The word was a god

by gringojj 5 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • gringojj
    gringojj

    Who else supports this translation of John 1:1 besides that johannes greber guy?

  • Kenneson
    Kenneson

    I found this list at Jehovah's Witnesses United.

    The New Testament in an Improved Version (1808)

    The New Testament in Greek and English (A. Kneeland, 1822)

    A Literal Translation of the New Testament ( H. Heinfetter, 1863)

    Concise Commentary On the Holy Bible ( R. Young, 1885)

    The Coptic Version of the New Testament (G.W. Horner, 1911)

    Das Evangelium Nach Johannes (J. Becker, 1979)

    The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Anointed (J.L. Tomanec, 1958)

    The Montessaron; or, The Gospel History According to the Four Evangelists (J.S. Thompson, 1829)

    Das Evangelium Nach Johannes (S. Schulz, 1975)

    What this demonstrates to me is that Jehovah's Witnesses are not the only ones who deny that Jesus is God and who give this verse an Arian twist Of course, they will turn around and say that the list that uses "the Word was God" is also biased, giving John 1:1 a Trinitarian slant.

  • carla
    carla

    I'm sorry but any list put out by the wt is suspect. They have misquoted people to many times to ever trust anything they have to say. If they put out any kind of list I would want to see page numbers, date of publishing, author, etc.... There are far to many people (scholars) who do not agree with the wt at all, yet the wt has said the scholar was quoted as agreeing with the wt. See Mantey letter for just one example. Besides, I don't mean to be disrespectful here, but, can't you see that by adding the word 'a' makes it out that the wt has two gods? Even if one is not worshiped you still end up with 2. One God plus one god still equals two. There has been numerous articles on this subject. From real experts, ones that can even read the old languages as well as Greek (something the NWT translators could not do). Contrary to what the wt has taught, Christians do not believe in a three headed monster, nor do they think that Jesus is the Father. Please understand, The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. Adding 'a god' now makes one polytheistic or henotheistic. Check out some of the Apologetics sites for a more complete description. carla

  • Evanescence
    Evanescence

    They just changed it so they can make people believe the trinity isn't true

    1. Gen. 1:1-2 - "In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
      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." (New World Translation, Emphasis added)
      1. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society denies that the Holy Spirit is alive, third person of the Trinity. Therefore, they have changed the correct translation of "...the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters," to say "...and God's active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters."
    2. Zech. 12:10 - In this verse God is speaking and says "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son" (Zech. 12:10, NASB).
      1. The Jehovah's Witnesses change the word "me" to "the one" so that it says in their Bible, "...they will look upon the one whom they have pierced..."
        Since the Jehovah's Witnesses deny that Jesus is God in flesh, then Zech. 12:10 would present obvious problems--so they changed it.
      2. John 1:1 - They mistranslate the verse as "a god." Again it is because they deny who Jesus is and must change the Bible to make it agree with their theology. The Jehovah's Witness version is this: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god."
      3. Col. 1:15-17 - The word "other" is inserted 4 times. It is not in the original Greek, nor is it implied. This is a section where Jesus is described as being the creator of all things. Since the Jehovah's Witness organization believes that Jesus is created, they have inserted the word "other" to show that Jesus was before all "other" things, implying that He is created.
        1. There are two Greek words for "other": heteros, and allos. The first means another of a different kind, and the second means another of the same kind. Neither is used at all in this section of scripture. The Jehovah's Witness have changed the Bible to make it fit their aberrant theology.
        2. Heb. 1:6 - In this verse they translate the Greek word for worship, proskuneo, as "obeisance." Obeisance is a word that means to honor, show respect, even bow down before someone. Since Jesus, to them, is created, then he cannot be worshiped. They have also done this in other verses concerning Jesus, i.e., Matt. 2:2,11; 14:33; 28:9.
        3. Heb. 1:8 - This is a verse where God the Father is calling Jesus God: "But about the Son he says, ?Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.'" Since the Jehovah's Witnesses don't agree with that they have changed the Bible, yet again, to agree with their theology. They have translated the verse as "...God is your throne..." The problem with the Jehovah's Witness translation is that this verse is a quote from Psalm 45:6 which, from the Hebrew, can only be translated as "...Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom." To justify their New Testament translation they actually changed the OT verse to agree with their theology, too!

          The NWT translation is not a good translation. It has changed the text to suit its own theological bias in many places. http://www.carm.org/jw/nwt.htm

          4. Evanescence

      4. Narkissos
        Narkissos

        An interesting thread I'm afraid I have killed a couple of days ago...

        http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/90625/1.ashx

        Edit: the "carm" page is about as honest and scholarly as any WT publication. All the texts it quotes offer more or less serious exegetical and interpretive problems and the classic "trinitarian" version is questionable too.

      5. RevFrank
        RevFrank

        Before the nwths the watchtower was stuck on the issue of John 1:1. This is one of the one reasons why they wanted to rewrite the bible. Gerber who was a catholic priest agreed on John 1:1. So did Wilson(Diagott).(Hort & Wescott) Wilson was a christiaphilidelphian.

        Those who had other text in John 1:1 had Divine, logoes,ects. were related as ,"And the Word was God." these authors never thought that Christ was, "a god," but God.

        And in greek "Theos," means God. Many scholars including a top scholar, who is an atheist made the statement that reads, "The Word was God." He had no axe to grind.

        And to top it all off,From about 350 B.C. to 330 A.D.the greek was koine in dialect.

        So be it......and the Word was God."

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