NOTE: The following is not meant to be construed as a recommendation but to demonstrate the sharp contrast between any authentic Bible translation and the New World Translation. For those of us who participate and or read the threads on this board, I understand and appreciate that all here have different views on religion, the existence of God, and of the Catholic Church. I believe each individual’s convictions should be treated with the utmost respect and dignity.
An Enlightening Example From a NABRE
This Wednesday will mark the preparation for the Roman Catholic Church’s holiest time of the year, the season of Lent. A 40-day preparation for the season of Easter, it is a time of personal reflection, penance, and spiritual growth for these people. Being that out of the approximate 1.5 billion people on the planet who claim to be Christian, one billion of these are Roman Catholic, the behavior of a large number of people on earth changes dramatically every year on this date.
This year on Ash Wednesday the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) will release the revised edition of the New American Bible. This is no little event. You may have already read or seen articles through various media outlets about it. Some people have mentioned that they don’t remember a time when a certain Bible translation’s revision or updating caught so much media attention in the United States and others are asking “why”?
If you have had or have any connection or opinion regarding the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, the Jehovah’s Witnesses Bible, you might find an interesting contrast of events in the answer.
Translating Behind Drawn Shades
Regardless of what one may think of either the Catholic Church, its teachings, or the New American Bible translation, the fact that the work has been done with such transparency (and maybe a little more than the USCCB would have wanted due to a problematic royalties agreement with the actual translators and scholars of the actual work), it is a striking difference when compared with what happens with the New World Translation—the Bible version that Jehovah’s Witnesses claim is the most accurate translation of the Scriptures available.
A recent edition of the NWT (2006 paperback) has some scratching their heads since the once-proudly touted brackets—[ ]—around some translated expressions has disappeared. Is this a revision? If so, when did it happen and how? How was any of the work really done to begin with?
While most feel that enough evidence now exists to show that it was mostly the work of one-time Watchtower president Fredrick Franz, a man who could make no claim to knowing the original languages well of enough to guarantee his own scholastic standards, regardless of who did what and exactly how, the truth of the matter is that we are still in the dark regarding the origins of the New World Translation and how it came to be without any real Biblical scholars at the helm.
Hiding behind the claim that they were letting the work speak for itself (which with the current available plethora of Biblical language study sites now accessible to the public via the Internet shows was not a very flattering move), these non-scholars thought their identities and the process they adopted would be accepted by following the humility demonstrated by the translators of the American Standard Version. To their surprise (and often insulted by the response), beyond the group of active Jehovah’s Witnesses such acceptance never came.
(In reality, it is the names of those who created the Americanized version of the Revised Version that were kept from the public to avoid any claim that these scholars were seeking personal fame from their work. The actual text was the work of well-known British scholars, and it was at the invitation of this team that Philip Schaff, well-respected Protestant theologian and Christian historian, hand-picked the 30 scholars who produced the American-English version. As stated in a current Wikipedia article on the process of Americanizing the language: “Any suggestion the American team had would be accepted by the British team only if two-thirds of the British team agreed. This principle was backed up by an agreement that if their suggestions were put into the appendix of the RV, the American team would not publish their version for 14 years. The appendix had about 300 suggestions in it.”—Wikipedia: American Standard Version.)
Unlike the American Standard Version, and other scholarly translations of the text, the shades on the New World Translation were drawn so tightly by the leaders of the Jehovah’s Witness movement that over 50 years later it is still hard to piece together whose hand was in the NWT’s pie. And even when details can be verified as best as humanly possible, these are still sketchy. And what is worse, what has so far been uncovered as well as what is demonstrated in the writings of the so-called translators of the NWT itself, even if there was literal translation done, there is no mention of an editors’ board for verification of the work. The Watchtower Society has always been silent about any process of independent authentication and verification as part of the work they so proudly make claim to.
One would think that if the New World Translation were so accurate that the Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves would use the current access to media and Biblical scholarship to demonstrate to the public why such an important work is needed. Truly, if it is the best translation of the Word of God out there, and, as they themselves point out, ‘people rely on a translation of God’s Word for their personal salvation,’ you would expect each new edition and anything regarding the only truly dependable Bible version to be big news.
But there is only darkness and shadows given as an explanation instead. For example, who is at the translators’ helm now? Who is checking to see whether or not the text meets the needs of current American English? Even its 1984 revision did little to change its English of the 1950s. In 2010 one needs only to compare the NWT on the Watchtower website with the latest in Bible translation to see that Witnesses can no longer claim “modern English” as one of its facets.
