I bought this book with some trepidation, but I had read it viewed the NWT of the Bible in a favorable light. I had to see it for myself. As a Bible student, and as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, I have a modest, but distinguished library of research materials, including Strong's Concordance, Oxford's Companion to the Bible, Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, the New Catholic Encyclopedia (the volume containing the entry for the trinity), Vine's Expository Dictionary, Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Halley's Bible Commentary, Works of Josephus, and others. I have many Bible translations as well, including the Septuagint, New Jerusalem, King James, NWT, and others. I intend to grow my library at every opportunity, and hope to read every major Bible translation at least once in my life.
What an understatement that this book views the NWT favorably! This book is a fantastic read, infused with a breath of truth, written by an honest man. It contains a concise, but complete examination of eight modern Bible translations, as well as the King James Bible. It shows, without bias (a rare thing indeed), how each compares on the translation of the original Greek. In so doing, it shatters many traditional doctrines of who Jesus Christ is, according to biased translations. One of my favorite points he makes, is that truth is not about votes. 1,000 people can say something is true, but that doesn't make it so. And while the majority of all English Bible translations may support the trinity, that fact isn't enough to make it true. The real truth comes out only when a Bible translation accurately translates the original Greek, and so very few have done that.
There is no question, that professor BeDuhn is a qualified scholar of Koine Greek and the culture and history of the Bible authors. And his conclusions will shock you, if you aren't one of Jehovah's Witnesses. If you are however, you will find that 90% of what professor BeDuhn says in this work agrees with the NWT of the Holy Scriptures, and by extension our teachings. The NWT, according to BeDuhn, who is not one of Jehovah's Witnesses, is quite possibly THE best modern English translation of the Bible, showing a nearly total lack of bias in its rendering of the original thoughts conveyed in Greek. The NWT is a literal word for word translation, or Formal Equivalence translation, which deviates into Dynamic Equivalence occasionally. It is not a paraphrase. And while he comments that it tends to sound stilted and wooden, he acknowledges it as a work of truth seekers, who made every effort to avoid bias in the translation.
He shatters the infamous E.C. Colwell rule which many use to support the trinitarian translation of John 1:1, by showing 5 locations in the Gospel of John alone, which utterly break that rule, proving it is not a rule at all! It is merely a mechanism to support the theological bias of the person who created the rule. BeDuhn shows through context, both of Bible history, and Scripture, as well as via examples of John's Koine Greek, that John 1:1 should in fact read "..and the Word was a god." (or "was divine", as in a divine being) His knowledge of the nuances of Koine Greek is exceptional. He also tackles the commonly mistranslated "I Am" Scripture in John, again used by trinitarians to "prove" Jesus is claiming he is God. Proving via Scripture, and Koine Greek knowledge that the NWT again translates this Scripture more accurately to say "I have been". If you believe in the trinity, or the oneness theory of Jesus Christ, and you are a real truth seeker, this book will make you question those beliefs, and you would do well to do so. Question the "authority figures." Favor what the Bible actually says, not in the biased English translations, but in the original Greek. If you look hard enough, you will find that even the Catholic Church has admitted that the trinity doctrine is not actually in the Bible. I have the New Catholic Encylopedia to prove it. I've read it for myself. And you will understand why they say this once you've seen what these Scriptures really say in Greek.
BeDuhn tackles pretty much every badly translated Scripture used by trinitarians, with finesse and expertise, doing so without bias - the hallmark of a true Bible scholar. These include the aforementioned Scriptures, as well as the infamous insertion of the word "[other]" at Colossians 1:15-20 by the NWT in regard to the Word being "of creation" and having created "all [other] things", and several others. If you are one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and can afford this book, it is a must have for your research library. And, while your faith should not be based upon the works of scholars, it will, at a minimum, give you scholarly evidence to know that you have been right all along! For that, I thank Professor BeDuhn graciously. The one point BeDuhn does have against the NWT is the inclusion of God's personal name Jehovah in the "New Testament" (while he does acknowledge it belongs in the "Old Testament" over 6,000 times). His concern is that, without any real manuscript evidence of it ever being in the Greek Scriptures (though we don't have any of the original copies), it shows a theological bias. I agree, but I also know why we put it there, and have no issues with it. I also know however, that manuscript fragments do exist of the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Bible), dating to 150 B.C.E., which do in fact have the Tetragrammaton in them. Although those fragments are from the "OT", it still opens the possibility up that the Tetragrammaton was included in the oldest "NT" copies as well. Is that proof? No. But the possibility exists.
Regardless, if you want a good scholarly proof of why the King James and many other modern English Bible translations have very poorly translated the Bible to fit a trinitarian bias, this book is for you. (While this book does not include hellfire, The same can be said for the doctrine of eternal punishment there.) Professor BeDuhn believes the reason the NWT scores as the best modern English translation is due to the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses are an organization that chose to start from scratch with Christianity, and as a result, with some level of innocence as he calls it, created a Bible translation that did not rely on previous translations such as the KJV which are already full of bias. The Protestant movement took many biased teachings with them when they broke away from the Catholic church, including the trinity. But unlike that reformation, Jehovah's Witnesses chose to start from the beginning, using only the Bible as their basis for their doctrine. They chose to create a translation that truly conveyed its original message, no matter where that message led. As one of Jehovah's Witnesses, knowing my motivation as a Christian, and the motivation of the organization, I tend to agree with him.
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Reviews with images
He is correct
Anyone who knows Greek knows the current crop of Bible Translations all have errors and incorrect translations. Jason points out how the same word in Greek is not consistently translated because the translators have theological bias and are afraid to change their non-biblical theological viewpoints. Thanks to the internet, this exposure is being speed up, so perhaps better translations will come out soon.
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