New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

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Various editions of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in Multiple Languages

The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (abbreviation NWT ; English: NWT New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures ) is one of the Watchtower Society , the nonprofit publisher company of the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses , published translation of the Bible . The first edition in English ( New Testament ) was published in 1950. To date, it has been translated from English into over 188 languages, including German, according to the editors, with faithful consideration of the original languages.

The various language derivatives of the “New World Translation” are used by Jehovah's Witnesses for liturgical and catechetical purposes of worship and for their missionary work. The Bible translation is not available in regular bookshops, but is distributed by them to the public free of charge.

Origin and history

Before the emergence of the NWT, Jehovah's Witnesses used translations such as the King James Version or the American Standard Version in the English-speaking world . In German, in addition to the Luther Bible , which was temporarily distributed by its own publishing house, the Elberfeld Bible in particular was very common. However, one was not satisfied with these translations, on the grounds that "these translations were made predominantly by clergymen and missionaries of the religious communities of Christendom" and therefore as "more or less of the pagan philosophies and the unbiblical traditions which these religious communities from the Have taken over the past, are influenced by the prejudices of biblical criticism . In addition, more and more older and reliable Bible manuscripts were available. ”In addition, the target languages“ into which the Bible has been translated have changed over the years . “ Nathan Homer Knorr , President of the Watchtower Societies, suggested in October 1946 that a new translation of the New Testament should be done first. The translation work began on December 2, 1947 and was officially completed on September 3, 1949.

The English New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) was published on August 2, 1950. The Hebrew part of the New World Translation ( Old Testament ) was published in six parts in the English language until 1960 . In 1961 a complete edition of the Bible was finally published in one volume. In the meantime, there were two revisions of the English text in 1984 and 2013.

In 1969 the translators published an English interlinear translation of the New Testament, the "Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures". A second edition followed in 1985. This volume offers the Greek text by Westcott and Hort in the top line , a literal interim translation in the middle and the rendering of the English New World Translation at the bottom.

The basis for the English translation of the Hebrew text was the Biblia Hebraica by Rudolf Kittel (editions 1951 to 1955) and for the Greek text “ The New Testament in the Original Greek ” by Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort from 1881. Other editions by D. Ginsberg, Nestle-Aland, and others were also published. a. and the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia is taken into account for the footnotes in the study edition .

According to the publisher, the German edition is a translation based on the revised English edition 1984, faithfully taking into account the original Hebrew , Aramaic and Greek languages.

The translators of both the original English version and the other languages ​​do not want to be named because they want all glory to go to Jehovah God, the author of his inspired word.

Editions and revisions

New World Translation in German

The NWÜ is now available in full in 123 languages. The Christian Greek Scriptures, the New Testament, are available in a further 55 languages. The total circulation was to stand in 2020 238 million copies in 188 languages. The publisher is the "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc." and the "Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania". For the German-speaking area the responsible publisher is the “Watchtower Bibel and Tract Society” in Selters / Taunus.

The following German-language editions and revisions have been published so far:

  • 1963: 27 books of the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament), the text is based on the 1961 English edition
  • 1971: entire Bible with revised Greek scriptures, based on the 1970 English edition
  • 1985: Edition with more than 125,000 cross-references, based on the 1984 English edition
  • 1986: Study edition based on the 1984 text

1986: Study edition, based on the text from 1984. Smaller text changes (example: Isaiah 11, 6) were subsequently incorporated into the text of the official revision from 1986.

  • 2019: Edition in modern language and with easily understandable wording, the text is based on the English edition from 2013

concordance

The Watchtower Bibel and Tract Society has published a comprehensive concordance on the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, in English in 1973 and in German in 1989. The Bible Concordance contains over 340,000 references to almost 19,900 headwords.

features

Text example of the German edition

The New World Translation is a structurally faithful Bible translation , similar to the Elberfeld Bible and the Schlachter Bible . The translators claim that it is an "exact, largely literal translation from the original languages, taking into account the English edition". According to the editors, it is "not a free reproduction, in which the translators omit details that they consider to be unimportant and add thoughts that they think might be helpful." In the view of Jehovah's Witnesses, the translators adhered to " exactly to the basic text. "

The division into chapters and verses is based on the English King James version and thus differs in individual places from the various divisions used in the German-speaking area.

