Is the Jehovah Witness BIble (New World Translation) and Book of Mormon factually accurate?

Question

I was recently speaking to a Church of England Bishop with a Doctorate in Divinity from Oxford. The Anglican Communion which he represents faith wise is somewhere in between high Roman Catholism and reformed Protestantism etc.

He said to me that the problem with these two publications is that the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was not translated by a team of formally trained, qualified and experienced theologians but lay volunteers in the Watchtower, and although clear to read, is interpreted to be slanted just towards the Jehovah Witnesses subjective beliefs and understanding of what is means to be a Christian. It is therefore not really accurate or scripture in a strictest sense of the word.

He then said with regard to the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, that once you start adding or taking away parts of the Bible (along with the Mormon Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price etc), apart from going against what they said at the end of Revelations about this, you are effectively on the road to changing / distorting the message to suit a particular interpretation and trying to create a new faith (not separate denomination) within a faith.

In addition, it goes against the Protestant guiding principle of Solo Scriptura (Scripture alone) that just includes the Old and New Testaments with no additions.

What does everyone here however think about this?

Answer 1

It might help to first clarify that the Book of Mormon never has pretended to be The Bible; it is extra-biblical writing that claims to be essential to understanding 'true religion' and having the faith that will get you into the highest level of God's kingdom. That's the claim. It goes on about Jesus visiting America and is written in pseudo-King James Version English. Joseph Smith claims that, in the early 1800s, an angel gave him golden plates with this stuff written in some kind of Egyptian writing. Joseph produced the Book of Mormon, and the crucially important plates were taken away (how convenient - or inconvenient.)



Smith then had a go at 'improving' the King James Bible, in light of his revelations and new understanding. He wrote many notes in the margins, and although this was never published for the public, Mormons think his annotations give the right meaning to the Bible. Clearly, the KJV needed 'improving' and 'updating' in light of Smith's claimed angelic visitation. And equally clearly, neither Smith nor his followers paid any attention to the first few verses in the Bible book of Galatians.



Now, the JWs and their New World Translation. This was not done till nearly 1960 and the JW leaders used Westcott & Hort's Greek New Testament for their 'edition' of the NT. They had an Interlinear which included this Greek text, with their rendition of it alongside. It's quite revealing. It shows clearly where the JWs ignored Westcott & Hort's work and inserted their own twists to it. The twists mainly have to do with the person of Christ ("He isn't God incarnate" say the JWS), and putting 'Jehovah' into the Greek text when it wasn't even put in once, in any of the copies of the early centuries of the Church! Yet even here they are inconsistent, for when 'Lord' would have been written 'Jehovah' by them, yet that would show Jesus to be the God spoken of, they don't do it. This shows their utter biased determination to relegate Jesus to a lower position than the Bible gives Him.



The JWs claim that they didn't need academic qualifications to deal with koine Greek, ancient Hebrew and Aramaic; they say God's 'holy spirit' is only to be found within their denomination, and that's what guided them. Well, ex Catholic priest Johannes Greber came out with his NT before the JWs did, and he also relegated Jesus - at the guidance of demons who spoke to his spiritist wife, telling them that John 1:1 should say Jesus was only 'a god' (and not God). The JWs did exactly the same, and are now embarrassed when people point out that demons got Greber to do that.



I provide links below to show the gross deceptions the JWs go to to try to drum up scholarly support for their NWT. At the end are 2 links for comparing Mormon teachings with biblical ones.



EDIT Why are some wittering on about the book of Revelation, or claiming that the Bible wasn't compiled till 350 years after Christ? The Hebrew scriptures were completed long before Jesus was even born! That's the part of the Bible that He and all the first Christians used and quoted from! The remaining Greek scriptures began to be written within 30 years of Jesus death and the last one was finished by AD 95 at the latest. All the Christian congregations of the first century used all of those Greek writings that we now know as the New Testament. What ARE those people going on about?

Answer 2

Read truth in translation. A Bible scholar, who is not a JW takes I think around 9 of the.worlds most popular bibles and compares them on there accuracy. One being the NWT. Ends up it is the most accurate and least biased. Not to say he doesn't have some problems with it. I just hate it when people prejudge a Bible of a certain religion, especially when that religion is willing to use any translation of the Bible when trying to teach others.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

The scripture found in Revelation is consistently mis interpreted, because it's pretty obvious that the New Testament that we hold in our hands was compiled a thousand years after that writing. The New Testament didn't exist at the time, and if the scripture were to be apptly applied the New Testament itself couldn't have been compiled.



It is also a pretty well known fact that John wrote Revelation long before many of the other books were chronologically written. The entire concept is flawed from the start.



That being said the Bible itself is translated and rewritten into hundreds if not thousands of translations right now, so again the argument is actually pretty ignorant



Are they "factually" accurate.. is anything factually accurate, history, science, technology is consistently rewritten. They are as "factually" accurate as anything written by human hands.

Answer 5

Yep, here come the mormons, shouting that verse about "changing" the Word of God only meant the book of Revelation. Everything else is up for grabs, eh? Sheesh. God help them, will they EVER get it?? No. That's why they are.... mormon, the perpetual children of the religious set.



