In the New World Translation (Watchtower translation for Jehovah Witnesses) the passages in both the New and Old Testament are purposely mistranslated.
I am going to give simple examples. You can double check this yourself using a simple concordance to look up the Hebrew or the Greek.
The New World Translation renders Genesis 1:2 as follows...
"...and God’s active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters."
The word "active force" is ruach in the Hebrew. The same word is used in Genesis 41:8 & 38. Here is the New World Translation rendering of these two passages.
"And it developed in the morning that his [Pharaoh's] spirit became agitated."
"Can another man be found like this one [Joseph] in whom the spirit of God is?"
In one scripture, referring to God, it renders ruach as "active force". Yet when we see it elsewhere in the same translation, the meaning changes. Why? Because the "Watchtower Tract and Bible Society" has an agenda. All evidence and text relating to the Holy Spirit being attributed to God cannot remain in the text, the text must then be changed. The Bible must change the church, not the church change the Bible! This is a perfect example.
Now, here are the same scriptures in the King James Version...
"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
"And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled"
"Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?"
Can you see? The New World Translation changed the meaning of ruach to conform to the Watchtower agenda. This, they arrogantly proclaim as a very accurate translation from the Hebrew. Well, you can say whatever you want, but a simple Concordance will prove otherwise.
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Here is another, more blatant, example. In Revelation 1:8, we see an addition made to the text.
Rev 1:8 [NWT] - “I am the Al´pha and the O·me´ga,” says Jehovah God, “the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.”
"Lord" is purposely mistranslated. The Greek kuvrio means "supreme ruler" and is not the name Jehovah or YHWH. This same word for "Lord" is used in referring to Jesus in many passages. Using the NWT rendering of "Lord" in the verse above, let's translate the same Greek word used in Matthew 12:8, (Jesus speaking) "For the Son of man is Jehovah God even of the sabbath day."
So, either the New World Translation is lying to suit their doctrine, or Jesus is Jehovah according to their own translation. This blatantly reveals the agenda of the Watchtower organization. They have added to Revelation and thus put themselves under the condemnation of Revelation 22:18.
Now let us look at Revelation 22:13...
Rev 22:13 [NWT] - "Look! I am coming quickly, and the reward I give is with me, to render to each one as his work is. I am the Al´pha and the O·me´ga, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
Who is He that is coming quickly? According to Revelation 22:20, it is the Lord Jesus. What is the reward? It is our inheritance from the Lord Christ as stated in Colossians 3:24. If this is Jehovah speaking, it would be a contradiction, or that Jesus is God (which violates their doctrine).
The Jehovah Witnesses say they trust the King James Version translation of the original text. Let's do a comparison of the New World Translation of Revelation 1:11 with the King James Version.
Rev 1:11 [KJV] - saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia...
Rev 1:11 [NWT] - saying: “What you see write in a scroll and send it to the seven congregations...
Because it is obvious that Jesus is speaking in Rev 1:11, the New World Translation favors the Latin Vulgate in omitting this identification. This has been disputed, however, it should prove that the Jehovah Witnesses are not in agreement with the King James Version.
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Numbers 21:5 - 6 details how Jehovah was tested by the Israelites grumbling and how He subsequently sent serpents among them as chastisement.
Numbers 21:5-6 (NWT)
And the people kept speaking against God and Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread and no water, and our soul has come to abhor the contemptible bread.” So Jehovah sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they kept biting the people, so that many people of Israel died.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:9, relates to this incident. However, citing the example of God's discipline of the Israelites...
[KJV] Neither let us tempt Christ (gr. Christos), as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
[NWT] Neither let us put Jehovah (purposely mistranslated) to the test, as some of them put [him] to the test, only to perish by the serpents.
So why did the Watchtower purposely mis-translate this text? Because the Watchtower group does not want any reference to Christ being Jehovah God of the Old Testament. Again, the Bible should change the church, not the other way around.
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Quotes from Scholars Regarding the New World Translation
Dr. Bruce M. Metzger, professor of New Testament at Princeton University, calls the NWT "a frightful mistranslation," "Erroneous" and "pernicious" "reprehensible" "If the Jehovah's Witnesses take this translation seriously, they are polytheists." (Professor of New Testament Language and Literature)
Dr. William Barclay, a leading Greek scholar, said "it is abundantly clear that a sect which can translate the New Testament like that is intellectually dishonest."
Mantey , author of A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, calls the NWT "a shocking mistranslation." "Obsolete and incorrect." "It is neither scholarly nor reasonable to translate John 1:1 'The Word was a god.'" "I have never read any New Testament so badly translated as The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of The Greek Scriptures.... it is a distortion of the New Testament. The translators used what J.B. Rotherham had translated in 1893, in modern speech, and changed the readings in scores of passages to state what Jehovah's Witnesses believe and teach. That is a distortion not a translation." (Julius Mantey , Depth Exploration in The New Testament (N.Y.: Vantage Pres, 1980), pp.136-137)
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The New World Translation Committee
The New World Translation committee consisted of four members of the Jehovah’s Witness religious sect. Their names and scholarly qualifications are as follows: (from Franz, Crisis of Conscience, p. 50 note)
Nathan Knorr: President of the Watchtower Society (no academic training in any Biblical language)
Fred Franz: (no academic degree in any Biblical language, though he did study Greek for two years at the University of Cincinnati)
Albert Schroeder: (no academic training in any Biblical language)
George Gangas: (no academic training in any Biblical language)
