 55 Bibles I checked say

"Genesis 1:2
"And The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters"

Most say anything from:

Genesis 1:2 (New American Bible (Revised Edition))
"and the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters—"

To

Genesis 1:2 (The Message Bible)
"First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss."

Jehovah's Witnesses assert that the Spirit of God, The Holy Spirit, is a none intelligent, none personal form of Gods power, likened in their literature to electricity that makes things work or happen.

Their official description and interpretation of the Holy Spirit is 'Gods active force'.

Genesis 1:2 reads in the New World Translation:

" and God’s active force was moving about over the surface of the waters."

Heck, other Bibles say it was "a mighty wind" (NABRE), "God’s wind" (CEB), "a wind from God" (NRSVA) "the Spirit of God fluttering" (YLT) "The Spirit of God moving" (AMPC), and "the Spirit of God brooding" (TLB)

Is this not the most blatant insertion of pre conceived doctrine into scripture you have ever seen?

Don't know. What are the other preconceived doctrines?

.

[Pytine]

I'm currently learning Koine Greek. At this point I can't determine if the NWT version of John 1:1 is reasonable. The Greek grammar here is a lot more nuanced than you would think. It works differently than in English, so there is no simple comparison. Miles already gave a good response to the verse in Genesis.

Is this not the most blatant insertion of pre conceived doctrine into scripture you have ever seen?

It is indeed not the most blatant insertion of pre conceived doctrine into the Bible I have ever seen. All major Bible translations are made by both linguists and theologians. English Bibles are not just straightforward translations (if such a thing would exist), they always have a theological layer on top of the translation. There can be a denominational layer, but there is always a general Christian layer. Since JW's are non-trinitarien, their theological layer differs significantly from that of other Bible versions, which makes it more visible. I wouldn't recommend the NWT, I think there are better translations. My preferred translation is the NRSVue, which is the Bible most scholars recommend. While it does have a theological layer, this layer is significantly thinner than with other versions.

Here are some examples of more blatant insertions of preconceived doctrine into the Bible:

Isaiah 7:14
After the resurrection, the virgin birth is probably the biggest miracle associated with Jesus. In Matthew 1:23, we find a citation of Isaiah 7:14 supporting this doctrine. However, the Hebrew of Isaiah 7:14 doesn't talk about a virgin birth at all. This is not at all controversial among Hebrew scholars. However, when the RSV corrected this verse in 1952, it caused a lot of controversy. One pastor even burned an RSV Bible in public out of protest.
It is rather ironic that it was already known in the second century that the Hebrew text of Isaiah 7:14 doesn't match with its use in the gospel of Matthew. In Dialogue with Trypho chapter 71, Justin Martyr accuses the Jews of removing parts of their own scriptures because it would point to Jesus. In Against Heresies, book 3, chapter 21, Irenaeus makes the same point. They both see that the Hebrew differs from the Septuagint, but they use this to argue for the superiority of the Septuagint. Irenaeus even said that "the Scriptures had been interpreted by the inspiration of God".

Psalm 22:16
Another famous citation found in the New Testament is "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This is a reference to Psalm 22:1. Later on in this Psalm, you get another famous passage, "they pierced my hands and my feet". In this video (6 min), Dan McClellan explains why this translation is completely inaccurate. Around 2:30 the part about this verse starts, but the rest of the video is worth watching too.

Job 1:6
In Job 1:6, as well as many other verses in the book of Job, most English translations use the word Satan. The words they translate as 'Satan' are 'ha satan'. These words mean 'the accuser', or 'the adversary'. Just like English, personal names can't be preceded by a definite article in Hebrew. You can't speak about 'the Jesus', 'the Paul', 'the Peter', or anything like that. Thus, most translations have decided to remove the definite article, leave the Hebrew word untranslated, and capitalize the word. This results in a completely inaccurate translation. The reason for this is that in the New Testament, this accuser has developed into the character of the devil or Satan. These translators impose New Testament theology on Old Testament text in order to harmonize them.

[Ross]

Actually, only 9 of the 55 Bibles I checked say
"And The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters"

Sorry, my comments were aimed at only the part that says 'The Spirit of God'

translated from the Hebrew ruach elohim (spirit of God)

[Ross]

To Pytine,

Thanks for your comments. I don't usually read long posts but I found yours very interesting.
I find interlinears invaluable for discerning the truth behind scripture, especially with the NT.

[2timothy316]

The term active force is more accurate because it is in harmony with other scriptures. Jehovah's Holy Spirit and His Power, while they go hand in hand together they are not the same thing. (Mic 3:8; Zec 4:6; Lu 1:17, 35; Ac 10:38)
Example: Humans make things with their hands, God uses His Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit is like His hands and fingers. Compare Ps 8:3; 19:1; Mt 12:28 with Lu 11:20.
So 'active force' is a reasonable modern translation to describe what was happening on the Earth.

BTW the NWT has a footnote for active force. *God's Spirit, for Genesis 1:2.

[Ross]

BTW the NWT has a footnote for active force. *God's Spirit, for Genesis 1:2.

So why was it not translated faithfully and accurately instead of adding pre-conceived doctrine into the text?

[2timothy316]

BTW the NWT has a footnote for active force. *God's Spirit, for Genesis 1:2.

So why was it not translated faithfully and accurately instead of adding pre-conceived doctrine into the text?

Faithfully and accurately based on who's faith and standards? There are those that think that the King James version is most faithful and accurate. However, there are many words in the English language today that didn't exist back with the KJV was translated. Thus, some words are not translated accurately by modern English standards.

So explain to who's faith and standards are your referring?

[Ross]

The term active force is more accurate because it is in harmony with other scriptures.

So you think and believe that translation of the sacred manuscripts should be governed by your modern day religion's conception and perception of other parts of the Bible?

Is this not insertion of pre-conceived doctrine into scripture?

[2timothy316]

The term active force is more accurate because it is in harmony with other scriptures.

So you think and believe that translation of the sacred manuscripts should be governed by your modern day religion's conception and perception of other parts of the Bible?

No. It should be governed by the modern day English we speak not the ye old English that we don't speak. Did you know that the KJV is not the first English translation and that it too fixed some of the bad translating from other Bibles?
Do you believe that people should have stopped translating the Bible into English after the first one was made?
BTW you said sacred manuscripts...did you know there are no original manuscripts? Everything we have today are copies.

Is this not insertion of pre-conceived doctrine into scripture?

No. Bible's with doctrine peppered in them have glaring contradictions. Such as 1 John 5:7. The KJV says, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." This is not accurate and needed to be removed and many translation did just that. Aren't you glad that there are translations that don't keep flaws in their versions?