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NASB | John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 1:1 In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. [Gen 1:1; Is 9:6] |
Subject: If Jesus did it, way can't I? |
Bible Note: 'Thus, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, (WBTS), makes a reasonable case for using the sacred name in the Old Testament and criticizing those who do not. However, in their translation of the New Testament, which they call The Christian Greek Scriptures, they commit an even more grievous and presumptuous error. The NWT inexplicably translates the common Greek words for Lord (kurios) and God (Theos) as "Jehovah" 237 times in the New Testament. This unwarranted substitutionary use of the Old Testament name of God is made, however, only when kurios is used in the context of a clear reference to God in a generic sense, or when used in a passage that is a quote from the Old Testament. However, not once do they translate kurios as Jehovah in the nearly 400 times in the New Testament when it is applied as a title to Jesus Christ. There is simply no legitimate textual or linguistic basis for making that distinction. The word kurios should always be accurately translated, according to context, as Lord or Master, and the word Theos as God, but never either as "Jehovah." 'The reason for the NWT committee’s placement of this name of God in the New Testament is obvious to anyone who understands Jehovah’s Witnesses theology. The WBTS, since its inception over a century ago, has totally rejected the key doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the full deity of Jesus Christ. As a result, in their literature, and especially in their translation of the Bible, they have sought to obscure the clear New Testament teachings of those truths. This deliberate concealment is obvious when one makes a simple comparison of the NWT to the word-for-word translation of the Westcott and Hort Greek Text in the WBTS’ own book The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures (1985). 'The use of Jehovah to translate kurios (Lord) or Theos (God) 237 times in generic reference to God, but never as a title of Jesus, was clearly done to reinforce the distinction between God and Jesus in the minds of uninformed Jehovah’s Witnesses. The truth is that the New Testament writers, following Jewish tradition in the Greek Septuagint’s translation of the Old Testament, understood the term kurios (Lord), in most cases, to be a reference to deity in the fullest sense. Thus, when New Testament writers call Jesus "Lord," they are identifying Him with the God of the Old Testament (Yahweh or Jehovah).' (http://www.namb.net/root/resources/beliefbulletins/cults/new_world_translation.asp) |