@Blotty
Interesting thought. I don't think JWs
intentionally change the meaning of words - although, I have found at least
three examples where the NWT translation changes the meaning of sentences in
favor of JW-theology. In hindsight, I would assess this as a deliberate attempt
to manipulate the text. The motivation was either a misunderstanding of the
meaning (example number 2) or an attempt to subjugate the text to the
translation in favor of JW-theology, even though these texts (examples number 1
and 3) for relatively simple. I submit for discussion...
Example 1: the well-known passage from Matt
27:52-53, which the NWT translation - incomprehensibly - puts verse 53 even in
parentheses. Yet the translation is quite clear, unproblematic in the sense
that the "bodies" of the saints - after the resurrection of Jesus -
so these saints entered the Holy City.
In the discussion with JWs, the
counter-argument was repeated to me several times that even if they were
resurrected, then what would they have been doing among the tombs for 3 days?
My argument is that we don't know exactly what was going on with the
resurrected "bodies"(!) for 3 days, what exactly were these people
(were they naked, hungry and thirsty ? did the angels care to tell them they
were only temporarily alive?), were doing, surely cannot be a reason to rewrite
the text, change the meaning and try to reconcile the fact that this verse
supposedly contradicts the claim that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead...
he is, but Matt 27:52-53 does not dispute that he was the firstborn from the
dead. In my opinion, Matt 27:52-53 was a small fulfillment of John 5:25 when
the dead (some) heard Christ's final voice on the cross - that cry of his, and
therefore came back to life. Again the same thing occurs later...
Example 2: In John 11:26, the translators
were not clear about Jesus' statement about the dead and αιων, so they used the
unfortunate and completely wrong translation that "he will never
die," which is nonsense. Jesus was talking about the fact that the person
who dies will not be dead (almost) indefinitely (that is the meaning of αιων),
but that one day, after a very long time, the αιων will end and be resurrected.
This is, after all, what Martha was telling Jesus, that her brother Lazarus
would be resurrected on the last day, that is, at the end of the αιων.
Example 3: Rev. 20:5 and again the round
brackets, as if the text were a sort of insertion. The text of Rev. 20:5 makes
it perfectly clear that the first resurrection will occur before the 1000-year
kingdom. Thus, all the pictures and texts in JW-literature about happy people
being reunited after the resurrection during the 1000 year kingdom are false
prophecy and a promise that will not be fulfilled.
Rev. 20:5 clearly and indisputably states:
the rest of the dead will not be resurrected until after the end of the 1000
years of Christ's reign. The first resurrection concerns only those - in my
opinion, and measured by the vast New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:15-17), where the
gates are nearly 2,200 kilometers long - rulers and priests with Christ, and
there will indeed be millions and millions of them, men and women, including
the last 144,000 who, like the others, the millions, are among the 12 new
tribes of the new Israel. Every living Christian ("...he hath an ear,
hear...he that overcometh shall not suffer the second death" Rev. 2:11)
has the chance and the right, to seek to be with Christ in heaven. And over the
2000 years - I believe - millions of people have succeeded.
Armageddon will be survived by the billions
of people who will be on this planet. Survival is not just for some exclusive
group of people in some church, but for all who will show basic humanity, or
are they the ones who will ask, when have we seen you naked, in prison, sick,
hungry or thirsty?
Conclusion: here's my interpretation of the
twisted, incomplete Word of God: when Jesus hung on the cross, many began to
mock Him. He was mocked by the people who stood around, the soldiers, and in
the beginning, even the two criminals. We know from the Gospels that they
mocked him for coming down from the cross, for saving himself, for saving
others and not himself. They, in effect, repeated the entire gospel. They had
plenty of time for that. Jesus had been dying for about six hours - and
sometime in the afternoon, after those miracles with the darkness, one of the
criminals, based on what he had heard and what he had seen, began to realize
that he was indeed the King of the Jews. So he said, "Remember me when you
are in your kingdom...
Thus even the corrupt,
incomplete, weak word of God is stronger than the word of man (1 Cor. 1:25).
