Foreword
The original writings of the Christiana Greek Scriptures, commonly called “The New Testament,” were inspired. No translation of these sacred writings into another language, except by the original writers, is inspired. In copying the inspired originals by hand, the element of human frailty entered in, and so none of the thousands of copies in existence today in the original language are perfect duplicates. The result is that no two copies are exactly alike. Since this is the case with handwritten copies of the Scriptures, it is to be expected that no translation of them could be perfect. It could not accurately render the precise meaning of the inspired originals. Especially so when the translation is made from an imperfect copy. From this fact arises the need for a fresh translation from time to time, as better understanding of the original languages, now dead, becomes possible and as the light of the truth on the inspired Scriptures becomes brighter.
From the time of the Roman Catholic clergyman John Wycliffe, of the 14th century, until the final decades of this 20th century, many English translations of the inspired writings of Christ’s disciples have been made. All of these have had their own commendable features. They have considerably met the needs of the day for a rendering of God’s Word into the common language of the people. Much good has been accomplished by them and will yet be. However, it is to be noted that, while each of them has its points of merit, they have fallen victim to the power of religious traditions in varying degrees. Consequently, religious traditions, hoary with age, have been taken for granted and gone unchallenged and uninvestigated. These have been interwoven into the translations to color the thought. In support of a preferred religious view, inconsistency and unreasonableness have been insinuated into the teachings of the inspired writings.
The Son of God taught that the traditions of creed-bound men made the commandments and teachings of God to be without power or effect. The endeavor of the New World Bible Translation Committee has been to avoid this snare of religious traditionalism. This very effort distinguishes this work as a translation of the “Christian Greek Scriptures.” It is a traditional mistake to divide God’s written Word into two sections and call the second section, from Matthew to Revelation (or Apocalypse), “The New Testament.”—See Appendix 5D.
No uninspired translator or committee of translators can claim any direct command from the Most High God to engage in translating the divine Word into another language. But translation of it is necessary, and that into many languages, if Christ’s command for this momentous day is to be fulfilled: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) So, to do the work of translating is a privilege. In presenting this translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, our confidence has been in the help of the great Author of The Book. Our primary desire has been to seek not the approval of men but that of God, by rendering the truth of his inspired Word as purely and as consistently as our dedicated abilities make possible. There is no benefit in self-deception. More than that, those who provide a translation for the spiritual instruction of others come under a special responsibility as teachers before the Divine Judge. Hence, we are aware of the need to be careful.
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GREEK TEXT: The Greek text that we have used as the basis for the New World Translation is the widely accepted Westcott and Hort text (1881), by reason of its acknowledged excellence.b But we have also taken into consideration other texts, including those prepared by D. Eberhard Nestle,c Spanish Jesuit scholar José María Bover,d and another Jesuit scholar, A. Merk.e The UBS text of 1975 and the Nestle-Aland text of 1979 were consulted to update the critical apparatus of this edition.
We have disposed of archaic language altogether, even in prayers and addresses to God. This means we have dropped using the now-sanctimonious formal pronouns thou, thy, thine, thee, and ye, with their corresponding verb inflections. The original Bible was written in the living languages of the people of the day, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek; and so the Bible characters addressed God and prayed to him in the same everyday language that they employed in speaking to their fellow creatures on earth. The translation of the Scriptures into a modern language should be rendered in the same style, in the speech forms current among the people. We offer no paraphrase of the Scriptures. Our endeavor throughout has been to give as literal a translation as possible where the modern English idiom allows for it or where the thought content is not hidden due to any awkwardness in the literal rendition. In this way, we can best meet the desire of those who are scrupulous for getting, as nearly as possible word for word, the exact statement of the original. We realize that sometimes the use of so small a thing as the definite or indefinite article or the omission of such may alter the correct sense of the original passage.
Close watch has been kept against taking liberties with texts merely for the sake of brevity or shortcuts and against substitution of a modern parallel where the rendering of the original idea makes good sense. To each major word we have assigned one meaning and have held to that meaning as far as the context permitted. This, indeed, has imposed a restriction upon our diction, yet it makes for good cross-reference work and for a more reliable comparison of related texts or verses. At the same time, in order to bring out the richness and variety of the language of the inspired writers, we have avoided the rendering of two or more Greek words by the same English word, for this hides the distinction in shade of meaning between the several words thus rendered. Attention has been given to the tenses of verbs to bring out the intended description of the action, position, or state. As the reader becomes familiar with our translation he will discern more and more the harmony and interagreement of our renderings in all these respects.
CHAPTER AND VERSE NUMBERING: This follows that of the King James Version, thus making possible easy comparison. But, instead of making each verse a separate paragraph in itself, we have grouped verses into paragraphs for the proper development of a complete thought in all its context. Mindful of the Hebrew background of the Christian Greek Scriptures, we have followed mainly the Hebrew spelling of the names of persons and places, rather than that of the Greek text, which imitates the Greek Septuagint translation (LXX) of the Hebrew Scriptures.
