The Jehovah Witnesses love to knock on your door and promote their New World Translation (NWT) as the best Bible available to read and study. A few months back I responded to a question concerning the NWT and decided to post my answer.
Dear Steve,
The New World Translation used by Jehovah Witnesses comes from the actual “Dead Sea Scrolls” that were written in Hebrew. It contains exact scriptures (in English) and puts God’s name back in the Bible over 7,000 times where it is supposed to be. That is the only difference in their Bible. Why do the newer versions of the King James Bible leave out God’s name? Psalm 83:18 clearly says his name is Jehovah. Other scriptures are Exodus 6:3, Isaiah 12:2, Isaiah 26:4, Genesis 22:14, Exodus 17:15, and Judges 6:24. In the newer King James versions, his name is taken completely out. In my opinion to truly know someone it starts with knowing their name. How can you truly know someone if you don’t even know what their name is? Therefore, would you want to use a Bible that leaves God’s name out, or would you want to use one that sanctifies it? The choice is yours.
Angela
Dear Angela,
Thanks for writing and giving your view. I will begin by correcting a few obvious errors in your comments. First, your translation does not come directly from the “Dead Sea Scrolls.” The primary source material for the Old Testament in the NWT was Kittel’s Biblia Hebracia. This edition first appeared in 1906. Multiple secondary sources were used including the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The New Testament for the NWT was taken from the Westcott and Hort manuscripts. I have a Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures published by your organization and it admits Westcott and Hort were the primary New Testament text utilized. These manuscripts are accepted as valid texts for the New Testament. The problem is not the original New Testament texts; the problem is how the Greek in the NWT was translated into English and how words were added that were never in the original text.
Second, Jehovah is not a Biblical word. It was created by combining the original Hebrew name for God YHWH and adonai (word used by Jews who didn’t want to say God’s name). The resulting combined word, “Jehovah” has been used for the name God by many groups but it is not found in the Bible. Nowhere do you find the word Jehovah in the original languages, Hebrew or Greek.
Third, forcing the word Jehovah into the New Testament is simply wrong. When your translators did this they went against thousands of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament; some of which date back to the second century. Instead the New Testament uses the words “Lord” [Greek: Kurios] and “God” [Greek: theos] when talking about God. The writers never used Jehovah, even when quoting the Old Testament. The Greek New Testament source for the New World Translation, Westcott and Hort, never used Jehovah. They used kurios for Lord and theos for God. The Kingdom Interlinear confirms Jehovah was never in the original text. This interlinear published by the Watchtower Organization shows how kurios (Lord) and theos (God) were changed to Jehovah in the English translation. Stating God’s name was left out of the King James or any other version of the Bible is false. Angela, I suggest finding a Kingdom Interlinear at your hall so you can see for yourself. When your organization says they removed the name, they are lying to you.
Finally, let me address additional problems with the New World Translation. When it comes to this translation we find it almost universally rejected by noted scholars in the field of Biblical translations. Dr. Ron Rhodes, who wrote “Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah Witnesses,” stated:
“The New World translation is an incredibly biased translation. Dr. Robert Countess, who wrote a doctoral dissertation on the Greek text of the New World translation, concluded the translation ‘has been sharply unsuccessful in keeping doctrinal considerations from influencing the actual translation…It must be viewed as a radically biased piece of work. At some points it is actually dishonest. At others it is neither modern nor scholarly.’ British scholar H.H. Rowley asserted, ‘from the beginning to end this volume is a shining example of how the Bible should not be translated.’ Indeed, Rowley said, this translation is ‘an insult to the Word of God.’”
Dr. Julius Manti, author of A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, calls the New World translation “a shocking mistranslation.” Dr. Bruce M. Metzger, professor of New Testament at Princeton University, calls the New World translation “a frightful mistranslation,” “erroneous,” “pernicious,” and “reprehensible.” Dr. William Barclay concluded that “the deliberate distortion of truth by this sect is seen in their New Testament translation. It is abundantly clear that a sect which can translate the New Testament like that is intellectually dishonest.”
It is highly revealing that the Watchtower Society has always resisted efforts to identify members of the New World Translation committee. The claim was they preferred to remain anonymous and humble, giving God the credit and glory for this translation. However, as former Jehovah witness David Reed notes, “an unbiased observer will quickly note that such anonymity also shields the translators from any blame for errors or distortions in their renderings. And it prevents scholars from checking their credentials.”
