Is the JW Bible (The New World Translation) Reliable?

This question reminded me of a talk I had with a JW elder. He told me that the Billy Graham Ministries approved of the “New World Translation.” This was a common understanding among JW’s at that time (1980) and was passed along without checking. I wrote to Billy Graham and his Ministry said that, "the NWT was not an honest translation and that many of the WT doctrines were put into the NWT without any support from the original languages." 

The Bible was written in the languages of ancient Palestine—Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Therefore, anyone translating the Bible needs to be well versed in those languages. Who were the translators of the NWT? The WT does not reveal the names of these people and points to the New American Standard as a translation that also does not reveal its translators. However, the NAS will send the names of the translators to anyone who asks. The WT refuses to release the names of its translation committee. They claim this is in order that all credit for the work will go to God. However, it is easy to see that by shielding the translators they cannot have their credentials checked.

Well, who did translate the NWT? Raymond V. Franz, a former member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses and nephew of the organization’s late president Fred Franz, spent nine years as a member of its top-secret Governing Body. In his book, “Crisis of Conscience,” Ray names those on the translation committee: George Gangas, Albert Schroeder, Fredrick Franz and Nathan Knorr. Fredrick Franz was self-taught in Hebrew and studied Greek for two years at the University of Cincinnati. None of the other members had any ancient language training. Fred Franz, when asked in a Scotland courtroom if he could translate Genesis 2:4 into Hebrew, replied that he could not. The truth is that Franz was unable to translate Hebrew or Greek. With an unqualified translating committee, the NWT ended up twisting Scripture to make it fit the Society's doctrine. It is not a reliable, unbiased translation. For examples of “Scriptures Twisted by the JW’s” see my blogs on "Twisted Scriptures and other Shenanigans" Part 1 is here and "Presto Change-O!" Part 1 is here.

What do true Bible scholars think of the NWT?

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."

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."

British scholar H.H. Rowley stated, "From beginning to end this volume is a shining example of how the Bible should not be translated."

"Well, as a backdrop, I was disturbed because they (Watchtower) had misquoted me in support of their translation." (These words were excerpted from the tape, "Martin and Julius Mantey on The New World Translation"; Mantey is quoted on pages 1158-1159 of the Kingdom interlinear Translation)

Dr. Julius 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)

The translators of the NWT are "diabolical deceivers." (Julius Mantey in discussion with Walter Martin).

JW.ORG wrote an article, "Is the New World Translation Accurate." My response to that article is here.