RESTORING THE DIVINE NAME, JEHOVAH: The evidence is that the original text of the Christian Greek Scriptures has been tampered with, the same as the text of the LXX has been. (See App 1A, B.) Sometime during the second or third centuries C.E., the Tetragrammaton (YHWH, or JHVH) was eliminated from the Greek text by copyists who did not understand or appreciate the divine name or who developed an aversion to it, possibly under the influence of anti-Semitism. Instead of YHWH (or, JHVH) they substituted the words Kyʹri·os, “Lord,” and The·osʹ, “God.”
In view of this, what is the modern translator to do? Is he justified or authorized in entering the divine name, Jehovah, into a translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures? In the LXX the Greek words Kyʹri·os and The·osʹ have been used to crowd out the distinctive name of the Supreme Deity. Every comprehensive Greek-English dictionary states that these two Greek words have been used as equivalents of the divine name.f Hence, the modern translator is warranted in using the divine name as an equivalent of those two Greek words, that is, at places where the writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures quote verses, passages, and expressions from the Hebrew Scriptures or from the LXX where the divine name occurs.
Throughout the centuries many translations of parts or of all the Christian Greek Scriptures have been made into Hebrew. Such translations, designated in this work by “J” with a superior number, have restored the divine name to the Christian Greek Scriptures in various places. They have restored the divine name not only when coming upon quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures but also in other places where the texts called for such restoration.
How may modern translators determine when to render the Greek words Kyʹri·os and The·osʹ as the divine name? By determining where the inspired Christian writers have quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures. Then they must refer back to the Hebrew text to locate whether the divine name appears there. In this way they can determine the identity to be given to Kyʹri·os and The·osʹ, and make appropriate use of the personal name.
To avoid overstepping the bounds of a translator into the field of exegesis, we have tried to be most cautious about rendering the divine name, always carefully considering the Hebrew Scriptures as a background. We have looked for some agreement with us by the Hebrew versions we consulted to confirm our rendering. Thus, out of the 237 times that we have restored Jehovah’s name in the body of our translation, there is only one instance wherein we have no support or agreement from any of the Hebrew versions. But in this one instance, namely, at 1 Corinthians 7:17, the context and related texts strongly support restoring the divine name.
While many are inclined to view the pronunciation “Yahweh” as the more correct way, we have retained the form “Jehovah” because of people’s familiarity with it for centuries. Moreover, it preserves, equally with other forms, the four letters of the divine name, YHWH (or, JHVH).
We count ourselves happy to be privileged to present this revision of The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures in the interest of Bible education, at this time of the dawn of a righteous “new heavens and a new earth,” where the name of the Author of the Holy Scriptures will be known and honored by all. We shall be grateful if it guides many to right Scriptural understanding and action at this critical time when “everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.”—2 Peter 3:13; Acts 2:21.
New World Bible Translation Committee
January 1, 1985, New York, N.Y.
a Called “Christian” to distinguish them from the pre-Christian Greek Septuagint translation of the inspired Hebrew Scriptures.
b Besides using the 1948 Macmillan Company edition of this text, we have availed ourselves of the two exhaustive volumes on Matthew and Mark, prepared under the supervision of S. C. E. Legg, A.M., and published by the Oxford Clarendon Press, Novum Testamentum Graece Secundum Textum Westcotto-Hortianum—Evangelium Secundum Matthaeum (1940) and Evangelium Secundum Marcum (1935).
c The 18th edition of Novum Testamentum Graece by D. Eberhard Nestle, elaborated by D. Erwin Nestle, published in 1948 by the Württemberg Bible Society, Stuttgart, Germany.
d Novi Testamenti Biblia Graeca et Latina by José M. Bover, S.J., dated 1943 and published at Barcelona, Spain.
e The 1948 printing of the sixth edition of Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine by Augustinus Merk, S.J., and printed at Rome, Italy.
f A Greek and English Lexicon to the New Testament, by J. Parkhurst, revised ed. of 1845, says on p. 347, under ΚΥ΄ΡΙΟΣ: “III. In LXX it answers to the several names or titles of God, שדי ,צור ,אלהיס ,אלוה ,אל ,אדני, but far most frequently to יהוה: . . . In the N. T., likewise Κύριος, when used as a name of God, though it sometimes answers to אדני, . . . yet it most usually corresponds to יהוה Jehovah, and in this sense is applied.”
A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, by J. H. Thayer, 1889 ed., p. 365, says under κύριος: “c. this title is given a. to GOD, the ruler of the universe (so the Sept. for יהוה ,אלהיס ,אלוה ,אדני and יה [’adho·naiʹ, ’elohʹah, ’elo·himʹ, Jehovah, and Jah]).” On p. 287 it says, under θεός: “Sept. for אלהיס ,אל and יהוה [’el, ’elo·himʹ, and Jehovah].”
Says A Greek-English Lexicon, by Liddell and Scott, 1968 ed., on p. 1013, under κύριος: “B. . . . 4. ὁ Κύριος,=Hebr. Yahweh, LXX Ge.II.5, al.”