Comprehensive NWT Comparison Project (calling all technically skilled members) (page 4)

Apognophos

BTW- I should be able to dump the text from the webite. [...] I can now loop through all the books and chapters and extract the text (no html)... Just need to write to a file, normalize, and insert into my DB. Then onto the PDF.

Sounds good! Does "normalize" include getting rid of those annoying symbols like '*' and '+'?

One thing to note... The old version of the NWT puts brackets around the words it inserted into the text. [...] That might be an interesting change....

Yes, I'm thinking the missing brackets will probably get their own category, as there's no automatic way to know if they are interesting changes or not. The change you listed would seem inconsequential to most people ("Of course it's 'In the beginning', 'In beginning' isn't grammatical!"), but some people feel that it's quite significant because without the "the", it could be read as a more primitive version of YHWH beginning his work by acting on the earth as a pre-existing formless mass ("tohu wa bohu"), rather than creating the universe itself as the First Cause.

So naturally there won't be a way to automatically say "removing brackets around this word is significant, but not around that word", if even a "the" can have great meaning.

slimboyfat

I hope you guys figure out how to do this. It would be very interesting indeed!

slimboyfat

I think one of the most fascinating results of a successful textual comparison would be to quantify just how uneven the extent of the revision is.

There are very many passages of the NT that are largely untouched, with just the odd word changed here or there. On the other hand some of the poetical books of the OT like Ecclesiastes, Proverbs and the Psalms, look like completely new translations with only some similarity to the old NWT.

Apognophos

It should be fairly easy, after the project is done, to make something like a bar graph showing which parts of the Bible were most changed (Genesis-Revelation being the x axis, and number of words changed being the y).

jgnat

Ewwww. They changed "formless and void" (thank you King James English) to "a big mess"? Ewwwww.

slimboyfat

Excellent I look forward to seeing the results of your hard work.

Apognophos

That was a joke Programming work benefits from levity, so silly examples are not uncommon.

MeanMrMustard

So here is what comes out of the web site parse... Genesis chapter 1:

Raw from page:

1 In [the] beginning*+ God*+ created+ the heavens and the earth.+ 2 Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of [the] watery deep;*+ and God’s active force* was moving to and fro+ over the surface of the waters.+ 3 And God proceeded to say:*+ “Let light come to be.” Then there came to be light.+ 4 After that God saw that the light was good, and God brought about a division between the light and the darkness.+ 5 And God began calling the light Day,+ but the darkness he called Night.+ And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a first day. 6 And God went on to say: “Let an expanse+ come to be in between the waters and let a dividing occur between the waters and the waters.”+ 7 Then God proceeded to make the expanse and to make a division between the waters that should be beneath the expanse and the waters that should be above the expanse.+ And it came to be so. 8 And God began to call the expanse Heaven.+ And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a second day. 9 And God went on to say: “Let the waters under the heavens be brought together into one place and let the dry land appear.”+ And it came to be so. 10 And God began calling the dry land Earth,+ but the bringing together of the waters he called Seas.+ Further, God saw that [it was] good.+ 11 And God went on to say: “Let the earth cause grass to shoot forth, vegetation bearing seed,+ fruit trees yielding fruit according to their kinds,*+ the seed of which is in it,+ upon the earth.” And it came to be so. 12 And the earth began to put forth grass, vegetation bearing seed according to its kind+ and trees yielding fruit, the seed of which is in it according to its kind.+ Then God saw that [it was] good. 13 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a third day. 14 And God went on to say: “Let luminaries come to be in the expanse of the heavens to make a division between the day and the night;+ and they must serve as signs and for seasons and for days and years.+ 15 And they must serve as luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth.”+ And it came to be so. 16 And God proceeded to make* the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day and the lesser luminary for dominating the night, and also the stars.+ 17 Thus God put them in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth,+ 18 and to dominate by day and by night and to make a division between the light and the darkness.+ Then God saw that [it was] good.+ 19 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fourth day. 20 And God went on to say: “Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls*+ and let flying creatures fly over the earth upon the face of the expanse of the heavens.”+ 21 And God proceeded to create* the great sea monsters*+ and every living soul* that moves about,+ which the waters swarmed forth according to their kinds, and every winged flying creature according to its kind.+ And God got to see that [it was] good. 22 With that God blessed them, saying: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the waters in the sea basins,+ and let the flying creatures become many in the earth.” 23 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fifth day. 24 And God went on to say: “Let the earth+ put forth living souls according to their kinds, domestic+ animal* and moving+ animal and wild beast*+ of the earth according to its kind.” And it came to be so. 25 And God proceeded to make the wild beast of the earth according to its kind and the domestic animal according to its kind and every moving animal of the ground according to its kind.+ And God got to see that [it was] good. 26 And God* went on to say: “Let us+ make* man* in our image,*+ according to our likeness,+ and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth.”+ 27 And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him;+ male and female he created them.+ 28 Further, God blessed+ them and God said to them: “Be fruitful+ and become many and fill the earth and subdue+ it, and have in subjection+ the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving* upon the earth.” 29 And God went on to say: “Here* I have given to YOU all vegetation bearing seed which is on the surface of the whole earth and every tree on which there is the fruit of a tree bearing seed.+ To YOU let it serve as food.+ 30 And to every wild beast of the earth and to every flying creature of the heavens and to everything moving upon the earth in which there is life as a soul* I have given all green vegetation for food.”+ And it came to be so. 31 After that God saw everything he had made and, look! [it was] very good.+ And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a sixth day.