Similar to many Protestant translations, the NWT does not contain the deutero- canonical writings of the Old Testament.

Using “Jehovah” as God's Name

The New World Translation uses the name "Jehovah" for the proper name of the biblical god JHWH (Tetragrammaton). Jehovah is represented in 6973 passages of the text (OT and NT). The translators point out that the exact historical pronunciation of the tetragram cannot currently be exactly reconstructed.

Usage in the Old Testament

The translators used the reading Jehovah in 6827 places in the text of the OT, where יהוה occurs in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Biblia Hebraica by Rudolf Kittel ( Judges 19:18 were not adopted by the translators).

In addition, they added the name of God to 133 of the 134 places that the Masoretes listed as an inadmissible change in the Tetragrammaton in "Adonaj" by the Jewish Soferim . They also followed the Bible scholar Christian David Ginsburg , who identified eight places where the Soferim had replaced him with Elohim . Finally, according to the reading of the Septuagint , they added the name in three places, which is consistent with the footnotes of the Biblia Hebraica.

Usage in the New Testament

In their work, the translators used editions of the Greek New Testament that were critical of the text, in which the name of God "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" is not to be found (see also YHWH in the New Testament ). Only in Revelation 19 is the short form of the name found in four places in the word Hallelujah, which means "Praise Jah".

YHWH or its readings are not passed down in the surviving manuscripts of the New Testament. Jehovah has been inserted in 237 places, mostly in quotes from the Old Testament that contain the Tetragrammaton. The translators justify their approach with some papyrus finds, which prove that the Tetragrammaton was used in the Septuagint (e.g. Papyrus Fouad 266 ).

The name “Jehovah” has also been added in places where the Old Testament is not quoted, for example in 2 Corinthians 3: 14-18, in Ephesians 2: 19-22 and in other places. The translators justify this primarily with Hebrew translations of the New Testament, so-called "J texts". In these translations from Greek into Hebrew, the translators used the Tetragrammaton to reproduce the words for “Lord” (κύριος Kyrios ) and “God” (Θεός Theos ) in the Greek text in relation to YHWH. The NWT therefore quotes other translations and not the Bible text at these points.

criticism

Criticism of the English-language editions

Bruce M. Metzger , a professor emeritus at Princeton University's Theological Seminary and former director of the American Bible Society , says that the translation of certain passages in the English-language New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) unilaterally affects the teachings and practices of the Witnesses Favoring Jehovah. Harold H. Rowley criticized the pre-publication of the first volume of the English version ( Genesis to Ruth ) in 1953 as a shining example of how the Bible should not be translated . On the other hand, biblical scholar Jason BeDuhn of Northern Arizona University judged in his study of the nine most widely used Bibles in the English-speaking world that the NWT was not free from one-sidedness, but was "the most accurate of the translations compared," a "remarkably good translation ". Benjamin Kedar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem described the NWT as a work that "shows an honest endeavor to achieve an understanding of the text that is as accurate as possible" .

Metzger judges that on the whole one gets a reasonably good impression of the translators' scientific qualifications, but continues to criticize the addition of the name “Jehovah” in the New Testament, which does not exist in the Greek manuscripts. The Watchtower Society states that the name of God has been "restored" on a reasonable basis, particularly in places where the New Testament authors wrote kyrios ("Lord") when reproducing passages from the Old Testament that contained the Tetragrammaton . They see themselves supported by biblical scholars like George Howard and R. B. Girdlestone. George Howard made it clear in a letter that he does not support the rationale of Jehovah's Witnesses. On July 8, 1988 he wrote to Rud Persson :

“The Jehovah Witnesses have made too much out of my articles. I do not support their theories. "

“Jehovah's Witnesses made too much of my articles. I do not support their theories. "

- George Howard : letter to Rud Persson

Criticism of the German-language editions

The Protestant German Bible Society describes the language style of the New World Translation as “unsightly translation German with splayed expressions” and the translation type as “philological with a strong influence of literality, linguistic and senseless overaccuracies in the rendering (indefinite instead of definite articles, rendering of verb forms in the AT) ". In the comments, she criticizes the fact that these "can hardly be understood or correctly assessed without knowledge of the biblical languages" and describes the NWT in the overall assessment as "largely accurate, but in the sense of the special teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses tendentious translation".

