"While this translation is completely independent from the NWT, we made a comparison of the two. Since it is published by the Jehovah's Witnesses, we were especially interested in those passages where the characteristic biases of the NWT [New World Translation] were evident. In the BLE [Bible in Living English], "Jehovah" is used in the OT but is not found in the NT. The word "God" is capitalized when referring to Jesus Christ, e.g., in John 1:1; 1:18; 6:45; 10:33. Where the NWT added the article "the" in brackets in Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1 and "other" in Colossians 1:16, 17, this translation does not, so that Jesus Christ can be identified with God in these passages. Furthermore, by its punctuation in Romans 9:5 it has clearly identified Christ as God: "Whose are the fathers, and from whom in the way of flesh comes the Christ, he who is over everything, God blessed forever-Amen!"
The designation "Holy Spirit" is capitalized, contrary to the NWT, and the words "cross" and "crucify" are used instead of "torture stake" and "impale." The only apparent reason for the Witnesses' publishing this translation is the translator's use of "Jehovah" for God's name in the OT, unless they also want to tone down the idiosyncrasies of their own translation." So Many Versions by Sakae Kubo and Walter F. Specht
Reply: Much of the above is over-stated. I fail to see where Christ is identified as God at Romans 9:5, and a clear understanding of the other Scriptures listed and its context removes any divinity from Christ, specifically at John 1:18: "Nobody ever has seen God; an Only Born God, he who is in the Father's bosom, he gave the account of him." A God that is "born" is definitely held as separate from that God that cannot be seen.
Consider also other Scriptures that waters down the deity of Christ:
"I will be what I will be" Ex 3:14
"God is your throne forever" Psalm 45:6
"Jehovah framed me first in line" Prov 8:22
"his origin being from of old, from ancient days." Micah 5:2
"they will look at the one they stabbed to death" Zech 12:10
Acts 20:28 footnote points to "the Lord's church"
"let all God's angels do him reverence" Heb 1:6
"God is your throne forever and ever." Heb 1:8
"firstborn of all creation" Col 1:15
"did not regard equality with God a prize" Php 2:6
"the beginning of God's creation" Rev 3:14
Byington had high sights set for his Bible in his Translator's Preface:
"It is customary for the preface of a new translation of the Bible to say that this translation is to be used only for certain limited purposes, and for most purposes the old version, or a conservative revision of it, should still be preferred. I say the contrary: I sincerely recommend that my translation be used in preference to the old for all purposes, under all circumstances where mine is available. I do not say, observe, that mine is better than any other that can or will be made; neither do I say that it is probable that mine will become everybody's Bible. What I have more right to expect, and what I am bound to be content with, is that when a Bible is made which shall be everybody's Bible, my work will have contributed part of the material which will go into it; what I am here recommending is that when a choice is to be made between mine and the old version, and a version better than either is not available, mine be chosen rather than the old."
It also ranked more accurate than the New American Standard Bible according to Colwell's apparatus:
See http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-new-world-translation-is-best-new.html
Byington's Bible also has some very interesting renderings and makes for a pleasant read:
"The Scriptures say that God 'has put eternity into our minds.'
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)
"wild parties," Galatians 5:19-21
"Foolishness is bliss to a brainless man, but an intelligent man will
go straight." Proverbs 15:21
"A man's ignorance muddles his affairs and he flies out against
Jehovah." (Proverbs 19:3)
"I did not flinch from . . . teaching you publicly and from house to
house."-ACTS 20:20
"So I would have younger ones marry, bear children, keep house, not
give the opponent any opening toward abusive talk."-1 Timothy 5:11-
14, Byington.
