Poor Scholarship

The following is a list of translations the Watchtower cites in their various publications as evidence to support their views.  These range from translations from liberal scholars to paraphrases, to my favorite, the Twentieth Century New Testament which was “translated” by housewives, business men, clergy, but no scholars. 

Why do you suppose the Watchtower resorts to the works of unknown, liberal, or biased scholars to support their views.  Would those who can read and understand the original languages really reject the truth to support trinitarianism and risk eternity? Yet the vast majority of internationally known Greek scholars are Trinitarians.  Why do you suppose that is?

(1)  “The Four Gospels” According to the Sinaitic Palimpsest, A. S. Lewis

(Cited once in a search of Watchtower publications since 1950:  See WT 2/15/57 p. 127)

• The Syriac Sinaiticus from which Agnes Smith Lewis translated the Four Gospels in 1894 is not a Greek manuscript but a translation from Greek to Syriac to English.  So, this is a translation of a translation and therefore, not accurate.
• A copy of the translation can be found here:  https://archive.org/details/translationoffou00lewiiala/page/180

(2)  The Bible, A New Translation, Dr. James Moffatt (1913)

(Cited 255 times in a search of Watchtower publications since 1950.  See example at WT 2/15/52 p. 127-128)

• Moffatt was not a Greek scholar but held a Doctor of Divinity from the University of St. Andrews (1902)
• He did work as a professor of Greek and New Testament Exegesis at Mansford College, Oxford three or four years but Church History seemed to be more in line with his liking and credentials
• Again, not a Greek scholar.

(3)  The New Testament in the Language of Today, 1964 ed., Beck

(Cited 5 times in a search of Watchtower publications since 1950.  See example at WT 11/1/89 p. 3)

• William F. Beck was not a Greek scholar but held a Doctor of Theology from Concordia Seminary
• You can read more about him and his translation here:  http://www.bible-researcher.com/beck.html
• Again, not a Greek scholar.

(4)   An American Translation, Goodspeed

(Cited 77 times in a search of Watchtower publications since 1950.  See example at WT 9/15/62 p. 553)

• Edgar J. Goodspeed is the first Greek scholar listed here.
• You can find his translation here:  https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.76088/page/n7
• Edgar J. Goodspeed was a liberal looking to provide a smooth readable English translation. 
• As evidence of his liberalism, I submit a passage found in his An Introduction to the New Testament (p. 396 ) where he says he doesn’t even believe John the disciple was the author of the Gospel which bears his name: 
• “And of course the thoroughly Greek character of the Gospel of John, both in language—so steadily parallel to the idiom of the vernacular papyri—and in thought, shows that it cannot reasonably be considered the original work of a Galilean fishermen, whose language was Aramaic, or the translation of such a work, supposing any Palestinian Jew to have been capable of thinking in terms so characteristically Greek.”  (p. 326)
• You can find the work here:  http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/goodspeed/ch20.html
• You can find his translation here:  https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.76088/page/n7

(5)  The New Testament in the Language of the People, Williams 

(Cited six times in a search of Watchtower publications since 1950.  See example at WT 11/1/2005 p. 25 footnote)

• Charles B. Williams is another genuine Greek scholar. 
• His “translation” is a cross between a paraphrase and an actual translation.
• Not a direct word for word translation and therefore, not an accurate translation.

(6)  Living Bible 

(Cited 77 times in a search of Watchtower publications since 1950.  See example at Awake 6/8/87 p. 17-18)

• The Living Bible is a self-described paraphrase
• Here is Amazon.com’s description of the Living Bible:  ” Celebrating 40 years and over 40 million lives touched, Tyndale is releasing The Living Bible as an eBook. The Living Bible is a paraphrase of the Old and New Testaments. Its purpose is to say as exactly as possible what the writers of the Scriptures meant, and to say it simply, expanding where necessary for a clear understanding by the modern reader.”
• This is not even a translation.

(7)  The Simple English Bible 

(Cited 6 times in a search of Watchtower publications since 1950, see example at Insight on the Scriptures vol. 1 p. 440)

• Sam Sloan, Stanley L. Morris Translators
• Here’s Amazon’s synopsis of the work:  “The Simple English Bible is a new translation of the Holy Bible. It is the result of an effort by several teams, not just one team, over a period of many years. The purpose was to reduce the Holy Bible to simple words not more than about six letters long. Any person with a Fifth Grade Reading Level and any foreign person who knows some English but is not fluent should be able to read and understand this Bible. A basic vocabulary of three thousand words was created for this Bible and this Bible only uses those words. Not only is this a reduction of the text to simpler words but it is also a completely new and original translation. Most other new editions of the Bible are simply rewrites of the well known King James Version of the Bible. By contrast, The Simple English Bible is an entirely new and original translation. This can be demonstrated by comparing almost any verse of the Bible.”
• It’s basically a children’s Bible.

