Temple and New world translation of holy scriptures?

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Tue Jan 4 08:41:36 EST 2000


To: John Hibberd,

<< Also any thoughts as to the authenticity of the New world translation of 
the holy scriptures? Any thoughts would be appreciated. >>

Why do you ask?

After all, no translation can be so bad to be wrong all the time. And no 
translation can be so good as to replace the original text. You of course 
know that the NWT is a sectarian translation, yes? Perhaps the most glaring 
of problems (to put it nicely) is that the term "Jehovah" is used to 
translate the Greek terms KURIOS and QEOS. There are also a handful of 
passages which appear to have been influenced by theological bias. But one 
might ask, are the supposed "problems" of the NWT any worse than the 
"problems" with (for example) the "New Living Translation"? Especially in 
the gospels, one can read page after page of this "New Living Translation" 
and find gratuitous words added seemly only on account of the translators 
conservative Evangelical theological bias (I could cite dozens of examples).

One thing one learns on this list is that everything can be considered a 
"theological bias." I personally believe that a translation should be 
translated by a committee of scholars from our best educational 
institutions representing a broad range of religious traditions. Because of 
this, I accept the NRSV as our best scholarly translation at this time. I 
don't believe it is perfect, and I feel free to disagree with it anytime I 
see fit, but it seems to me to be a better translation than most others. 
But this undoubtedly merely represents my "theological bias."

So, why do you ask?

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Disclaimer: "I'm just a simple house-husband (with no post-grad degree), 
what do I know?"




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