New World Translation

by MsD 69 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Rattigan350

  Wow. This thread is so full of it.

  1st, it is not a "version of the Bible". It is a translation from the Hebrew and Greek texts.

  Who translated the KJV or other 'version' of the Bible? People don't know and people don't care.

  2nd, for rhine's reference to 'the Word was a god'. no one knows what John meant but John.

  Why criticize that verse because it is different and suits critics? Greber was irrelevant to the translation.

  #3 poster. IF Fred Franz had limited knowledge how is it that the translation exists?

  Demon forces? Get real.
• 

  caliber

  Who translated the KJV or other 'version' of the Bible?

  King James Bible AV1611
  A list of the names of fifty-four men was forwarded to the king, who approved the proposed list of translators submitted by the Dean of Westminster and the Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

  The next three years were set aside by the select group of translators for time in private research, prayer, fasting and preparation for the task that lay ahead. The King James translation team was comprised of fifty-four godly men, and arguably the most scholarly men ever assembled for any similar endeavor

  The company met together in 1607 to commence work on the translation and divided themselves into six committees: two met at Oxford, two at Cambridge, and two at Westminster Abbey. The whole of the Bible was distributed in six portions among the various committees: John Reynolds and Miles Smith chaired the committee responsible for the Books of Isaiah through Malachi; Bishop George Abbott oversaw the committee working on the Gospels, Acts and the Book of Revelation; Edward Lively headed the committee which translated I Chronicles through the Song of Solomon;
  John Bois’ company worked on the translation of the Apocryphal books; Genesis through II Kings were assigned to Lancelot Andrewes and his group; and the New Testament Epistles were translated by a committee led by Dr. William Bedwell.

  Of the fifty-four translators, four were college presidents,six were bishops, five were deans, thirty held PhD’s, thirty-nine held Masters degrees, there were forty-one university professors, thirteen were masters of the Hebrew language, and ten had mastered Greek .

  the translators of the King James Bible believed that what they had spent nearly seven years of their lives producing was an “exact translation of the holy Scriptures into the English tongue.”

  http://www.biblebc.com/christian_helps/bibleversions/translators_of_the_king_james_bi.htm
• 

  man oh man

  Rattigan350

  #3 poster. IF Fred Franz had limited knowledge how is it that the translation exists?

  It is called copy and paste and slightly reword to say what you like!
• 

  GLTirebiter

  People don't know and people don't care.

  Many people do know, and those who value the scriptures do care. The skills, qualifications and reputations of the translators are a valuable gauge of the fidelity of the translation. Quote from Tower Watch Ministries, who cite Ray Franz, who as a member of the Governing Body had first-hand knowledge of the translation committee and its members:

  The translators of The New World Translation were: Nathan Knorr, Albert Schroeder, George Gangas, Fred Franz, M. Henschel

  "Fred Franz was the only one with any knowledge of the Bible languages to attempt translation of this kind. He had studied Greek for two years in the University of Cincinnati but was only self-taught in Hebrew." ["Crisis of Conscience"; by Raymond Franz; Commentary Press, Atlanta; 1983 edition; footnote 15; page 50.]
• 

  caliber

  Crisis of Conscience by former governing body member Raymond Franz on page 56, footnote 16 states: "The New World Translation bears no translator's name and is presented as the anonymous work of the 'New World Translation Committee.' Other members of the committee were Nathan Knorr, Albert Schroeder and George Gangas. Fred Franz, however, was the only one with sufficient knowledge of the Bible languages to attempt translation of this kind

  IF Fred Franz had limited knowledge how is it that the translation exists?

  Mostly what they did was the busy-work, like cross-referencing and footnoting.
  
  "Another person I know quite well worked as a researcher on the Proclaimers book, and had full access to Fred Franz's files. Those files contained letters from Franz to various scholars about translation issues that were clearly related to his work on the NWT. Raymond Franz was a Governing Body member and certainly was in a position to know who the translators were." ~~ AllanF

