Poor Support for John 8:58

The following is a list of 16 sources a Jehovah’s Witness offered as evidence to support the Watchtower’s mistranslation of John 8:58 as “I have been” rather than “I Am” which identifies Jesus as Jehovah God when compared to Exodus 3:14.  The lines in bold type are the list he provided.  The text following each numbered item is my response:

(1) “I HAVE BEEN” – The New Testament, G. R. Noyes

• Noyes was, of course, a Unitarian and translated the New Testament from Tishendorf’s Greek Text (Sinaiticus, I believe) in 1869.  Unitarians deny the deity of Christ just as the Watchtower does.
• Noyes was not a Greek scholar but a Hebrew scholar and Lecturer on Biblical Literature at Harvard.
• You can read more about the translation and the man here:  http://www.bible-researcher.com/noyes.html
• A copy of the translation is available here:  https://archive.org/details/newtestament00noye/page/n6

(2)“I HAVE BEEN” – “The Four Gospels” According to the Sinaitic Palimpsest, A. S. Lewis

• 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

(3) “I HAVE ALREADY BEEN” – The Unvarnished New Testament

• This is a “translation” by Mr. Andy Gaus.
• I’ve found no credentials for Mr. Gaus that would qualify him as a Greek scholar or a scholar of any sort.
• The Unvarnished New Testament (1991) is published by Phanes Publishing, a New Age publisher.
• Using Mr. Gaus’s “translation” for support would require more credentials.

(4) “I HAVE EXISTED” – The Bible, A New Translation, Dr. James Moffatt (1913)

• 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.

(5) “I EXISTED” – The New Testament in the Language of Today, 1964 ed., Beck

• 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.

 
(6) “I EXISTED” – An American Translation, Goodspeed

• 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
• “I existed before Abraham was born.” is a liberal translation of the passage.
• 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

(7) “I EXISTED” – The New Testament in the Language of the People, Williams 

• 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.

(8) “I EXISTED” – New Simplified Bible 

• Here is the complete verse in the New Simplified Bible:  “Jesus said: »I tell you the truth, I existed before Abraham was born!« (Ex 3:14, 15)”
• Please note the reference to Exodus 14,15 is actually in the text referring to the “I Am” passage.
• You can find that here:  https://studybible.info/NSB/John%208
• Dr. Claude Mariottini, the translator, is not a Greek Scholar but a professor of Old Testament Studies.

(9) “I WAS IN EXISTENCE” – Living Bible 

• The Living Bible is an open 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.

(10) “I WAS ALIVE” – The Simple English Bible 

• 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.

(11)“I WAS” – Holy Bible – From the Ancient Eastern Text, Lamsa

• 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

(12)“I WAS” – Young’s Literal Translation of the Holy Bible, 1st ed. (Also see Young’s Concise Critical Commentary, p. 61 of “The New Covenant.”).

• The verse in Young’s Literal Translation is stated as follows:  Jesus said to them, `Verily, verily, I say to you, Before Abraham`s coming — I am”
• So, the translation agrees with mainstream modern translations and not the New World Translation.
• You can find it here:  http://www.ultimatebiblereferencelibrary.com/Youngs_Translation.pdf

(13) “I WAS” – The Syriac New Testament, Jas. Murdock

• James Murcock is just 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.

 
(14) “I WAS” – The New Testament Translated from the Original Greek  H. T. Anderson 

• H. T. Anderson translated The New Testament Translated from the Original Greek
• Anderson was not a Greek scholar but a pastor and a Campbellite.

(15) “I WAS” – Twentieth Century New Testament (1898-1901)

• This one is fascinating 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

(16) “I EXISTED” – New Living Translation (NLT)

• Here is the translation of the NLT of John 8:58: 58 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM! ” 
• You can find it here:  https://www.biblestudytools.com/nlt/john/8.html
• So, the translation agrees with the mainstream translations.