Why do Jehovah Witnesses mistranslate...I AM ("Ego eimi")... in John 8:58 in their New World Translation?

Question

John 8:58 in the original greek language declares the deity of Christ.

John 8:58: NIV: "'I tell you the truth' Jesus answered, 'before Abraham was born, I am' (Gr. ego eimi)".

Many Christians regard this as a forthright claim of Jesus being Jehovah. This is based on the fact that in the Septuagint, (LXX) the Greek translation of the Old testament, Jehovah (YHWH) identifies himself in Exodus 3:14 using the same phrase "ego eimi". The Jews who heard Jesus immediately picked up stones to stone him with, so it is at least implied that they understood the import of what he said. The New World Translation, however, when they first translated this verse from John, rendered the last part of it as "I have been", which was defended as being consistent with the "perfect indefinite tense". John 8:58, as found in the New World Translation, c. 1950, pg. 312, which gives their reason as to why "ego eimi" translates as "I have been".



There are a few problems with this justification, however. The most glaring to Greek scholars is that there is no such thing as the "perfect indefinite tense". It apparently was invented to try to avoid the obvious. So, although the translation committe for the NWT had to maintain the "I have been" rendering for doctrinal reasons, they had to come up with another reason for their rendering. In the 1971 version of the NWT, in the footnotes they changed their Greek tense to "perfect tense indicative.

Answer 1

My faith is not built or guided by a 'past tense',"perfect tense indicative", 'a small letter a', or whatever are the twistings. It is this heretical process that St Peter has warned: private interpretations by unlearned men.

Everyone knows the Jw translators are unknown, not qualified; suffice to say they are NOT GUIDED BY THE Holy Spirit that guided our Apostles and ancient Fathers. Hence the Jw translation is not valid nor holy. It is only a translation. Period.



2 Peter 1:20 Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation,

21 for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God.

Answer 2

You are mistaken. Jehovah's Witnesses did not mistranslate John 8:58 any more than the evangelical Protestant New Living Translation did:



"Jesus answered, 'The truth is, I existed before Abraham was even born!'" -- John 8:58, New Living Translation



Nor did they mistranslate John 8:58 any more than the ancient Christian Syriac version did:



"Before Abraham was born, I was." -- John 8:58, Lamsa



Other competent translators recognized that the Greek can be read another way.



Besides, the New Testament shows that his enemies wanted to stone Jesus for a variety of reasons.



And it is not likely that those conservative Hebrews would have done anything based on the reading of the Greek Septuagint.



In the Hebrew Bible, Exodus 3:14 does not say "I am," but "I will be." Even the King James Version gives the correct translation of the very same Hebrew word when it appears at Exodus 3:12.

Answer 3

You have some misunderstandings here. The Septuagint doesn't have Jehovah identifying himself with the phrase 'ego eimi' at Exodus 3:14; it has 'ego eimi ho on' there, meaning "I am the being." There is no "I am" standing off as its own title, it was merely one part of the complete sentence. So trying to associate this with Jesus using 'ego eimi' as a part of a completely different sentence is a strained connection at best.



The NWT is consistent. In one edition it renders the Greek verb into English with what it calls the "perfect indefinite tense", which is found in English Grammars and is NOT made up. This refers to an action beginning in the past that is still ongoing. In another edition it calls this, more generally, the "perfect tense". It is the VERY SAME tense. One is more specific. The "indicative" part refers, not to the tense, but the mood of the verb. There was no change.

Answer 4

That's a very interesting point.



If you search for "perfect indefinite tense greek" in Google, all you find are articles about the NWT rendering of this verse. So it looks like they did indeed invent the term.



Remember that, although JWs prefer not to name the translators of the NWT, the late Ray Franz did, and most of the translators were not educated in the Biblical languages. Fred Franz was the exception, but I don't think he studied to as high a level as he could have either.



It seems to me, as a layperson to Koine Greek, that the translators were originally trying to get at the idea of perfect tense, but continuing on forever, because Jesus lives forever. I'm not sure that "indicative" is even necessary to describe the tense. As I thought - I just looked up www.blueletterbible.org and it says that the tense is "perfect" but the *mood* is "indicative."



It seems to me, though, now that I think about it more - there may have been changes in scholarship in the world in general between 1950 and 1971. Seeing as the translators were doing it without an education in Koine Greek, they likely relied on other sources. Maybe those other sources were in error. Seeing as that was before the internet, it would be kind of hard to find out.



Having said that, the JWs do know their Bibles in English. Jesus said that his Father honoured him in verse 54. JWs would point to that to say that Jesus was not his Father, because he did not honour himself, whereas his Father did. Besides that, there is the very valid point that Jesus was responding to a question about his age, not his identity. This argument has always seemed weak to me.

Answer 5

Hi there!



JW's believe that Jesus is not God - he is literally the first thing Jehovah created. Therefore they mistranslate verses which disagree with that belief. Look up ANY verse which calls Jesus God in their "Bible" and you'll see that they translate it differently.



