by Wonderment 45 Replies latest watchtower bible
However, it may also be because in western countries the team of translators is more critical and knowledgeable (with regard to the greek or hebrew language) in their approach to translation. There may be a huge "need for clarification" with Warwick for these countries - which takes a long time.
I know, for example, that in the european branch office (in Selters Germany) german JWs with greek mother tongue knowledge are working on the translation.
jmy2c - I don't know what it's really about.
One more thing, do all countries work on voluntary donations, or are there still some on the old method of charging for the literature? I ask just in case there is a correlation between donations in the decision making for publishing or not publishing the Bible in speedier delivery for different countries.
Does anyone know for sure?
The only reasonable explanation for the delay is cost.
As far as I can make out, there are only four languages with the 2013 NWT that have more than 100,000 JWs: English, Portuguese, Korean and Italian. English and Portuguese versions were released in 2015 before the financial crisis struck. Korean was released even earlier.
Languages with more than 100,000 JWs that have no new Bible include: Spanish, French, German, Polish, Russian, Japanese, Tagalog.
There is no conceivable reason why these languages should take years longer to produce than Gun, Ewe, Amharic, Dutch and so on, other than cost.
Plus rumours that the German and Spanish translations are completed by not released.
They are probably wondering if they can get away with releasing Spanish, German, French and so on as digital only. They may have no other choice.
Thanks Wonderment.
A small correction.
In Bangladesh, they only have one publisher for every 7 thousand people (7,000).
For Bangladesh its 1 publisher for every 525,084 people
Drearyweather,
I was looking at the 2015 Service Report which had one publisher in Bangladesh for 631,355. I rounded it off to 7,000. Is your number based on a newer report?
Wonderment there have been no charges for literature anywhere since 2000 at the latest.
I wonder about some of the obscure language releases too. I wonder how many copies of the 2013 NWT have actually been printed in Gun, Ewe and Amharic, for example. Probably some Bibles have been printed in these obscure languages, but perhaps not promoted for general circulation. Even in English the Bibles are not as ubiquitous as they used to be. There is definite pressure to use all literature online rather than print copies, including the Bible.
If their financial position is as bad as I suspect it is they may not be able to afford to print more Bibles in other languages, or even in English.
Well slim, first thank you for bringing this thread to my attention!
While this may be a supprise, let me say we actually have no disagreement on this topic. Rumor was spanish was already done (the new bible translation, that is). I would bet its a purposeful decision not to release it, and one based on money. After the english was released they likely ‘counted the cost’, that is they extrapolated the cost based on the results of the english release, and they dont think the spanish witnesses will carry the cost.
Bare in mind, ive never said the org didnt have problems and didnt need to make changes. Ive said they arnt collapsing, where as SOME people say they are currently collapsing or have collapsed or may one day collapse, depending on the thread ;) They simply cannot afford to live large in the way they did through the 1990’s. They are cutting costs everywhere they can and this translation release seems to be an area they have calculated to be not worth pursuing.
My bet is that the juice isnt worth the squeeze. In languages that didnt have a nwt already they just move forward with the “new” version. The english got released because they felt the english witnesses would make it financially viable (probably not how it worked out). Remember too that the proof readig was done by random bethelites, including people working in the laundry. In was rushed and sloppy. Here on the forum we found glaring errors in the headers. It was half assed and poorly done from the start. One wonders what the motivation to redo it was from the begining. Whatever their intent clearly it hasnt worked out for a lot of reasons and they dont see benefit in releasing in other major languages.
50 million new Bibles
??? ??? ???
There are only 8 million JWs, well over 1 million of whom speak English as their primary language.They already have all the Bibles they need.
Bibles are not placed out in field serve-us.
Why on earth would they need to print 50 million Bibles?
It is quite puzzling though about the lack of the Spanish translation. Spanish is likely the language most spoken by JWs worldwide. It can't be for lack of translators, English - Spanish is pretty straightforward.
It might be related to cost - I can't see another reason. But "50 million" is too high by a factor of at least 10.
Before they released the revised version in 2017 here in Holland, they gave away thousands of the old version during the Bible exhibit the same year.
Special small edition.
Why? Can't understand.
And the revised version is only released for publishers. At the evening meeting most attendence got one, but some did not 😁
G.
I agree 50 million is way to high but, at least in america, most dubs want two or three bibles. One for the meeting bag one for the service bag etc. although the digital app would decrease that. At the memorial 90% of the audiance was using the jw app for the bible.
