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 (corporations in use by the religious organization commonly known as Jehovah's Witnesses). It was not the first, nor the last translation to be published by them, but it was their very first original translation of the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic texts. Jewish translations The first movement to make the Scripture speak the current tongue appeared nearly three centuries before Christ. ... The Bible has been translated into many languages. ... A number of Old English Bible translations were prepared in mediaeval England, translations of parts of the Bible into the Old English language. ... Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels contains the incipit from the Gospel of Matthew. ... The age of Middle English was not a fertile time for Bible translations but saw the first major translation that of John Wyclif. ... Wyclifs Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English, that were made under the direction of, or at the instigation of, John Wyclif. ... Early Modern English Bible translations are those translations of the Bible which were made between about 1500 and 1800, the period of Early Modern English. ... William Tyndale (sometimes spelled Tindale) (ca. ... Myles Coverdale (also Miles Coverdale) (c1488 - January 20, 1568) was a 16th-century Bible translator who produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English. ... Matthews Bible, also known as the Matthew Bible, is the first complete English translation of the Bible (not just the Old Testament or New Testament) published in 1537 under the pseudonym Thomas Matthew. The Matthew Bible was the combined work of three individuals, working from numerous sources in at... Taverners Bible, more correctly called The Most Sacred Bible whiche is the holy scripture, conteyning the old and new testament, translated into English, and newly recognized with great diligence after most faythful exemplars by Rychard Taverner, is a minor revision of Matthews Bible edited by Richard Taverner and... The Great Bible was the first authorised edition of the Holy Bible in English, authorised by King Henry VIII of England to be read aloud in the church services of the Church of England. ... The Geneva Bible was a Protestant translation of the Holy Bible into English. ... The Bishops Bible was an English translation of the Holy Bible produced under the authority of the established Church of England in 1568. ... The Douai Bible, also known as the Rheims-Douai Bible or Douay-Rheims Bible, was a Roman Catholic translation of the Holy Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English. ... This page is about the version of the Bible; for the Harvey Danger album, see King James Version (album). ... There are many attempts to translate the Bible into modern English which is defined as the form of English in use after 1800. ... The Holy Bible in Modern English, commonly known as the Ferrar Fenton Bible, was one of the earliest translations of the Bible into modern English. ... Categories: Literature stubs | Bible versions and translations | Quakerism ... Charles Thompsons Translation is a very rare direct translation of the Greek Septuagint version of the Hebrew Scriptures. ... Noah Websters 1833 limited revision of the King James Bible focused mainly on replacing archaic words. ... Youngs Literal Translation is a nineteenth-century translation of the Bible made by Robert Young, author of the Analytical Concordance to the Bible. ... The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, also called the Inspired Version of the Bible or the JST, is a version of the Bible dictated by Joseph Smith, Jr. ... This was the first complete Bible translation by a woman. ... The Revised Version (or English Revised Version) of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version of 1611. ... The Standard American Edition, Revised Version, more commonly known as the American Standard Version (ASV), is a version of the Bible that was released in 1901. ... The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible that was popular in the mid-20th century and posed the first challenge to the King James Version (KJV) as the most popular Bible in English. ... The Jerusalem Bible is a Catholic translation of the Bible which first was introduced to the English-speaking public in 1966. ... Formally titled The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts (ISBN 0060649232), the Lamsa Bible (which it is commonly called, after its editor, George M. Lamsa) first appeared in 1933. ... In 1970 the New American Bible was first published. ... Categories: Stub | Bible versions and translations ... The New American Standard Bible (NASB) is a translation of the Bible. ... The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Christian Bible. ... Categories: Christianity-related stubs ... English Standard Version The English Standard Version (ESV) is an English translation of the Holy Bible, published in the United States by Crossway Books, and in the United Kingdom by Harper-Collins UK. The first edition was completed in 2001. ... The Holman Christian Standard Bible is an English-language Bible translation, first published with the complete Old and New Testaments in March 2004. ... The Anchor Bible Series is a scholarly and commercial co-venture that has been setting a high standard during the decades during which its individual volumes have appeared. ... The NET Bible ® (acronym for New English Translation) is a free, on-line English translation of the Bible, funded by the Biblical Studies Foundation. ... Orthodox Study Bible (currently only Psalm and New Testament, Old Testament due June 2005) -a translation from Septuagint based on the New King James Bible by the Orthodox Church. ... The World English Bible (also known as WEB) is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. ... Photo of cover of the New World Translation, published in 1984. ... The Bible (From Greek βιβλιος biblios, meaning book, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos meaning papyrus, from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported papyrus) is a word applied to sacred scriptures. ... For other meanings, see Brooklyn (disambiguation). ... Jehovahs Witnesses (JW) are members of a worldwide Christian denomination. ...