The Watchtower Society must have been utterly embarrassed when the names of the translators of the New World translation were made known to the public. The reason for concern was the translation committee was completely unqualified for the task. Four of the five men in the committee had no Hebrew or Greek training whatsoever (they had only a high school education)[1]. The Fifth, Fred W. Franz, claimed to know Hebrew and Greek, but upon examination under oath in a court of law in Edinburg Scotland he failed a simple Hebrew test.
In court Franz was asked if he knew Hebrew and he said yes. He said he had a command of various languages including Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, German, and French. When asked if he speaks Hebrew, he said no. He was then asked if he could translate the fourth verse of Genesis into Hebrew. His answer was NO! The fact was Franz, like the others on the committee, did not have the knowledge to translate Hebrew or Greek. The truth is Franz dropped out of the University of Cincinnati after his sophomore year and even while there, he had not studied anything related to theological issues[2].
More could be said about the errors of the New World Translation but I will stop here for now. Angela the New World Translation should be avoided at all costs.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I concur with the findings of your report and as a translator and researcher of the Hebrew language on a scholastic level I too have noted many inconsistencies in the New World Translation. I really appreciated your comment about the name of Jehovah and the emphasis that watchtower society places on this name, a name that really is not a name at all. Because of the sacredness of the divine name of G-d rabbinical scholars saw the need to insert the vowels from Adonai into the Divine name thus rendering it with the pronunciation of Jehovah. It is important not to take the LORD’s Name in vain for Jews, and this was the reason for that conversion. So all the emphasis that has been placed on Jehovah as being the name of G-d is false within itself.
If it was good enough for the rabbinical scholars to insert vowels to get the name of God, then it is good enough for me. Obviously God wanted his name to be known or he wouldn’t have given it to Moses and had him and the other old testament bible book writers include it over 7,000 times. Does it really matter if it is YHWH,Yaweh,or Jehovah in english? Is it just a coincidence that when those vowels are inserted, the meaning of the name is “I am that I am”, “I shall prove to be what I shall prove to be”, “The one who exists” ect.? At John 17:6, (yes that is in the new testament)Jesus is in prayer with his Father and states that he has made his Fathers NAME known to his followers. This is not only in the NWT but in the vast majority of other bibles. So what “name of God” was that, that Jesus made known during the new testament period? When Jesus and the apostles taught from the scriptures, all they had was the old testament which contained the divine name. So obviously they must have used it. Obviously Jesus thought it was important to make Gods name known. So why is it so wrong to put it into the new testament today? Is it also important to note that Hebrew renderings of the Christian Greek scriptures down through the centuries have also used the divine name where appropriate and removed the Greek “God” and “Lord”. Also archeologists have found and authenticated fragments of the Greek scriptures (N.T.)which include the divine name.
Dear Dan,
I never said the usage of the name of God, Jehovah was wrong. I was responding to a letter from a Jehovah Witness who contended the newer versions of the KJV left out the name of God, Jehovah. My point was the word Jehovah was not found in the original manuscripts; it is not a Biblical name but a man-made one. The Hebrew word was YHWH. However, that being said I don’t have a problem with adding the vowels and wherever YHWH appears, the word Jehovah can be inserted. I never said in the article using Jehovah was wrong.
It is wrong to insert Jehovah in the New Testament because the ancient manuscripts don’t support it. As I said in my post: “Instead the New Testament uses the words “Lord” [Greek: Kurios] and “God” [Greek: theos] when talking about God. The writers never used Jehovah, even when quoting the Old Testament. The Greek New Testament source for the New World Translation, Westcott and Hort, never used Jehovah. They used kurios for Lord and theos for God. The Kingdom Interlinear confirms Jehovah was never in the original text. This interlinear published by the Watchtower Organization shows how kurios (Lord) and theos (God) were changed to Jehovah in the English translation. Stating God’s name was left out of the King James or any other version of the Bible is false.”
Notice the Greek translation the NWT used was Westcott and Hort. Westcott and Hort never used Jehovah in the NT. So the Watchtower Organization changed the renderings of an ancient manuscript to fit your teachings. The Kingdom Interlinear, published by the Watchtower, never used Jehovah in the Greek translation of the NT. Do you own a Kingdom Interlinear? Why does this interlinear disagree with you? It was published by your Organization.
You close by saying archeologists have found an authenticated fragment of the NT with the divine name. Please send me your evidence for archeologists finding an authenticated fragment of Greek NT scriptures that include the divine name Jehovah. Also, provide the sources for your claim the Hebrew renderings of the Christian Greek scriptures used the divine name in the NT and removed “God” and “Lord.” Why do you ignore the fact that thousands of ancient Greek manuscripts do not have the name Jehovah and yet make a big deal out of the possibility of one manuscript (or maybe a few) supporting your position?
