by VM44 26 Replies latest jw friends
The Kingdom Interlinear Translation (KIT) has been published by the
Watchtower since 1969. It still is available in it's second editon.
But how many really use this book? or read it?
Probably very few, since most people do not know anything at
all about Biblical greek.
This being so, why does the Watchtower publish the KIT at all?
--VM44
I used to have a copy of the KIT. As I remember, the back of the book is filled with a good number of rather shaky justifications for the oddball NT translations seen only in the NWT. (Stake vs. cross, no immortal soul, no eternal punishment, no bodily resurrection of Christ, the tetragrammon in the NT, an impersonal Holy Spirit, and, of course, Jesus as a second and lesser God.)
The WTBTS used the Westcott and Hort text from the late 19th century and I doubt if the text has had any revisions or corrections since then. I suspect that it was employed because the WTBTS could get it for free.
I suspect that it (Westcott and Hort text) was employed because the WTBTS could get it for free.
Since those controlling the WTBTS have always maintained they never “pass the collection plate”…I guess the old saying, “…you get what you pay for” holds true for the WTBTS audience of Jehovah's Witnesses on both counts!
Flip
I think partly the KIT was made to be an instant best seller. Take a free Greek text add the NT from the NWT to it and you have an interlinear Bible. Make a nice talk at a series of conventions and sell 2 million copies in a few months.
The people who bought them put on the shelf with the other rainbow colored books and let it gather dust forever. I admit I rarely consulted the KIT unless I was preparing a talk. I read a great deal more of it (one of the few WTS books I have retained) when I started researching the WTS teachings in depth. The KIT is actually pretty damning. Afterall the divine name doesn't appear once in the Greek text and the WTS has to use some lame excuses for inserting it.
Thirdson
'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing'
WT 2/1/98 "It Is the Best Interlinear New Testament Available"
THAT is how Dr. Jason BeDuhn describes The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. He explains:
"I have just completed teaching a course for the Religious Studies Department of Indiana University, Bloomington, [U.S.A.] . . . This is primarily a course in the Gospels. Your help came in the form of copies of The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures which my students used as one of the textbooks for the class. These small volumes were invaluable to the course and very popular with my students."
Why does Dr. BeDuhn use the Kingdom Interlinear translation in his college courses? He answers: "Simply put, it is the best interlinear New Testament available. I am a trained scholar of the Bible, familiar with the texts and tools in use in modern biblical studies, and, by the way, not a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses. But I know a quality publication when I see one, and your 'New World Bible Translation Committee' has done its job well. Your interlinear English rendering is accurate and consistent to an extreme that forces the reader to come to terms with the linguistic, cultural, and conceptual gaps between the Greek-speaking world and our own. Your '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."
The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures is published by Jehovah's Witnesses to help lovers of God's Word get acquainted with the original Greek text of the Bible. It contains The New Testament in the Original Greek on the left-hand side of the page (compiled by B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort). A literal word-for-word English translation is found under the lines of Greek text. In the narrow right-hand column is the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, which allows you to compare the interlinear translation with a modern English translation of the Bible
I'm not EVEN gonna go there.
WT 99 CD ROM
THE KINGDOM INTERLINEAR TRANSLATION OF THE GREEK SCRIPTURES: With this word-for-word translation under the Greek Bible text compiled by Westcott and Hort you can get the literal sense of the words used in the original language. A modern-English rendering is provided in the right-hand column. With footnotes, appendix, maps, hard cover, and gilt-embossed title. 17 × 12 × 2.4 cm (6 3/4 × 4 7/8 × 15/16 in.).
As for changes:
This decidedly odd rendering has caused much "tense confusion" to the Watchtower. The footnote in the 1969 purple-cover edition of the KIT states that the "I have been" is "properly rendered in the perfect tense." However, in the l985 Navy-Blue-cover edition, the footnote states that "I have been" is "properly translated by the perfect indicative" (tense).
Wouldn't true scholars KNOW the correct tense? Here the Watchtower has presented two different tenses for the same words. Which is wrong? Which is right? Actually they made three stabs at choosing a tense. In the 1950 NWT of the Christian Greek Scriptures the Watchtower "translators" claimed John 8:58 was in the "perfect indefinite tense". All three tries are WRONG, according to Greek Scholars. The correct tense is the present tense, and the correct translation is "I am", not "I have been". http://www.macgregorministries.org/jehovahs_witnesses/kit.html
Gret website, by the way.
here's more:
http://www.webzonecom.com/ccn/cults/jw-008.txt
I only have the one edition, 1969. Didn't think the others were different either, but THAT I should've known better, this IS the WT <sigh>
my big gripe about the KIT is the translation of 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and , 1 Corinthians 14:34b-35 , where the word haivakos pronounced 'gun e' is here translated as 'woman' when it is translated almost a hundred times elsewhere as 'wife'; (big difference in meaning) having authority over as opposed to 'usurping authority over' (another big difference in meaning) and then the word silence which is translated elsewhere as quietness, and so on and so on
the WT changed so much else, you think they could change these verses. H--L NO!
Life is a roller coaster. Get in, sit down, shut up and hang on!
I own one copy of the 1969 version and two copies of the 1985. I never used them while I was an active JW. I have used them as an exjw on rare occasions when dealing with active JWs.
They are collector items as far as I am concerned.
good point, scorpion! In 25 years in and around the org, not only did I never use the KIT, I never even HAD one. not untill I became an ex-jw. LOL
Life is a roller coaster. Get in, sit down, shut up and hang on!
Somehow, as a kid, I got the impression that people who got KIT's and studied them thoroughly were dangerous doubters already on their way out of the organization. Maybe this is because I have vague recollections of my dad reading through it heavily in his last few months (he was only in less than a year) before he was forcibly DA'd. Anyhow, he took the family copy when my parents got divorced, and it was another decade before I got one for myself.
I'm not real sure why I wanted one; I think it was mainly because I was collecting foreign language material and thought I should have something in ancient Greek too. I suppose there was also the lure of finding out about whatever it was in there that drove people out of the truth, 'cause I was doubting. I didn't find anything myself, though; I didn't know where to look and barely glanced at it after I got it.
But lo and behold here I am. Maybe just owning an interlinear translation is the ticket out.
-T.
Hello VM44,
a good topic indeed.
Btw i do also have the KIT, (2 different versions)
and I have used sometimes for the greek words.
I do find very interesting Thirdson answer and the
research from Gsark. Thanks for the information.
Greetings, J.C.MacHislopp
Hello VM44
The answer to your question is found under the heading 'BY WAY OF EXPLANATION', paragraph 2 in KIT, 1985 edition: "Sincere searchers 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. The purpose behind the publishing of the KIT is to aid such seekers of truth and life. 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".
The KIT fulfills this noble objective brilliantly. I can only add my testimony which is in full agreement with Jason de Buhn. If any person wishes to engage in deep theological study of the NT then this is a superb instrument to engage in such pure research. I give the KIT 10 out 10 for its lexicography, morphology, syntax and textual criticism. Proof of this observation can be realized if one uses advanced commentaries of the New Testament as well as the scholarly journals. I urge to use it and you will be wiser for it.
scholar