If ANY religious slavery club has to redo the bible in any way in order for it to line up with the ideas they promote as being from God, do you think their changes can ever be described as "accurate" in any way, shape, or form? Kind of like a little kid coloring a picture of the Mona Lisa and expecting it to be literally accepted "as" the Mona Lisa itself? Rather childish thinking, that.

Answer 6

The Book of Mormon is supposed to be a history of Indigenous Americans but it says nothing about their actual contributions to the world. It replaces real achievements of ancient cultures with a fabricated history.



The Book of Mormon IS NOT factually accurate. It is nothing but a horrible fabricated history of ancient America, a work of 19th century fiction. The canonized form of manifest destiny found in 1 Nephi 13 is racist and morally condemnable.

Answer 7

@Eddie, please send me some of your experts quotes, for every one you supply I will supply 20 from well qualified internationally recognized bible scholars to say the NWT is a farce and only written to support the teachings of the cult.



Just as after the teaching about Christ no longer being worthy of worship, the NWT needed to be re-translated to again agree with this new teaching for the 1071 edition.



It is so good to have translators ready and waiting to re-translate the NWT ever time you have changed teachings due to your light getting brighter.



Christ is the Light of the world and no one that followes Christ can walk in darkness, as the JW's walk in their darkness.

Answer 8

I agree with Mikey.



It is odd that a person with a doctorate degree in divinity would not understand something so basic. The bible was compiled 350 years after Christ. Does the Book of revelation really tell us to not add anything else to the bible? what about some of the other books of the bible that were written earlier than revelation? The new testament is not compiled sequentially. It places the gospels first, the book of Acts second, all the letters third and the book of revelation last. It should be clear to anyone that the phrase that we should not add to the book of this revelation does not mean the bible, but the book of revelation.



To think that a person would instruct us on how to use a book that did not exist until 300 years later is making God more mystical than he is. This is the same attitude of looking beyond the mark that places halo's over apostles heads and makes them more than human. In reality, they were ordinary men called to do a work for God.



The idea that there should be no more revelation from heaven is contrary to bible teachings and all of religious history.

Answer 9

First: Please realize that Jehovah's Witnesses use MANY different translations of the Bible in their studies and worship. Personally: I still love my KJV.



As for the New World Translation: It is a Modern English Translation, and was produced to return Jehovah's name to all the places it had been in Older Manuscripts. Jesus said that he had made his Fathers NAME known. Jehovah's Witnesses try to make God's name known also.



The NWT did not have an individual translator. It was produced by a number of individuals working together over a fairly long period of time. . It would have been difficult to give credit in to each of them individually, so their names were not published in the translation.



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Answer 10

I do not know about the New World Translation but I do know that if you apply that bishop's application of what I like to call the Bible copyright to all of scripture, then we would all need to throw out Christ and pretty much everything after Deuteronomy as it says pretty much the same thing. In Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32.



Those passages are not saying that God will never give us new revelation. If that was the case then everything after Deuteronomy chapter 4 should be dismissed as a lie and thrown out. But that is not the case. Those passages are directed towards mankind not God. Scripture is basically a record of God's dealings with mankind. The Bible was likely compiled by prophets of God from a larger source of records which are now lost to the world. From there it was recompiled by a group of theologians who decided of themselves what was and was not scripture.



The Book of Mormon was compiled from records kept over more than a thousand years by a prophet of God and delivered to another man called as a prophet who then translated it not by his own power or wisdom but by the power and wisdom of God.



The Bible is rightly held up as the world's greatest treasure. It is the only record that we currently have of the earthly ministry of Christ. However the Bible is not complete and anyone who says that it is complete, is calling God a liar and are ignoring the promises that God made to the Children of Israel recorded in the Old Testament.



The Bible as we have it today is really a record of God's Dealings with the ancient Jews, one of 12 tribes or parts of God's ancient covenant people. The remaining 11 tribes are touched on but for the most part excluded from our current Bible. There are prophecies about the gathering of Israel as a requirement prior to the Lord's second coming within the text of the Bible mostly the Old Testament but the Bible none the less.



The Book of Mormon is a record of one of those remaining 11 tribes or parts of God's covenant people and their dealings with God.



So really the Bible is part 1 of 12 when you factor in all of the branches of God's Chosen people.



Thus the question of the Book of Mormon is not should it have been written but is it actual scripture inspired by God.





Here is a list of scriptures that talk about the scattering and gathering of Israel

http://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/israel/the-gathering-of-israel?lang=eng



Here is a list of scriptures dealing with the gathering of Israel.

http://www.lds.org/scriptures/tg/israel-gathering-of?lang=eng&letter=i



Both of those lists have scriptures from the Bible and from scripture used exclusively by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



If you have any questions please feel free to email me and I will be happy to try to answer them.

Answer 11

Sir,



That Is The Factually Very Accurate Testaments.

Answer 12

In actuality, the new world translation is the most accurate translation of the bible there is. This is not a biased statement but in actual fact,the new world translation has been examined by secular experts and found to be accurate. Your church of England Bishop with his doctorate of divinity from Oxford has obviously not done his homework.

Incidently,if you want references as to the accuracy of the NWT,I will be glad to provide them.