"Then I will turn the lips of all the peoples clean, that they may
all call on Jehovah's name and cooperate in his service." Zeph 3:9
"There is no thumbing your nose at God." Gal 6:7, 8
"Jehovah will exterminate slippery lips, tongues that make great propositions" Psalm 12:3
See also Divine Name Controversy & Mysteries - 50 Books on CD and 145 Rare Divine Name Bibles on DVDrom and 200 Books on the Divine Name Jehovah on DVDrom
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For a list of all of my disks and ebooks (PDF and Amazon) click here
Romans 9:5 states that Christ is "over all, God blessed unto the ages", which employs the same language as Romans 1:25, which praises God as the Creator "who is blessed unto the ages". No ancient Greek, Trinitarian or Arian, understood Romans 9:5 to read "God be blessed unto the ages" as rendered in the NWT and certain other English (mis)translations. Hebrews 1:10-12 references the Son of God in a scripture (Ps 102:25-27) directly praising YHWH as Creator and renewer of the cosmos. Yes, the Son of God is YHWH! Hebrews 1:6 "let all the angels worship Him" is a reference to Ps 97:7 LXX, which references to angelic worship of the Lord God. Hebrews 1:3 states that the Son is "the brightness of His (i.e. the Father's) glory", and "the express image" (charakter) of His substance (hypostaseos)". Right here the doctrine of the consubstantiality (or homoousian - co-essentiality) between Father and Son - as affirmed in the Nicene Creed - is taught by the apostle. If the Son is other in substance and glory or lesser in substance and glory than the Father, He cannot be the express image and brightness of the Father's glory. But the apostle affirms that the Son is the very brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His substance, that He like the Father is worshipped by angles, and that He is very Jehovah! Yes, the Father, Son and Spirit are God, and the Father, Son and Spirit are Jehovah! The Arians and JWs apply picture images drawn from created and delimited beings to their understanding of the Infinite God or Godhead, and imagine a human father and a human son when speaking of the Uncreated and Illimitable One who exists above all and through all and within all things. The Book of Wisdom 7:25-26 refers to Divine Wisdom (i.e. the Son of God) as "a pure outflowing from the glory of the Almighty, the brightness/reflection of eternal light, the unspotted mirror of His activity, the image of His goodness". Thus He is only begotten as alone proceeding out of the Father's glory consubstantially and as an express image of the Father. This is why it says both in Proverbs 3:19: "YHWH founded the earth in Wisdom", and in Colossians 1:16 that "in Him (en auto - i.e. Christ) all things were created". If YHWH founded the earth in His own Wisdom, and all things were founded in the Son, the Son then is the very Wisdom of the Father, and this teaching again is affirmed by St. Paul, who declares that Christ is the very "wisdom and power of God" the Father (cf. 1 Cor 1:24). The Watchtower Society for its own part affirms that Proverbs 3:19 refers to YHWH's own wisdom (cf. w98 5/1 p. 6). Therefore Colossians 1:16 taken together with this affirmation demonstrates that the Son of God is the very own Wisdom of God the Father. When did God lack wisdom? Never! This demonstrates the eternality of the Son, the eternal and consubstantial brightness of the eternal light. If the WS understood the Father and Son in terms of eternal and illimitable incorporeal light and wisdom, and not in terms of those silly picture images of two anthropomorphic personages which they publish in their magazines, they would understand how it can be said that the Father and Son are both the One God, and not have to engage in textual alterations and fallacious interpretations of Sacred Scripture to make it fit into their anthropomorphized understanding of the Father and Son.
ReplyDeleteRomans 9:5 in the NWT does not read "God be blessed unto the ages."
DeleteThe word Godhead is a completely made-up word.
When you talk of Hebrews 1 or Col. 1, you have to understand that the words there completely destroy any notion that Jesus is God or part of a trinity. Why? Because verse 15 opens with Christ being “the IMAGE of the invisible God.” If Christ were GOD then the verse would simply say so, rather than say that he was the IMAGE of God. The Father is explicitly called “God” in dozens of places, and this would have been a good place to say that Jesus was God. Instead, we are told that Christ is the IMAGE of God. If one thing is the IMAGE of another thing, then the IMAGE and the “original” are not the same thing. The Father is God, and that is why there is no verse that calls the Father the image of God.