Thanks, Steve
This was one of many reasons why the name Yeshua represented God; know the father know the son, no one comes to the father except through yeshua.
We have his sons name that is the core to this faith, jehovah’s witness’s are trained to distract people from the importance of the NAME of his son which was so important to hold.those that believe on him shall have everlasting life. His name shall be “emmanuel”- God with us.
They want followers to go back to the stone ages of believe dealing directly to the known God of the old testament, the watch tower society is their modern day prophet who interprets scripture for them, ousting out the Holyghost[the divine helper],Stepping on the gift he has givin. The watch tower act as if they are the high priest who makes reconciliation between the people and God.
But God says any thing we ask according to his will he gives us.
They dont believe in living in the spirit or inheriting heaven with Yeshua. they believe in just living in fleshly bodies forever drinking wine and eating cheese.the devil has them believing this lie so it can bring death not life
Yeshua holds the keys of death because he has life.
“behold, i stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, i will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will i grant to sit with me in my throne, even as i also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” rev 3:20-21
Thanks for this article. Very well written. I started to write something similar and then found out the work was done, so I will cite this instead.
I have studied both Koine Greek and Hebrew for several years each at a Master’s level, and have extensive working knowledge of both. Furthermore, I have worked extensively with professors who are much better trained in these languages than I am. The NWT is a terrible translation of the worst kind, whether done by accident or on purpose it distorts the original meanings of the text in the worst possible way. The tetragrammaton (yahweh) of course was never meant to be jehovah–as stated above, and inserting it into the New Testament manuscripts is a logistical nightmare.
I might add to this massive error that most people seem to know about from John 1:1, “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” That tiny little letter (a) changes the whole meaning, and is an example of either lazy or deliberately bad translation. In Greek thought the logos (word) was never something that was in plurality, even in Plato it was the singular active force of God. Furthermore the phrase καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος from John 1:1, is what is called a subject=predicate nominative. Basically in Greek grammar its the equivalent of having an = sign between “the Word” and “God,” saying that the logos and God are one and the same. If it was meant to read “the word was A god,” then the logos (λόγος) here would read (λόγοv). Quite obviously, it doesn’t and therefore is a mistranslation. Anyways, I digress because I could go all night on some of these errors, but thanks for the article!
Hi Steve, sometimes I understand where you are coming from, but then sometimes you are a bit confusing. Are you saying that the name YHWH is legit, and if this was in all bibles that would be ok by you?? Is your problem just with the name Jehovah specifically? Thanks for your help.
Adelle,
I am not sure where I have confused you on this issue. I wrote in the article: “Second, Jehovah is not a Biblical word. It was created by combining the original Hebrew name for God YHWH and adonai (word used by Jews who didn’t want to say God’s name). The resulting combined word, ‘Jehovah’ has been used for the name God by many groups but it is not found in the Bible. Nowhere do you find the word Jehovah in the original languages, Hebrew or Greek.” Using Jehovah in OT passages is not a hill I am going to die on. It is simply an English word for YHWH. I will not discount a translation that does this as long as they use it only for the Hebrew word YHWH. Adding Jehovah to the NT is flat out wrong. Did I answer your issue?
Steve
Steve I agree with everything you say. The NWT is the worst English translation of the old scriptures I’ve come across. On the matter of using Jehovah in the NT, there is one explanation given by the JWs. They say they use the old Hebrew version of the NT and not the Greek (note, I’m not referring to more recent Hebrew versions translated from Greek or English). If that’s the case I can understand their point of view since the old Hebrew version would use YHWH. Actually, what they should be using is the Aramaic versions of the NT, and perhaps that’s what they mean. Anyway, I refuse to accept that God’s real name is Jehovah because of two reasons. One, as you stated it’s not seen in any copy of the original scriptures in any language. Two, there is no “J” sound in Hebrew so a Jew would not even be able to pronounce Jehovah. The JWs would have been better off using something like Yahweh. I consider the JWs such a confused lot, and close to being a non-Christian cult.