The Handbook of Bible Translations by Monika and Rainer Kuschmierz criticizes the fact that older Urtext editions were used throughout (Kittel's Biblia Hebraica, 7th – 9th edition, Westcott / Hort from 1881). "The" New World Translation "(NWT) primarily serves to legitimize the special teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses. As for the special features: In large parts it is a very accurate translation; However, in important places it deliberately deviates from the basic text for theological reasons and becomes a clearly tendentious translation. ”The author duo draws the following conclusion:“ The »New World Translation« is an extremely tendentious translation and should, if at all, only be read with great care. "

Kurt Weber discusses the version of the NT from 1963. In summary, he comes to the conclusion: “Despite the translation that is 'as literal as possible', there are changes in meaning. This is not only for the reasons mentioned in the 'concordant translation'. Here the deviations are mainly due to the fact that the false teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses are to be supported. "

Samuel Brügger reviews the German-language edition from 1971. He notes that this Bible edition has two models, an English-language version from 1970 and only secondarily the original text. He criticizes the tabular list of the origins of the biblical books, "which is afflicted with all the shortcomings and inaccuracies that the schematic simplification of complicated facts always includes." He comes to the overall assessment: "Although the New World Translation is apparently a literally exact translation, especially the terms Techniki are changed so skillfully that they do not contradict the teaching of this sect. Uniform, concordant, and in some cases even interlinear translation method is misused here as an apparent proof that the teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses is completely consistent with the Bible. Since the meanings of the words in two languages ​​only rarely completely coincide, even in a literal translation there is still enough room for interpretation and falsification, which becomes clear in this Bible edition. "