History

In October 1946 the president of the Watch Tower Society, Nathan H. Knorr, proposed a fresh translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Work got under way on December 2, 1947 when the New World Bible Translation Committee was formed. On September 3, 1949, Knorr convened a joint meeting of the boards of directors of the Watch Tower Society’s New York and Pennsylvania corporations to announce that the work on a modern-language English translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures was completed and had turned over to the Society for publication. He presented it to them in typewritten form. It was assigned to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania for publication, with the request that the names of the translators not be published. Their stated intent was to honor Jehovah God, the Divine Author of his inspired Word. This fact is very frequently cited by critics of the translation in order to suggest that its scholarship is of inferior quality, as the identities of the translators and hence their credentials could never be conclusively verified. 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Nathan Homer Knorr (April 23, 1905 - June 8, 1977) was the third leading figure in the history of the Jehovahs Witnesses. ... December 2 is the 336th day (337th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... September 3 is the 246th day of the year (247th in leap years). ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ...

The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) was released at a convention of Jehovah's Witnesses in Yankee Stadium, New York, on August 2, 1950, to 82,075 present, fresh from the presses in Brooklyn, New York. The translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) originally appeared in five volumes in 1953, 1955, 1957, 1958, and 1960, a single edition being produced in 1963. The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Scriptures, is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ... Yankee Stadium is the home of the New York Yankees, a major league baseball team. ... This is an article about New York City; see also NYC, New York, and New York, New York. ... August 2 is the 214th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (215th in leap years), with 151 days remaining. ... Events January January 5 - US Senator Estes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for examination of organized crime in the USA January 6 - The United Kingdom recognizes the Peoples Republic of China. ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1955 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... 1957 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Events January-February January 11 - The Whisky A Go-Go night club in Los Angeles, the first disco in the USA, is opened. ...

The translation does not contain any of the Apocryphal books, as the translators believe that any claim for canonicity on the part of these writings is without any solid foundation. The Apocryphal writings were never included in the Jewish canon of inspired Scriptures and do not form part of it today. (See Insight on the Scriptures - Vol. 1, pages 121-2, published by the WTB&TS) In Judeo-Christian theologies, apocrypha refers to religious Sacred text that have questionable authenticity or are otherwise disputed. ... A number of corporations are in use by Jehovahs Witnesses. ...

Since the original New World Translation was published in 1950, it has undergone minor revisions on a number of occasions, most recently in 1984. It is a goal to make the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures accessible to as many people as possible. To that end, the English translation has served as a basis for translations of the NWT into several other languages and editions, including a pocket-sized edition, a standard edition with cross-references, a reference edition with footnotes and appendix material, a four-volume large-print edition for the visually impaired. It is also available in Grade Two English Braille, and on audiocassettes and CDs (in MP3 format). 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Why a New Translation Was Commissioned

From the publication of the first issue of The Watchtower magazine in 1879, until the release of the NWT in 1950, Jehovah's Witnesses in English-speaking countries generally used the King James Version or the American Standard Version. In the literature they have produced, Jehovah's Witnesses have quoted liberally from the King James Version and many other editions of the Bible over the years. Here follow some reasons for the publishing of a new translation: This article is about the magazine. ... This article is about the magazine as a published medium. ... 1879 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... This page is about the version of the Bible; for the Harvey Danger album, see King James Version (album). ... The Standard American Edition, Revised Version, more commonly known as the American Standard Version (ASV), is a version of the Bible that was released in 1901. ...

Firstly, when the new translation was commissioned in the mid-20th century, the majority of Bible versions in common use employed archaic language. The English language has undergone significant changes since 1611, when the Authorised (King James) Version was first published and many words in the KJV are no longer in common use today, or are used in a sense different from that in which the translators intended them. The intention was to produce a fresh translation, free of archaisms. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Events November 1 - At Whitehall Palace in London, William Shakespeares romantic comedy The Tempest is presented for the first time. ...