(8)  Holy Bible – From the Ancient Eastern Text, Lamsa

(Cited 50 times in a search of Watchtower publications since 1950.  See example at NWTSTY Luke Study Notes — Chapter 23)

• George M. Lamsa believes the Bible was originally written in Aramaic, so he’s translated the Greek back into Aramaic then into English.
• This is a translation of a translation, of an imaginary (Aramaic) original.
• The subtitle on the cover of his “Bible” says as much:  “George M. Lamsa’s Translation from the Aramaic of the Peshitia.”
• Here’s some more info on him:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lamsa

(9)  The Syriac New Testament, Jas. Murdock

(Cited 6 times in a search of Watchtower publications since 1950.  See example at WT 4/1/80 p. 26 footnote)

• James Murcock is much like Lamsa.
• The “translation” is from Syriac to English.  Not a Greek translation.
• Here’s Amazon’s description of the book:  ” This Ancient 5th Century version of the New Testament, by James Murdock, S.T.D. is translated from an Aramaic dialect very close to the one Jesus and his Apostles used in their daily lives. The translation is unique in that it uses Aramaic as the base text, instead of Koine Greek. It is a valuable Bible Resource because it brings out many of the original language’s nuances and idioms, which are not possible from the Greek alone. This new edition is a word for word, electronic publication of the Syriac New Testament”
• Not a valid translation from Greek.

(10)  Twentieth Century New Testament (1898-1901)

(Cited 21 times in a search of Watchtower publications since 1950.  See example at WT 10/15/2010 p. 11)

• This one is fascinating in that a bunch of housewives, business men, schoolmasters, pastors, and other untrained people, certainly not scholars, got together to produce a “translation” the Watchtower treasures highly.
• The Bible Researcher says this about the translation:  “Certainly this company of translators is no ordinary assemblage, and it is difficult to imagine a more disparate group. The members range in age between 19 and 63. In education they vary widely. They represent all parts of the British Isles. About half of them are clergymen, of which probably none is a typical representative. Others are schoolmasters, business men, and housewives.”
• The “translation committee”, such as it was, did have three scholars advising them: G.G. Findlay of Headingley College, J.R. Harris of Cambridge, and R.F. Weymouth, retired Headmaster of Mill Hill School.
• Advisors, however, are not translators. A college faculty advisor, for instance, will advise on the writing of a term paper, but it is the student who writes the paper and is responsible for its content.
• More about this “translation” can be seen here:  http://www.bible-researcher.com/twentieth.century.html

(11)  Emphasised Bible by Joseph B. Rotherham (1872)

(Cited 207 in a search of Watchtower publications since 1950.  See example at  God’s “Eternal       Purpose” Now Triumphing for Man’s Good p. 8-9, WTBTS, 1974)

• Rotherham was the son of a Methodist pastor and became an evangelist for the Cambellites, a non-Christian group who denied the deity of Christ as do the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
• Rotherham was not a scholar.
• Here is a description of his translation:  http://www.bible-researcher.com/rotherham.html
• You can see the 1902 revision of his translation online here:  http://qbible.com/ebr-rotherhams-emphasized-bible-1902/
• The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society contracted with Joseph B. Rotherham to produce an edition of the Emphasised Bible for them.
• “As early as 1890, according to available evidence, the Society arranged for a special printing, bearing its own name of the Second Edition of The New Testament Newly Translated and Critically Emphasised, as prepared by British Bible translator Joseph B. Rotherham. Why this translation? Because of its literalness and its endeavor to benefit fully from research that had been done to establish a more accurate Greek text and because the reader was helped by devices employed by the translator to identify which words or exressions were given special emphasis in the Greek text.” (Jehovah’s Witnesses Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, WTBTS, 1993, p. 605)
• This translation was cited by the Watchtower as far back as 1890:
• “Then the Apostle shows (Chap. 3 :21-26) how God provided
  in Christ a propitiatory-covering [See Rotherham’s translation
  and foot note.]”
• Not a translation, not produced by scholars.