Normalized:

1 In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of [the] watery deep; and God's active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters. 3 And God proceeded to say: "Let light come to be." Then there came to be light. 4 After that God saw that the light was good, and God brought about a division between the light and the darkness. 5 And God began calling the light Day, but the darkness he called Night. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a first day. 6 And God went on to say: "Let an expanse come to be in between the waters and let a dividing occur between the waters and the waters." 7 Then God proceeded to make the expanse and to make a division between the waters that should be beneath the expanse and the waters that should be above the expanse. And it came to be so. 8 And God began to call the expanse Heaven. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a second day. 9 And God went on to say: "Let the waters under the heavens be brought together into one place and let the dry land appear." And it came to be so. 10 And God began calling the dry land Earth, but the bringing together of the waters he called Seas. Further, God saw that [it was] good. 11 And God went on to say: "Let the earth cause grass to shoot forth, vegetation bearing seed, fruit trees yielding fruit according to their kinds, the seed of which is in it, upon the earth." And it came to be so. 12 And the earth began to put forth grass, vegetation bearing seed according to its kind and trees yielding fruit, the seed of which is in it according to its kind. Then God saw that [it was] good. 13 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a third day. 14 And God went on to say: "Let luminaries come to be in the expanse of the heavens to make a division between the day and the night; and they must serve as signs and for seasons and for days and years. 15 And they must serve as luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth." And it came to be so. 16 And God proceeded to make the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day and the lesser luminary for dominating the night, and also the stars. 17 Thus God put them in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth, 18 and to dominate by day and by night and to make a division between the light and the darkness. Then God saw that [it was] good. 19 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fourth day. 20 And God went on to say: "Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls and let flying creatures fly over the earth upon the face of the expanse of the heavens." 21 And God proceeded to create the great sea monsters and every living soul that moves about, which the waters swarmed forth according to their kinds, and every winged flying creature according to its kind. And God got to see that [it was] good. 22 With that God blessed them, saying: "Be fruitful and become many and fill the waters in the sea basins, and let the flying creatures become many in the earth." 23 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fifth day. 24 And God went on to say: "Let the earth put forth living souls according to their kinds, domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast of the earth according to its kind." And it came to be so. 25 And God proceeded to make the wild beast of the earth according to its kind and the domestic animal according to its kind and every moving animal of the ground according to its kind. And God got to see that [it was] good. 26 And God went on to say: "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth." 27 And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God's image he created him; male and female he created them. 28 Further, God blessed them and God said to them: "Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth." 29 And God went on to say: "Here I have given to YOU all vegetation bearing seed which is on the surface of the whole earth and every tree on which there is the fruit of a tree bearing seed. To YOU let it serve as food. 30 And to every wild beast of the earth and to every flying creature of the heavens and to everything moving upon the earth in which there is life as a soul I have given all green vegetation for food." And it came to be so. 31 After that God saw everything he had made and, look! [it was] very good. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a sixth day.