Peter,
Your JW friends who say the NWT committee used the Hebrew NT to come up with Jehovah in the NT don’t have the facts to support that contention. As I said in the post on the NWT, the translators utilized the Westcott and Hort Greek manuscripts. Wikipedia says this: “The Greek master text by the Cambridge University scholars B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort (1881) was used as the basis for translating the New Testament into English.” The article goes on to say they used other texts: “Additional works consulted in preparing the New World Translation include the Armenian Version, Coptic Versions, the Latin Vulgate, Sixtine and Clementine Revised Latin Texts, Textus Receptus, the Johann Jakob Griesbach’s Greek text, the Emphatic Diaglott, and various papyri.” I checked the links on all of these other texts and none of them are Hebrew versions of the NT. According to Wikipedia NWT translators never used Hebrew versions of the OT. And even if they did why would you? If the autographs (original manuscripts) were written in Greek, why would you consult a Hebrew version? You would end up translating Greek to Hebrew to English. This makes no sense unless you wanted to insert Jehovah into the NT. This is why the NWT cannot be tolerated as anything but a biased poorly written translation.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are not close to being a non-Christian cult due to the fact they deny the historic truths of the Christian faith and then at the same time called themselves Christians. They are a full-blown “Cult of Christianity.” Steve
The neccesity of removing specks from the eyes of those who use the name of God- either as Jehovah or Yahweh, by the above posters in translating the Greek and Hebrew languages of the time, ignores the rafter- that YHWH is used approx. 7000 times in Hebrew Scripture. It is the name of the Hebrew God and it’s actual consonant/vowel sound not withstanding, still conveys the meaning of the active God. Using Jewish superstition to argue for prohibition while denouncing translators as members of the occult is a similar hypocrisy. Why does the Bible go so far as to play with this name in song praising YHWH as YAH/JAH? It is like King William, asking us to call him Bill. Familiarity on part of those who KNOW the divine being allows an informality lacking on the part of the above posters, who have yet come to a comprehension of the one who confounds their purely intellectual approach to Bible translation, and their failure to understand HIS intent. Yeshua-the Salvation of Yah, provides the finest example of this when he states MT 5:18 (KJV), “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Jesus is the fullfillment of the divine name Jehovah/Yahweh. Jesus now addresses God as father, introducing us into an even more intimate relationship. Praise the nameless God? No, Hallelu-Jah!(RV 19:1-6)
Bruce, 12/24/12
The Bible refers to God utilizing multiple names. YHWH is by far the most widely used. However, does that discount the fact in the Old Testament God is called ELOHIM, ADONAI, JEHOVAH—YAHWEH, JEHOVAH-MACCADDESHEM, JEHOVAH-ROHI, JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH, JEHOVAH-RAPHA, JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU, JEHOVAH-JIREH, JEHOVAH-NISSI, JEHOVAH-SHALOM, JEHOVAH-SABBAOTH, JEHOVAH-GMOLAH, EL-ELYON, EL-ROI, EL-SHADDAI, and EL-OLAM? Since God is also identified as “God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” without any mention of Jehovah (YHWH), doesn’t this mean that the name Jehovah is not the only way that God can be addressed in the Old Testament?
Jesus never identified the Father as Jehovah. Was Jesus wrong for not calling the Father by his personal name? When He taught us how to pray, how are we to address the Father? Matthew 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.’” Jesus taught his disciples and us to say “Our Father” and not “Our Jehovah.” You need to chastise Him for forgetting to use Jehovah here and all through his ministry. Jesus never said the name Jehovah. Bruce was Jesus wrong?
Why didn’t any of the New Testament writers use the name Jehovah? Were all the writers of the New Testament out of line? Are you going to correct them? There are over 5,700 ancient New Testament manuscripts and none of them ever used the name Jehovah. NONE! Does the Watchtower Organization know more than Jesus and the New Testament writers?
In my posted letter to Angela (Jehovah’s Witness) I wrote: Forcing the word Jehovah [by the New World Translation] into the New Testament is simply wrong. When your translators did this they went against thousands of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament; some of which date back to the second century. Instead the New Testament uses the words “Lord” [Greek: Kurios] and “God” [Greek: theos] when talking about God. The writers never used Jehovah, even when quoting the Old Testament. The Greek New Testament source for the New World Translation, Westcott and Hort, never used Jehovah. They used kurios for Lord and theos for God. The Kingdom Interlinear confirms Jehovah was never in the original text. This interlinear published by the Watchtower Organization shows how kurios (Lord) and theos (God) were changed to Jehovah in the English translation. Stating God’s name was left out of the King James or any other version of the Bible is false. Angela, I suggest finding a Kingdom Interlinear at your hall so you can see for yourself. When your organization says they removed the name, they are lying to you. Bruce why do you follow an organization that blatantly lies to you?
Steve
Thank you for helping people understand what a dishonest translation this is. Your work is appreciated.