100% pure unadulterated speculation - what changes would a "New New World Tranlsation" contain?

by sir82 28 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  sir82

  On this thread:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/257481/1/I-cant-find-any-bibles-seems-to-be-a-shortage

  Some (well, me, mostly) are speculating that the WTS is planning to distribute a "New New World Translation" some time soon.

  If that is true, what changes do you think they would include?

  Here are some of my thoughts:

  1) They're just dying to get the term "governing body" into the Bible. The best places would be Hebrews 13:17 ("be obedient to those taking the lead among you..."). The footnote to that verse in the NWT reads something like "literally, the governors of you". At a recent elders' school, that point was made to "enforce" the idea that a "governing body" is a Biblical idea. It would be just a short hop to render that verse "Be obedient to the governing body..."

  Another good place would be Acts 15 - replace "apostles and older men" with "governing body".

  2) In the latest elders' manual, they no longer refer to "loose conduct" but instead call it "brazen conduct". They'd probably do the same to all the NWT Biblical references to "loose conduct".

  3) "Fornication" is an increasingly outdated term. Maybe they'll replace it with something like "immoral sexual conduct" or some such.

  4) Maybe they'd like to shore up their "abstain from blood" policy, so they'd change Acts 15:29 to something like "do not put blood into your body"

  What else can you think of?

  This is all 100% speculation of course. No one knows if they are even going to release a NNWT, let alone make such bold changes.

  But to those who would object to my ideas, saying "they'd open themselves up for criticism", well guess what? They are already criticized daily, hundreds or thousands of times, on this site and similar ones.

  They don't care if they are criticized by "mentally diseased" outsiders. I think they would view the potential benefits (to themselves) of such changes as far outweighing any criticisms.

  At this point, what difference does it make to them if they are criticized 3000 times a day or 30,000?

  Loyal JWs would lap this up like a starving kitten in front of a bowl of milk. Their audience is the 4 or 5 million JWs who are intensely loyal - even in a worst case scenario, if they were to lose a few hundred thousand over something as outrageous as this, well, "those were just the spiritually weak slackers anyway - good riddance".
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  St George of England

  The contents wouldn't worry most JW's, as long as it had 1914 ~ 2014 Centenary Edition embossed on the front.

  I remember they did a special edition of the Greek scriptures in 1958 for the Divine Will International Assembly. I still have my dad's copy somewhere, they fetch money on Ebay.

  George
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  toweragent

  It seems to me like they have been quoting from other bible translations more and more to make their point. Either the words, or the way the verse is structured, makes more sense than the klunky wording of the NWT. And, of course, the reason they do that is because the "other" bible translation makes their point BETTER than their own NWT. It's my personal opinion that they will update some of the verses that they have previously refered to in other translations.

  But, if their is a NNWT, I would bet money on the term "governing body" being mentioned. I can see them messing with the story of Paul and the elders in Antioch, to make it seem as if he were being obeint to the "first century governing body."
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  Londo111

  As speculated in the other thread, I could see them making a less literal,
  “thought for thought”, “easy to read” version, in the guise of encouraging Bible reading. Sort of like the NIV or even the Living Bible. They would not need to know any other language but English to make this version…they could use the present NWT as their source document, like they do for non-English versions of the NWT. All the pesky verses that cause questions in the rank and file could be paraphrased away.

  The purple Interlinear is hard to come by. A new easy to read Bible would not have an Interlinear, and therefore, nobody could “check under the hood” as it were.

  The publications since 2000 are very lite, and I could see a new version of the Bible following the same depth. Nowadays, the rank and file can’t explain their own doctrines, they don’t do any deep research. The best they can do is look on the CD-ROM and copy and paste, or print, an article, and hand it to a person who has a question. Therefore, it would not really matter to them that it was not "literal". They would view it as "food at the proper time".
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  slimboyfat

  They could reintroduce the word "elders" into the Bible instead of their clumsy replacement "older men" which is a relic of the 1930s when the Watchtower railed against the concept of congregational elders.
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  punkofnice

  They're just dying to get the term "governing body" into the Bible.

  That's what I was thinking.

  New Light(TM) - Romans 13:1 ''Obey the Governing Body.''

  There must be some other scripture they can twist to protect paedophiles too. (Thus protecting the paedo/s I suspect are on the GB).
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  sir82

  Shameless bump for the afternoon crowd....
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  Amelia Ashton

  I think "paradise earth" might make an appearance too.
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  NeonMadman

  As speculated in the other thread, I could see them making a less literal,
  “thought for thought”, “easy to read” version, in the guise of encouraging Bible reading. Sort of like the NIV or even the Living Bible. They would not need to know any other language but English to make this version…they could use the present NWT as their source document, like they do for non-English versions of the NWT. All the pesky verses that cause questions in the rank and file could be paraphrased away.

  The same thought had occurred to me, though I can also see where that might come back and bite them on the butt. They have advertised the NWT as being easier to read than the King James because it uses modern language. But that's really not the case. It doesn't use all the "thees" and "thous," it's true, but the language is very stilted and many of the terms used are at least somewhat archaic. And the wording in many verses sounds downright weird, very Fred Franz-like. To actually read the NWT is quite difficult, probably even harder than the KJV. As a result, JWs use the Bible for proof-texting, not reading of long sections or whole books. If they came out with an easy-to-read Bible version, the JWs might actually start reading the Bible rather than the Watchtower publications, and then they might well discover how bogus the WTS' doctrines are. How many JWs, for example, have read the entire book of Romans rather than just turning to proof texts? And of those who did, how many can say they understood it? If someone really understood Paul's message in Romans, I don't see how they could remain a JW.
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  rebel8

  A new 11th commandment: You must not make for yourself a website, Facebook page or Twitter account.

  Sparlock will become a demon's name.