For Comparison: A Transparent Process
The Catholic Church in the United States uses one official text for Mass and other liturgical (public) worship and educational activities, and has done so since its first release, namely the New American Bible (or NAB for short). Of course a Catholic may use and read any Bible they wish as long as it is a Church-approved translation (such as the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, the New Revised Standard Version, the Jerusalem or New Jerusalem Bible, there’s even a Church- approved New International Version {NIV} Psalms). But when they come together or when it comes to official uses in the United States, it has pretty much been the NAB since the vernacular replaced Latin after Vatican II.
Not without its critics, and not without its own Vatican-disapproved revision attempts to the Psalter (the 1991 revision used inclusive-language to the point of confusing even those who approve of inclusive-language use), the road to revision has been a long, choppy, and difficult one.
But it has also been transparent. Whether the voices are pro, against, or somewhere in the middle, whether stated in person, by phone, letter, or on blogs for the public to read, the USCCB and the NAB translators have worked hard to take everyone’s concerns into consideration—and to do more than merely listen to them.
Being the Bible that a large part of the English-speaking world will use, the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE—which people are pronouncing as “neighbor” ) looks more than promising based on early reviews and feedback from readers, both in academia and the public. Surely it won’t be welcomed by some who prefer previously-used terms over modern ones, even if these are no longer understood and don’t represent the text as accurately, but the majority of today’s Catholics seem eager to welcome it so far.
But why on the news in America? Well, like the New World Translation can only make claim to, the NABRE is truly a version that people depend on for their salvation—millions of people, more than there are Witnesses and more that read and use its NWT Bible. Being the official translation of the Bible for Catholics in America (and, most interestingly, the only official American translation of any one denomination) it’s a pretty big deal.
And the 50 recent scholars and editors—as well as the other 50 who came before and whose work actually makes the number 100 by the count that some make—we know their names, their academic background, and their religious affiliation.
Religious affiliation?
You read that correctly. The Vatican doesn’t allow current translations of the Bible to be made without Protestants at least on the editorial board. There has been such inclusion, even that from a couple of Jewish scholars, for the NABRE. Why? While the footnotes may at times be specifically Catholic in tone, the actual text has to be something that any Christian, and hopefully anyone who believes in the Bible, can read and fully trust as not being biased. While the results might still be questionable to some and up for debate among others, at least the attempt is a far-cry from the hush darkness of those who stir over the New World Translation. Who checks and verifies the validity of the Jehovah’s Witness Bible? Who else besides them can hope to use it?
In Conclusion
Of course, there is no claim that the NABRE is perfect or won’t require revision in the future. We might not rush out ourselves to by a copy because of our current convictions or religious affiliation. But for those at the head of the Watchtower who might be listening, this is how responsible translation of the Bible should at least be attempted. If not perfectly reaching the ideal, at least it’s a start.
In a world where anyone can now look at and learn to read for themselves the most ancient extant manuscripts of the Bible available, in a world where the average person may have an opinion on how a verse should read—whether it’s because they believe it’s God’s Word or just on the sole basis as an important work that needs to be handled accurately, in a world where those in positions of responsibility are held accountable, the work of translating the Bible for us is no longer something that can be done behind closed doors.
We may not be Bible scholars and we may not be able to read the original text with the accuracy of someone who is, be we deserve nothing less than the best modern scholarship has to offer. If we choose not to find it in the pages of the NABRE, it’s not because this isn’t a scholarly and trustworthy work. On the contrary, it will be more of a personal choice among other versions just as accurate and dependable, like finding that brand of jeans that feels like a better fit for us individually.
This is not the case with the New World Translation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. People aren’t taking issue with it because those who do so are evil or complainers or because they have nothing but hate for the Bible or Jehovah’s Witnesses. It’s the darkness that hovers over it and the questionable results.
While the Watchtower may have worked in the dark to produce this version, they can no longer afford to stay in the dark over why people of today reject its NWT Bible. We can see all the other jeans on the rack and try on any pair. But the Watchtower brand, while having the look of jeans, has no labels, doesn’t wear right, demands the body to fit it instead of attempting to fit the body, and by comparison just doesn’t match up.
And that’s the difference between doing something in the light and having produced something from the shadows of the dark.