Over the centuries since the King James version was produced, more copies of earlier manuscripts of the original texts in the Hebrew and Greek languages have become available. Better manuscript evidence has made it possible to determine with greater accuracy what the original writers intended, particularly in more obscure passages. (The Hebrew Scriptures as found in New World Translation is based on Codex Leningradensis B 19A as found in Rudolf Kittel's Biblia Hebraica [7th, 8th, and 9th ed.] and the Greek Text is based on Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in the Original Greek. Considered was also texts by Bover, Merk, and Nestle. Newer editions make use of newer texts, for example Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, or BHS, by Kittell, Kahle, Alt and Eissfeldt, from 1967/1977, for the part of the Hebrew Scriptures, and Novum Testamentum Graece, by Aland, Black, and Metzger etc. from 1983, as well as newer lexicons and dictionaries, such as Zorell's Lexicon Hebraicum Veteris Testamenti from 1984 and Würtwein's Der Text des Alten Testaments from 1988.) Additionally, certain aspects of the original Hebrew and Greek languages are perhaps better understood by linguists today than they were previously. Critics of the New World Translation sometimes say that the work is biased, but one of the main reasons Witnesses cited for publishing a new translation was to get rid of what they and many other critics saw as biased expressions and doctrinal views in the KJV text, as well as the aforementioned archaisms of language. The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... The Greek language (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA – Hellenic) is an Indo-European language with a documented history of some 3,000 years. ...

Critics of the Jehovah's Witnesses and The New World Translation argue that the new translation was commissioned not so much to bring the language up to modern use but to remove the strongest evidence of the deity of Jesus Christ from the Christian Scriptures. As such they contend that it was designed specifically to support their theology and doctrine.

Characteristics of the Translation

The New World Translation is intended to be a literal rendering rather than a paraphrase. To a very great extent, one English word has been selected for each Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic word and effort has been made to adhere to this rendering, context allowing. Some maintain that this makes the translation sound wooden, stiff or verbose, whereas others feel that it favors accuracy, facilitates cross-reference work and helps preserve the flavor of the original texts. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Aramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. ...

The Tetragrammaton, the four Hebrew letters representing the divine name and usually transliterated as YHWH or JHVH, appears in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) almost 7,000 times. While many English translations of the Bible replace it with the capitalized word LORD, the New World Translation translates it as Jehovah. Most scholars believe that the ancient Hebrew pronunciation was likely "Yahweh" or "Yahveh", but the original pronunciation is unknown. Jehovah's Witnesses use the pronunciation "Jehovah" because of its familiarity, and point out that other Biblical Hebrew names are also transliterated into anglicized equivalents, e.g. Jeremiah and Isaiah instead of Yirmeyah and Yeshayahu. The Tetragrammaton in Phoenician (1100 BC to 300 CE), Aramaic (10th Century BC to 0) and modern Hebrew scripts. ... The Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures constitutes the first major part of the Christian Bible, usually divided into the categories law, history, poetry (or wisdom books) and prophecy. ... You might find the information you seek in any of the following pages: Tetragrammaton, a page about the history, religious significance and possible pronunciations (Jehovah, Yahweh) of the explicit name of God in Judaism and Christianity; The names of God in Judaism, a more general page discussing various names of...

The New World Translation also uses the name "Jehovah" 237 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament), particularly in the case of quotations from or allusions to Old Testament passages containing the Tetragrammaton. While no extant Greek manuscripts of the New Testament contain the Tetragrammaton in these passages the publishers of the New World Translation argue that the Tetragrammaton was probably written in the original manuscripts. Their reasoning is based on the only copies of Greek scripture from the first century, namely the greek language Septuagint (a translation of the orginal Hebrew bible or Old Testament). These fragments contain the Tetragrammoton, thus pointing out that the name was being used in the Old Testament at the time the New Testament was being written. Since there are no manuscripts of the same age for the New Testament, the translators have relied on the Septuagint version of the Old Testament to support their reasoning. Most biblical scholars consider this to be poor reasoning and mere speculation. Traditional textual criticism would require the use of the existing manuscript evidence to support their claim and such manuscript evidence does not exist. The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Scriptures, is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ... Textual criticism is a branch of philology that examines the extant manuscript copies of an ancient or medieval literary work to produce a text that is as close as possible to the original. ...