  Mostly what they did was the busy-work, like cross-referencing and footnoting

  there are a few JW scholars (e.g. Furuli), but the WT doesn't seem to trust them so much and in any case they had no part in the NWT.

  ~~~Narkissos

  all quotes from ...

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/79647/3/NWT-Scholars
• 

  Rattigan350

  "A list of the names of fifty-four men "

  I said who translated it. That means more than their names. Who were these people?

  Masters of the language? But they got so much wrong to where there were many translations since.

  Why do people refer to what the translator knew but yet can't criticize the translation itself.

  If you want to critiicize JWs, attacking the NWT is not the way to do it because that is not the problem with the religion.
• 

  caliber

  I said who translated it. That means more than their names. Who were these people?

  Masters of the language?

  How can I state it any more clearly ?

  thirteen were masters of the Hebrew language, and ten had mastered Greek.

  I said who translated it

  a commitee.. Jw's know all about commitee's these are a body of three Elders that disfellowship poeple,

  when they do disfellowship I don't believe they read their names from the platform .....right ?

  Does this mean if you personally don't know each Elders name you will not honor their commitee decision ?

  Edward Lively headed the committee which translated I Chronicles through the Song of Solomon;
  
  George Abbott oversaw the committee working on the Gospels, Acts and the Book of Revelation;
  
  John Reynolds and Miles Smith chaired the committee responsible for the Books of Isaiah through Malachi

  Who were these people?

  
  Edward Lively (1545 – May 1605) was an English linguist and biblical scholar. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow,[1] He was Regius Professor of Hebrew from 1575 to 1605. His published works include Latin expositions of some of the minor prophets, as well as a work on the chronology of Persian monarchs.

  John Bois (sometimes spelled Boys) (January 3, 1560 – January 14, 1643) was an English scholar, remembered mainly as one of the members of the translating committee for the Authorized Version of the Bible. He should not be confused with John Boys, Dean of Canterbury from 1619 to 1625.

  William Bedwell (1561 – May 5, 1632 near London) was an English priest and scholar, specializing in Arabic and other "oriental" languages as well as in mathematics.

  Bedwell was educated at St John's College, Cambridge.[1] He served the Anglican Church as Rector of St Ethelburga's Bishopsgate and Vicar of All Hallows, Tottenham (known at the time as Tottenham High Cross[2]) from 1607. He was the author of the first local history of the area, A Briefe Description of the Towne of Tottenham

  Lancelot Andrewes (1555 – 25 September 1626) was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester and oversaw the translation of the Authorized Version (or King James Version) of the Bible. In the Church of England he is commemorated on 25 September with a Lesser Festival
• 

  soontobe

  If it's such a great translation, why don't they put the names in the translation? Other bibles have it, and you can check the qualifications of the people who did it.
• 

  caliber

  Lancelot Andrews had mastered 15 languages. Miles Smith was expert in Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Latin, Greek, and Arabic. These were as familiar to him as his own mother tongue. Henry Saville was a weighty Greek scholar. He was the first to edit the complete works of Chrysostom. Translators Revived says, “Sir Henry Savile was one of the most profound, exact, and critical scholars of his age.” John Bois could read the whole Bible in Hebrew at age five. William Bedwell was the best Arabic scholar of his time. Edward Livlie , Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, was one of the eminent scholars of Hebrew of that day. Of John Rainolds it was said, “The memory and reading of that man were near to a miracle; and all Europe at the time could not have produced three men superior to Rainolds, Jewell, and Ussher.” Richard Brett was eminent as a linguist in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, Arabic, and Ethiopic.

  1. Each part of the Bible was translated and examined at least 14 times, by the following process.
  
  * The translators were divided into six companies, and each group was assigned a portion of Scripture to translate.
  
  * The portion was first translated individually by each member of the company. “Every particular man of each company to take the same chapter or chapters; and having translated or amended them severally by himself, where he thinks good…” (rule # 8).
  
  * That translated portion was then considered by the company as a whole. “...all to meet together, to confer what they have done, and agree for their part what shall stand” (rule # 8).

  Besides the said Directors before mentioned, three or four of the most Ancient and Grave Divines, in either of the Universities, not employed in Translating, to be assigned by the vice-Chancellor, upon Conference with the rest of the Heads, to be Overseers of the Translations as well Hebrew as Greek, for the better observation of the 4th Rule above specified.
  
  “The company of translators would meet together and as the newly translated book was read verse by verse, each one compared it to a Bible in some language in his hand. If any thing struck any of them as requiring alteration, he spoke, otherwise they read on” (prologue to The English Hexapla , 1841).
• 

  MsD

  Thank you Caliber. Excellent information!

  I'm not sure what rattigan350 was trying to get at.

  Those who were responsible for the KJV translation weren't trying to conceal their identity but whoever was responsible for the NWT obviously was.

  hmmm I wonder why