Friends:
This one may not qualify as a "fully-twisted" scripture, in the sense that so many others are more twisted and more misused, and more transliterated. But, I did run across a scripture that is incorrectly translated in the New World Translation I felt it needs to be brought to light. The scripture in question is Phillipians 1:21, which reads in the NWT as follows:
Phil 1:21: For in my case to live is Christ, and to die, gain.
To read this scripture is to be immediately confused, and even a contextual reading of surrounding scriptures will not clear up the meaning. Why? The answer is explained by the scholar, Hugh J. Schonfield in his book, "The Original New Testament" pg. xxx. Note what the author states:
"For over fifteen hundred years the New Testament documents were hand-written by scribes, and mistakes could thus be made by carelessness and inattentiveness on the party of the copyists. One such slip has already been noted where christos has been read instead of chrestos at Phil 1:21. Paul had not said "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain". What he had said was "It is useful (chrestos) for me to live, and and advantage to die...and I hardly know which to choose. I am in a quandry between the two.""
The Watchtower, however, seems to have made no effort at carefulness or attentiveness in their publication of the New World Translation by its anonymous committee of Franz. Nor have they made any effort to update their translation and correct such obvious errors, as the current version of the NWT still employs the errant translation at Phil 1:21. If you were confused when you read it, now you know why!
The Watchtower even tries to make sense out of their own erroneous translation of Phil 1:21, as this excerpt of the Watchtower from March 1, 1995 illustrates so well:
At Philippians 1:21, 23, Paul says: "In my case to live is Christ, and to die, gain. I am under pressure from these two things; but what I do desire is the releasing and the being with Christ, for this, to be sure, is far better." Does Paul here refer to an "intermediate state"? Some think so. However, Paul says that he was put under pressure by two possibilities—life or death. "But what I do desire," he added, mentioning a third possibility, "is the releasing and the being with Christ." A "releasing" to be with Christ immediately after death? Well, as already seen, Paul believed that faithful anointed Christians would be resurrected during the presence of Christ. Therefore, he must have had in mind the events of that period.
To be fair, many other modern translations also got it wrong, including the Amplified New Testament, the Emphatic Diaglott, the NIV, American Standard Version, New Living Translation, New American Standard and the New King James. In fact, very few Bibles have rendered this scripture correctly.
But, the Watchtower Society claims that their Bible is the most modern and up-to-date translation, one that was based on the earliest versions of various manuscripts, yet it still is in error. And their publications then expound on and seek to explain error with more error...
Perhaps this is a minor mistranslation in the grand scheme of things, but I thought those of you with an interest in detailed scriptural matters would appreciate this information.