The New World Translation in Other Languages

As of 2004, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures has been released in 48 different languages around the globe. Of those, 35 are complete editions: Afrikaans, Arabic language, Cebuano, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, English Braille, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Iloko, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese Braille, Sesotho, Slovakian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tsonga, Tswana, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu. Afrikaans is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. ... Arabic is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Cebuano, also known as Sugbuanon, is an Philippines by about 18,000,000 people and is a subgroup or member of Bisaya, Visayan and Binisayâ. The name came from the Philippine island of Cebu, with the Spanish suffix -ano meaning native, of a place, added at the end. ... The Czech language is one of the West Slavic languages, along with Slovak, Polish, Pomeranian, and Sorbian. ... Danish is one of the Scandinavian languages, a sub-group of the Germanic group of the Indo-European language family. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A Czech braille calendar There is also an asteroid 9969 Braille Braille is a tactile writing system used by blind people. ... Finnish is spoken by the majority (92%) in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ... German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ... The Greek language (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA – Hellenic) is an Indo-European language with a documented history of some 3,000 years. ... The Hungarian language is a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Hungary and in adjacent areas of Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Austria, Slovenia (all territories lost after World War I). ... Ilocano, also Iloko and Ilokano, refers to the language and culture associated with the Ilocano people, the third largest ethnic group in the Philippines. ... Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) is the official language of Indonesia and a remarkable language in several ways. ... Italian is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people, most of whom live in Italy. ... The Japanese language is a spoken and written language used mainly in Japan. ... Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... The Korean language is the most widely used language in Korea, and is the official language of both North and South Korea. ... Norwegian is a Germanic language spoken in Norway. ... Polish (polski, język polski) is the official language of Poland. ... Portuguese (português) is a Romance language predominantly spoken in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, and East Timor. ... A Czech braille calendar There is also an asteroid 9969 Braille Braille is a tactile writing system used by blind people. ... Sesotho is a language spoken in southern Africa. ... The Slovak language (slovenčina, slovenský jazyk) is an Indo-European language, more precisely a West Slavic language (together with mainly the Czech, Polish, and Sorbian languages). ... This article is about the international language known as Spanish. ... Swahili (also called Kiswahili; see Kiswahili for a discussion of the nomenclature) is an agglutinative Bantu language widely spoken in East Africa. ... Swedish (svenska  listen?) is a Scandinavian language language spoken predominantly in Sweden, Finland and Åland by over 8 million native speakers. ... Tagálog is one of the major languages of the Republic of the Philippines. ... Contents // Categories: Bantu languages | Languages of Mozambique | Languages of South Africa | Languages of Swaziland | Languages of Zimbabwe | Language stubs ... Tswana, also known as Setswana, is a Bantu language. ... Xhosa is a language of South Africa. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Zulu, also known as isiZulu, is a language of the Zulu people with about 9 million speakers, the vast majority (over 95%) of whom live in South Africa. ...

The Christian Greek Scriptures of the Holy Scriptures is available in 13 languages including: Albanian, Cibemba, Croatian, Igbo, Lingala, Macedonian, Malagasy, Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Cyrillic script), Serbian (Latin script), Shona and Spanish Braille. Albanian or Gjuha shqipe is a language spoken by more than six million inhabitants of the western Balkan peninsula (Albania, Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia, Greece) in south_eastern Europe (Albanians) and by a small number of people in Calabria, southern Italy. ... Zambia is a republic in south central Africa. ... The Croatian language is a language of the western group of South Slavic languages which is used primarily by the Croats. ... Igbo is a language spoken in Nigeria by about 18 million speakers (the Ibo), especially in the southeastern region once identified as Biafra. ... Lingala is one of the Bantu languages spoken throughout the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) and a large part of the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), as well as to some degree in Angola and the Central African Republic. ... The Macedonian language (Македонски, Makedonski) is a language in the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. ... Malagasy is the westernmost member of the Austronesian language family, spoken on Madagascar where it is an official language. ... Romanian (limba română ) is an Eastern Romance language, spoken by about 28 million people, most of them in Romania, Moldova (where it is the official language) and nearby countries. ... Russian (русский язык  listen?) is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. ... The Serbian language or Serb language is one of the standard versions of the Central-South Slavic diasystem, formerly (and still frequently) called Serbo-Croatian. ... The Serbian language or Serb language is one of the standard versions of the Central-South Slavic diasystem, formerly (and still frequently) called Serbo-Croatian. ... Shona (or ChiShona) is a native language of Zimbabwe; the term is also used to identify those Bantu tribes in Southern Africa who speak one of the Shona languages. ... A Czech braille calendar There is also an asteroid 9969 Braille Braille is a tactile writing system used by blind people. ...

