The Bible of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Jehovah’s Witnesses produced an English translation of the Bible in 1961. It is called as The New World Translation (NWT). The New Testament of this translation was published in 1950, and revised in 1951. Between 1950 and 1951 about 0.5 million copies of this New Testaments were printed. The complete one volume edition of The New World Translation was released in 1961 by N.H. Knorr. The Watch Tower reported that this translation was made by ‘competent scholars’ and their names were not released to ‘maintain humility’. But William Cetnar, who worked in the Watch Tower headquarters said that N.H. Knorr, F.W. Franz, Schroeder, G.D. Gangas and M. Henschel were the translation committee members, who did not have recognised degrees in Greek or Hebrew or experience in translations. Watch Tower Society’s fourth president F.W. Franz, who was also in the translation committee, admitted under oath that he could not translate Bible verses from the Hebrew to English. It is said that the purpose of NWT was to support their views. Here are a few mistakes in New World Translation.

1. Contrary to the Rules of Greek Grammar: In all translations, John 1:1 is translated as ‘The Word was God’. But in NWT, has been translated as ‘The word was a god’, to deny the deity of Jesus Christ. In Greek, there is no indefinite article corresponding to a and an. So it is contrary to Greek grammar for NWT to add the indefinite article a in John 1:1.

This indefinite article can be added here only if the Bible teaches about many other gods. But the Bible teaches about only one God, and so ‘The Word was God’ should not be translated as ‘The word was a god’, which is contrary to the rules of Greek grammar. 

1. Addition of New Words: In all translations Col 1:16 is translated as ‘For by Him all things were created…’ But the NWT translates Col 1:16 as ‘For by Him all (other) things were created’. In the original text of Col 1:16, the word ‘other’ is not there. This word is inserted in brackets in NWT, deliberately to teach that Christ is a creature and also a created being.
2. Substituting one Word with the Other: In the NWT New Testament, the word ‘Jehovah’ has been substituted in 241 places for the words ‘God’ and ‘Lord’ by saying that they have restored the divine name of Jehovah in the New Testament. The word Yahweh, which is translated as ‘Jehovah’ does not appear in any one of the New Testament manuscripts at all. So there is no basis for this addition, except to support their View that Jehovah alone is God.
3. Inconsistent Translation: In the NWT, Matt 27:50 has been translated as “Again Jesus cried with a loud voice, and yielded up his breath”. Another parallel passage Lk 23:46 has been translated as, “And Jesus called with a loud voice and said, ‘Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit’. The Greek word used in these two verses for ‘spirit’ is Pneuma, which is translated in NWT as breath in Matt 27:50 and as spirit Lk 23:46.

In all other translations the word Pneuma is translated as spirit in both these references. In Greek language the context and the grammar determlines the meaning of the word. Luke being a scholar in Greek, uses the context in such away thatPneuma can be translated only as spirit and not as breath.

So they have translated Pneuma as breath in Matt 27:50 to support their doctrine that Jesus stopped breathing at death and did not give away His invisible nature when He died. In Luke 23:46, they could not introduce their idea and so translated it correctly.

1. Deliberate Perversion: St Paul wrote in Phil 1:23 about his desire to be with the Lord as “… having a desire to depart and be with Christ…” This verse is translated in NWT as ‘… what I do desire is the releasing and the being with Christ…’ In this verse the word ‘depart’ has been replaced with the word ‘releasing’ to suit to the doctrine of the sleeping soul after death. The same word releasing is also inserted in 2 Tim 4:6 for the word depart. This is done against the principles of Greek exegesis to support their doctrine.
2. The Translation of the Word ‘Parousia’: The Bible uses the Greek word Parousia for, the ‘second coming’ or ‘arrival’ of Jesus Christ. This word occurs in 24 places and talks about the second coming of Jesus Christ. In all these places the Jehovah’s Witnesses have translated this word to mean ‘Presence’, instead of Christ’s coming. The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus Christ had come to this world in 1914, when the ‘times of Gentiles’ had ended, and the ‘Second presence’ of the Lord has begun. So they believe that Jesus Christ is here invisibly in the earth. To support this teaching Parousia has been translated as ‘Presence’ violating the contextual meaning of the passage in some places.

So it is no wonder that Dr Anthony A Hoekema in his book ‘The Four Major Cults .p.239’ wrote about the New World Translation as, “a biased translation in which many of the peculiar teachings of the Watch Tower society are smuggled into the text of the Bible itself”. Thus they do not consider the teachings of the Bible. But they impose their beliefs into the Scripture and force it to comply with their beliefs. Hence let us be careful when they use NWT Bible to explain their beliefs.

Peculiar views of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Saluting the national flag: Jehovah’s witnesses believe that saluting the national flag is idolatry and must be avoided as per I John 5:21. So they do not salute the national flag of any nation. They teach that it is forbidden in the second of the Ten Commandments given Ex 20:1-17.

Blood transfusion: The Bible says in Lev 7:27, “It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat not blood”. This verse also refers only eating the blood, and not the blood transfusion. Taking this verse and Gen 9:3, 4 and Lev 3:17 literally and out of context, the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that the blood transfusion is forbidden in the Bible.