You can see the progression of this in the different editions of the NWT. In the 1961 edition (1970 printing), Hebrews 1:6 says Jesus should be worshiped. Oops! That got "corrected" for the 1984 edition. Colossians 1:16-17 has the word "other" inserted 4 times, because if Jesus is himself a created being he couldn't create himself. So he has to create "all (other) things". They admitted the word wasn't in the Greek by putting it in brackets. In the 2006 printing the brackets disappeared (though interestingly not in the pocket sized edition I have).



My biggest problem with this is that if you want to believe Jesus is not God, fine. But an honest examination of the Bible shows clearly that Jesus claimed to be, and was understood to claim, that He is God. If you don't agree then argue your case, but please DON'T tamper with God's Word to try and bolster your belief. That's just childish! "MINE doesn't say that!!!"



Still, their cover is honest. It's the "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures". It doesn't claim to be the Holy Bible (whatever translation).



:-)

Answer 6

Greek and English tenses are different. Many problems of biblical interpretation stem from people trying to interpret the Bible with a modern understanding, and with an English understanding of how grammar works. A prime example of this would be John 8:58.



English tenses emphasize time - past, present, future. Greek tenses don't - they emphasize "aspect," such as ongoing continuous action, completed action, undefined action, etc.



The Greek Present Tense *usually* occurs in the present, but it sometimes occurs in the past or the future.



One function of the Greek Present Tense is the Extension From Past. Here is a discussion of this function from a couple of sources:



"The Present Of Past Action Still In Progress. The Present Indicative, accompanied by an adverbial expression denoting duration and referring to past time, is sometimes used in Greek, as in German, to describe an action which, beginning in past time, is still in progress at the time of speaking. English idiom requires the use of the Perfect in such cases." -- Burton's moods and tenses, Ernest Burton



"The present tense may be used to describe an action which, begun in the past, continues in the present. The emphasis is on the present time. Note that this is different from the perfect tense in that the perfect speaks only about the results existing in the present time. It is different from the progressive present in that it reaches back in time and usually has some sort of temporal indicator, such as an adverbial phrase, to show this past-referring element."

"The key to this usage is normally to translate the present tense as an English present perfect." -- Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, Daniel Wallace, pages 519-520



John 8:58 fits the requirements:

1) The verb is in the Greek Present Tense -- ειμι (I am)

2) It has a temporal indicator, an adverbial phrase, to show a past-referring element -- πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι (before Abraham was born)



John 15:27 has the same Greek Present Tense verb, but being 2nd person plural. The structure of the sentence matches that of John 8:58, yet the majority of English translations render it in the English Perfect, not in the English Present, just like the NWT in John 8:58.



For those who appeal to "context" to support "I AM" as meaning deity: the Jews' question was about his age, not his identity; the context supports the NWT's rendering. Some say Jews seeking to stone Jesus after John 8:58 is proof he was claiming to be God. But this is a logical fallacy. That is, "claiming to be God" would indeed fall under the category of "blasphemy" to the Jews, but it is not the only thing in that category. One doesn't have to look far in Scripture to find the Jews seeking to kill Jesus for other reasons. Hence, that reasoning is fallacious. Also, Jesus' words at John 8:58 didn't make the Jews decide to kill Jesus - they had already made that decision. Jesus himself said just a few verses earlier, in verse 37, that the Jews were seeking to kill him. So this line of reasoning is fallacious on two accounts.



One must keep in mind that the NWT was neither the first nor the last translation to see John 8:58 as the Greek Present Tense Extension From Past. The two translations of Moffatt and Goodspeed clearly pre-date the NWT, and therefore came to that conclusion before the NWT.



Some say there is "no perfect indefinite tense in Greek" - or something like that. However, neither have Jehovah' Witnesses. This is a misquote of what JW publications have said at different times about John 8:58. That is, JW publications have discussed the GREEK grammar, and at other times discussed the ENGLISH grammar - the tense of the English translation. The Greek is clearly in the Greek, but the English translation in the NWT is clearly in the Perfect. Yet some NWT critics will put quotes like these side by side, so as to "prove" that the NWT translators were contradictory and inconsistent.



=====



I just checked the original quote. It said "rendered in the perfect indefinite tense." Note it said "rendered in," not "rendered from." So this tense would be an English tense, not Greek.



There is indeed an English perfect indefinite tense, though it may be a term no longer in use:

http://tinyurl.com/4nznoeu



This is one way to render the Greek's Present Tense Extension From Past.

Answer 7

None can do that if they read John 17:1-26. Rev.3:14.



They don't, it reads that Jesus was before Abraham,

John 3:13-15, he returned back where he came from,

Acts 2:27-35; Heb.1:1-13.

Answer 8

You answered your own question. By the way, John 8 isn't the only place Jesus claimed to be the I AM. When the soldiers came to arrest Him, He asked who they were looking for. They said 'Jesus of Nazareth." He said to them, I AM. When He said to them I AM, they went backward and fell to the ground. (Record in John 18)



Most English translations miss this and add "he" after I AM, but the 'he' is not in the Greek. And when Jesus spoke, the soldiers fell to the ground... So either He spoke the I AM in its full power, or these were the clumsiest soldiers in the world!