The Kingdom Interlinear Translation

The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures contains three Bible texts. The New testament in the Original Greek, by B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort, 1881, with a word-for word translation from 1969 underneath, as rendered from the Original Greek Language, by the New World Translation Committee, and English text running alongside it taken from the 1984 revision of The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. An explanation found on page 3, states: "Sincere researchers for eternal, life-giving truth desire an accurate understanding of the faith-inspiring Greek Scriptures, an understanding that is fortified by the knowledge of what the original language says and means. ... Its literal interlinear English translation is specially designed to open up to the student of the Sacred Scriptures what the original koine´ Greek basically or literally says." And in the foreword on page 8: "To do the work of translating is a privilege. In presenting this translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, our confidence has been in the help of the great Author of The Book. Our primary desire has been to seek not the approval of men but that of God, by rendering the truth of his inspired Word as purely and as consistently as our dedicated abilities make possible. There is no benefit in self-deception. More than that, those who provide a translation for the spiritual instruction of others come under a special responsibility as teachers before the Divine Judge. Hence, we are aware of the need to be careful." Events January - April January 16-24 ? Siege of Geok Tepe ? Russian troops under general Skobeleff defeat Turkomans January 25 - Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company February 5 - Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated. ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Other texts taken into consideration were the 18th edition of Novum Testamentum Graece by D. Eberhard Nestle, elaborated by B. Erwin Nestle, published in 1948 by the Württemberg bible Society, Stuttgart, Germany; Novi Testamenti Biblia Graeca et Latina by José M. Bover, S.J., dated 1943 and published at Barcelona, Spain; the 1948 printing of the 6th edition of Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine by Agustinus Merk, S.J., Rome, Italy; as well as the Nestle-Aland text of 1979. 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... For other uses, see Barcelona (disambiguation). ... 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1979 is a common year starting on Monday. ...

Dr. Julius Mantey, one of the most respected Greek scholars in the world has been very critical of The Kingdom Interlinear Translation and has been quoted as saying of it, "I have never read any New Testament so badly translated as The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of The Greek Scriptures...."

Reactions to the Translation

Although the translation is aimed chiefly at the Jehovah's Witness community, millions of persons of a variety of religious backgrounds have acquired and read it. Over the last fifty years, approximately 122,000,000 copies have been printed.

Most Bible scholars are very critical of the New World Translation. Many charge that it is a rewriting of the Bible to conform to Jehovah's Witnesses' doctrines and theology.

Dr. Robert Countess, a respected New Testament scholar, with a Ph.D. in religion majoring in New Testament text, voices the concerns of most biblical scholars about the New World Translation:

"[the New World 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. And interwoven throughout its fabric is inconsistent application of its own principles."

Dr. Bruce M. Metzger, professor of New Testament language at Princeton University and one of the most respected biblical scholars in the world, says the New World Translation is "a frightful mistranslation... erroneous... pernicious... reprehensible." Princeton University, located in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the eight Ivy League universities, and is widely recognized as one of the most prestigious institutions in the world. ...

Other reviewers have expressed appreciation for the translation. Dr Jason BeDuhn, Associate Professor and chair, Department of Humanities, Arts, and Religion, Northern Arizona University commented: Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a university in Flagstaff, Arizona in the United States. ...

"[The] 'New World Translation' is a high quality, literal translation that avoids traditional glosses in its faithfulness to the Greek. It is, in many ways, superior to the most successful translations in use today."

Benjamin Kedar, Professor of History and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, stated of the Old Testament portion of the New World Translation:

"This kind of work reflects an honest endeavor to achieve an understanding of the text that is as accurate as possible. Giving evidence of a broad command of the original language, it renders the original words into a second language understandably without deviating unnecessarily from the specific structure of the Hebrew....Every statement of language allows for a certain latitude in interpreting or translating. So the linguistic solution in any given case may be open to debate. But I have never discovered in the New World Translation any biased intent to read something into the text that it does not contain."

Some Issues Involving the New World Translation

By far the majority of criticisms of NWT renderings focus on the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament). The following are among the renderings most frequently cited by critics.

Further Reading

Critical

• Countess, Robert H.: Jehovah's Witnesses' New Testament: A Critical Analysis, [ISBN 0875522106]

Neutral

• BeDuhn, Jason: Truth in Translation - Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, [ISBN 0761825568]

Supportive

• Stafford, Greg: Jehovah's Witnesses Defended. [ISBN 0965981479]
• Furuli, Rolf: The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation: With a special look at the New World Translation of Jehovah's Witnesses, 1999. [ISBN 0965981495]
• Byatt, Anthony and Flemings, Hal (editors): ‘Your Word is Truth’, Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1950, 1953), 2004. [ISBN 0950621269]

External links

• New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (http://www.watchtower.org/bible/index.htm) - online edition available from "Jehovah's Witnesses: Watchtower Society Official Web Site"
• Comparisons of verses in many english translations (http://www.innvista.com/culture/religion/bible/versions/nwt.htm)
• Article critical of the New World Translation (http://www.xmark.com/focus/Pages/jehovahs.html)