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Online Bible. Retrieved on May 5, 2020 : “It is available as a full or partial edition in over 188 languages. Previous circulation: over 238 million. "
  2. ↑ a b Watchtower Biblical and Tract Society, Selters / Taunus (ed.): New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures - with study references . (Translated from the revised English edition 1984 with faithful consideration of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek original language).
  3. ↑ Jehovah's Witnesses - Herald of the Kingdom of God. Selters 1993, p. 607 ff.
  4. ↑ Online Bible. In: jw.org. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, accessed February 29, 2020 : “The New World Translation of the Bible is an accurate, reader-friendly translation. They are available as full or partial editions in over 160 languages. Previous circulation: over 238 million. "
  5. ^ Title Page / Publishers' Page New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition). In: jw.org. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, accessed on February 29, 2020 : "Title Page / Publishers' Page New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition) © 2015, 2020 WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA 200 Watchtower Drive Patterson, NY 12563-9205 USA PUBLISHERS WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, INC. Wallkill, New York, USA "
  6. ↑ The Watchtower. September 15, 1991, p. 31.
  7. ↑ Comprehensive Concordance on the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. Watchtower Biblical and Tract Society, 1989, p. 5.
  8. ↑ Watchtower Bible and Tract Society; Conversations from the Scriptures. Selters 1985; P. 312.
  9. ↑ Watchtower Bible and Tract Society; Conversations from the Scriptures. Selters 1985, p. 314.
  10. ↑ Jason BeDuhn criticizes this approach as a harmonization. “This problem arises, because the Bible itself is not consistent in the way all of these translators want it to be. The Old Testaments Authors regularly use 'Jehovah' as ​​Gods personal name and the New Testament authors never do so. To cover over this inconsistency, transslators harmonize the two testaments, that is, they make them read the same though originally they do not. To harmonize the bible is to change one part to make it match another. This is not a legitimate part of a translator's task. " Truth in Translation. P. 170.
  11. ↑ Kingdom Interlinear Translation; Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Brooklyn 1985; Pp. 13, 14.
  12. ↑ “What the NW editors are actually doing in these notes is citing other translations. ... This kind of citation of another translation does not prove anything; it merely indicates how the choice of the translator is similar to that made by another translator at some time. It supports the choice without decidedly settling the translation issue. " Jason BeDuhn: Truth in Translation. S. 172. German translation: “The editors of the NWÜ cite other translations in these cases. ... However, adopting another translation does not prove anything, it just shows that the translator's decisions at that point are similar to the translation that was made by another translator at some point ”. BeDuhn notes in FN7 on one of the translations used J2, which is available in a manuscript from the 14th century: The source and date of this translation is unclear, it could come from a Latin translation or even from an Arabic translation of a Latin translation, i.e. highly derived. ... it is not wise to put too much weight on its evidential value, especially since it is not even a Greek manuscript of the New Testament.
  13. ^ Penton, MJ: Apocalypse Delayed, 2nd . Ed .: University of Toronto Press. 1997, ISBN 0-8020-7973-3 , pp. 174-176 .
  14. ↑ Samuel Haas, OH Hauptmann: Escorial Bible Ij4: Vol. I; the Pentateuch . In: Society of Biblical Literature (Ed.): Journal of Biblical Literature . tape 74 , no. 4 , December 1955, p. 283 , doi : 10.2307 / 3261682 (English): “This work indicates a great deal of effort and thought as well as considerable scholarship, it is to be regretted that religious bias was allowed to color many passages”
  15. ↑ Rhodes Ron: The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions, The Essential Guide to Their History, Their Doctrine, and Our Response . Ed .: Zondervan. 2001, ISBN 978-0-310-23217-9 , pp. 94 .
  16. ^ Bruce M Metzger: Jehovah's Witnesses and Jesus Christ . In: Theology Today . April 1953, p. 74 . or Metzger: The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures . In: The Bible Translator . July 1964.
  17. ^ HH Rowley: How Not To Translate the Bible . In: The Expository Times . 1953, p. 41 u. 65 .
  18. ↑ Jason BeDuhn: Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament . Ed .: University Press of America. 2003, ISBN 0-7618-2556-8 , pp. 163 .
  19. ↑ Jason BeDuhn: Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament . Ed .: University Press of America. 2003, ISBN 0-7618-2556-8 , pp. 165 .
  20. ^ All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial . 1990, p. 326 .
  21. ↑ G. Hébert / eds .: Jehovah's Witnesses . In: The New Catholic Encyclopedia . tape 7 . Gale 2005, p. 751 .
  22. ^ Metzger, Bruce M .: The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures . In: The Bible Translator . tape 15 , no. 3 , July 1964, p. 150-153 ( UBS ).
  23. ↑ God's Name and the New Testament . In: Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society (eds.): The Divine Name That Will Endure Forever . 1984, p. 23, 27 .
  24. ^ Howard George: Journal of Biblical Literature . Ed .: University of Georgia. tape 96 , 1977, pp. 63 (English): “Recent discoveries in Egypt and the Judean Desert allow us to see first hand the use of God's name in pre-Christian times. These discoveries are significant for N [ew] T [estament] studies in that they form a literary analogy with the earliest Christian documents and may explain how NT authors used the divine name. In the following Ss we will set forth a theory that the divine name, יהוה (and possibly abbreviations of it), was originally written in the NT quotations of and allusions to the O [ld] T [estament] and that in the course of time it was replaced mainly with the surrogate [abbreviation for Ky′ri • os, "Lord"]. This removal of the Tetragram [maton], in our view, created a confusion in the minds of early Gentile Christians about the relationship between the 'Lord God' and the 'Lord Christ' which is reflected in the MS tradition of the NT text itself . ”
  25. ↑ RB Girdlestone: Girdlestone's Definitions of the Old Testament . Ed .: Hendrickson Publisher. 2000, ISBN 978-1-56563-558-6 .
  26. ^ Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (ed.): Insight on the Scriptures . tape 2 , p. 10 (English, wol.jw.org - note the following acknowledgment by RB Girdlestone): “… He said: 'If that [Septuagint] version had retained the word [Jehovah], or had even used one Greek word for Jehovah and another for Adonai, such usage would doubtless have been retained in the discourses and arguments of the NT Thus our Lord, in quoting the 110th Psalm 110: 1, instead of saying, 'The Lord said unto my Lord,' might have said, 'Jehovah said unto Adoni . ' ... '(Definitions of the Old Testament, 1897, p. 43) ”
  27. ↑ Franz, Raymond: In search of Christian freedom . Hamburg 2005, ISBN 978-3-00-015952-7 , pp. 641 .
  28. ^ Website of the German Bible Society on the subject of New World Translation. Print version: Hellmut Haug: German Bible translations; The current offer - information and evaluation, expanded new edition, German Bible Society, 2nd, expanded edition Stuttgart 1993. pp. 34–35.
  29. ↑ Monika and Rainer Kuschmierz: Handbook of Bible translations; From Luther to Volxbibel. Brockhaus, Wuppertal 2007, p. 67.
  30. ↑ Handbook of Bible Translations; P. 69.
  31. ↑ Kurt Weber: Bible translations under the microscope; Handbook for Bible readers, 2nd ed. Schulte, Wetzlar 1973. P. 95ff.
  32. ^ Samuel Brügger: The German Bible Translations of the 20th Century in Linguistic Comparison; Studies on the use of metaphors in the Germanizations of the New Testament. In: European University Writings Series I, German Language and Literature Vol. 707. Bern, Frankfurt am Main, New York: Lang 1983, pp. 202–211.
  33. ↑ Bruges. Bible translations of the 20th century p. 203.
  34. ↑ Bruges. Bible translations of the 20th century p. 204.
  35. ↑ Bruges. Bible translations of the 20th century p. 210.