Removed Characters, also " and ' was replaced with normal ASCII values from ANSI values:

*+*+++*+*++*++++++++++++++*+++++++*++++*++**+*+++++*+*++*+***+++++++++**++*++

Parsed into individual verses:

------ Verse: 1 -----------------
In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
------ Verse: 2 -----------------
Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of [the] watery deep; and God's active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters.
------ Verse: 3 -----------------
And God proceeded to say: "Let light come to be." Then there came to be light.
------ Verse: 4 -----------------
After that God saw that the light was good, and God brought about a division between the light and the darkness.
------ Verse: 5 -----------------
And God began calling the light Day, but the darkness he called Night. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a first day.
------ Verse: 6 -----------------
And God went on to say: "Let an expanse come to be in between the waters and let a dividing occur between the waters and the waters."
------ Verse: 7 -----------------
Then God proceeded to make the expanse and to make a division between the waters that should be beneath the expanse and the waters that should be above the expanse. And it came to be so.
------ Verse: 8 -----------------
And God began to call the expanse Heaven. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a second day.
------ Verse: 9 -----------------
And God went on to say: "Let the waters under the heavens be brought together into one place and let the dry land appear." And it came to be so.
------ Verse: 10 -----------------
And God began calling the dry land Earth, but the bringing together of the waters he called Seas. Further, God saw that [it was] good.
------ Verse: 11 -----------------
And God went on to say: "Let the earth cause grass to shoot forth, vegetation bearing seed, fruit trees yielding fruit according to their kinds, the seed of which is in it, upon the earth." And it came to be so.
------ Verse: 12 -----------------
And the earth began to put forth grass, vegetation bearing seed according to its kind and trees yielding fruit, the seed of which is in it according to its kind. Then God saw that [it was] good.
------ Verse: 13 -----------------
And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a third day.
------ Verse: 14 -----------------
And God went on to say: "Let luminaries come to be in the expanse of the heavens to make a division between the day and the night; and they must serve as signs and for seasons and for days and years.
------ Verse: 15 -----------------
And they must serve as luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth." And it came to be so.
------ Verse: 16 -----------------
And God proceeded to make the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day and the lesser luminary for dominating the night, and also the stars.
------ Verse: 17 -----------------
Thus God put them in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth,
------ Verse: 18 -----------------
and to dominate by day and by night and to make a division between the light and the darkness. Then God saw that [it was] good.
------ Verse: 19 -----------------
And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fourth day.
------ Verse: 20 -----------------
And God went on to say: "Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls and let flying creatures fly over the earth upon the face of the expanse of the heavens."
------ Verse: 21 -----------------
And God proceeded to create the great sea monsters and every living soul that moves about, which the waters swarmed forth according to their kinds, and every winged flying creature according to its kind. And God got to see that [it was] good.
------ Verse: 22 -----------------
With that God blessed them, saying: "Be fruitful and become many and fill the waters in the sea basins, and let the flying creatures become many in the earth."
------ Verse: 23 -----------------
And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fifth day.
------ Verse: 24 -----------------
And God went on to say: "Let the earth put forth living souls according to their kinds, domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast of the earth according to its kind." And it came to be so.
------ Verse: 25 -----------------
And God proceeded to make the wild beast of the earth according to its kind and the domestic animal according to its kind and every moving animal of the ground according to its kind. And God got to see that [it was] good.
------ Verse: 26 -----------------
And God went on to say: "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth."
------ Verse: 27 -----------------
And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God's image he created him; male and female he created them.
------ Verse: 28 -----------------
Further, God blessed them and God said to them: "Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth."
------ Verse: 29 -----------------
And God went on to say: "Here I have given to YOU all vegetation bearing seed which is on the surface of the whole earth and every tree on which there is the fruit of a tree bearing seed. To YOU let it serve as food.
------ Verse: 30 -----------------
And to every wild beast of the earth and to every flying creature of the heavens and to everything moving upon the earth in which there is life as a soul I have given all green vegetation for food." And it came to be so.
------ Verse: 31 -----------------
After that God saw everything he had made and, look! [it was] very good. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a sixth day.

I am getting ready to set this loose on everything..

Simon, is it a problem posting what is above? Will the WTB&TS get all fussy about something like that? If so, I have no problem removing it.

MMM

Witness My Fury

... God created the heavens and stuff.

WTF? Is that really what they changed it to?

Good project chaps, hope you pull it off.

Apognophos

I am getting ready to set this loose on everything..

That looks good, MMM! Let slip the dogs of war!
@Anyone else: My scriptural examples are just hypothetical, parodying the simplified language.

Comprehensive NWT Comparison Project (calling all technically skilled members)

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