literature

  • Jason BeDuhn : Truth in Translation - Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament. ISBN 0-7618-2556-8 (English).
  • Anthony Biatt, Hal Fleming (Ed.): 'Your Word Is Truth'. Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1950, 1953), Golden Age Books, 2004, ISBN 0-9506212-6-9 .
  • Countess, Robert H .: Jehovah's Witnesses' New Testament: A Critical Analysis. ISBN 0-87552-210-6 .
  • Rolf Furuli: The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation. With a special look at the New World Translation of Jehovah's Witnesses. 1999, ISBN 0-9659814-4-4 .
  • Greg Stafford: Jehovah's Witnesses Defended - An Answer to Scholars and Critics. 2nd Edition, ISBN 0-9659814-8-7 (English).
  • Gérard Gertoux : The Name of God Y.eH.oW.aH which is pronounced as it is written I_Eh_oU_Ah - Its Story (=  G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series ). University Press of America, Lanham, MD, ISBN 0-7618-2204-6 (English, academia.edu ).
  • Brian Holt: Jesus - GOD or the SON of GOD? A Comparison of the Arguments. ISBN 0-9713760-8-5 (English).
  • Monika and Rainer Kuschmierz: Handbook of Bible translations; From Luther to Volxbibel. Brockhaus, Wuppertal 2007.
  • Kurt Weber: Bible translations under the microscope; Bible Readers Manual. 2nd edition Schulte, Wetzlar 1973.
  • Samuel Brügger: The German Bible Translations of the 20th Century in a Linguistic Comparison. Studies on the use of metaphors in the Germanizations of the New Testament. In: European University Writings. Series I, German Language and Literature Volume 707. Lang, Bern / Frankfurt am Main / New York 1983.
  • Hellmut Haug: German Bible translations; The current offer - information and evaluation. 2nd, expanded new edition, German Bible Society, Stuttgart 1993.

Web links

Commons : New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures  - collection of images, videos and audio files