Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament

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.

Beduhn builds an argument like a stonemason builds a castle. Truth in Translation is a fortress of sound reasoning that isn't in danger of falling down any time soon. If you really want to know what the Bible says in the Greek of Jesus' day, then you simply must own this fine reference and refer to it often. I have criticized other people's Bibles and I have had my favorite judged as well. Yet the fact that I accept and consult many translations has never seemed to matter in the eyes of some, for whom certain scriptures seem to be a battleground. This book allows common ground to be established in a couple of very important ways. One is found in that we have a Greek New Testament that is, by all standards of literature, incredibly accurate in its preservation. No bias issues there: one can gain the truth beyond question by studying it honestly. The second peacemaking virtue is that the scriptures in question are given full opportunity to speak, even to those of us so previously numb as to imagine that the Apostles spoke the King's English, circa 1611. Translation is an imperfect art, as Beduhn conveys without belaboring. Whether to pass along the words or the ideas is not a question with a static answer, nor is it clear that translation alone serves the full requirement of responsibility held by those who would understand God's Word fully. The information critical of my translation (no, I'm not saying) inspired enjoyable study and further research, and I am happy to have found in the Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 96, 1977, p.63, and in other sources, satisfactory evidence in support of the translator's choice. From this position, then, I must state my agreement with Beduhn as if I had a choice in the matter. To do otherwise, as one barely capable of intelligence in English grammar, is to sling pebbles at a citadel. Edit, 2022: after stumbling upon my 2009 review I am so thankful that the New World Translation, 2013 edition, resolved the permanent dilemma of translation by providing THE BEST dynamic equivalence translation, becoming a truly accurate, thoroughly enjoyable vernacular companion to what Beduhn praised so effectively in this book: the New World Translation, 1984 reference edition. Now the most bias-free, grammatically faithful of the popular translations isn't limited by its extreme literal accuracy. It's almost as if the castle foundations had to be seen for what they are, built on solid rock, prior to our being provided the brilliant tapestries that decorate its living, breathing walls. Bible reading is so enjoyable, so involving, and so very much alive thanks to the efforts of so many translators to root out and eliminate all sources of inaccuracy and bias in translations of God's Word, and from that collective foundation, achieve such simplicity and clarity of thought in our shared language. Beduhn's work pointed to it, asked for it, and now we have it, freely available to the entire world in hundreds of languages!

En mi opinión contenido controvertido y bastante parcial a favor de una versión en concreto.

At John 17:17 Jesus validated scripture, saying, "Your word is truth". Unfortunately, that only holds true so long as its translated accurately! This book highlights just a few examples where ambiguously phrased text is bent to confirm modern day Christian doctrine, or even many cases where the original text doesn't agree at all with modern translation. This book will ruffle some feathers to be sure, but for all who are open minded and seeking the message of original scripture, it will prove an invaluable aid for bible study. An easy read for a layman with plenty of reference material. Enjoy!

This was a very welcome book. The honesty and courage of the author is outstanding. whilst studying the Bible for over 40 years, I had become convinced that most Bible translations had/are being, scipturally twisted by the translator and/or the interpreters who are almost always forking for some organisations that have a vested interest in making the Bible read in a certain way. It has taken me years of trying to decipher the ineptitude and/or sheer dishonesty of many Bible translations. Along comes this book and in no time confirms my fears. I would recommend this book to all TRUTH SEEKERS. Sadly so many are misled by eisegetical reading and teaching. Religion it seems has mostly come down to the faithful blindly accepting what they are told. With either not bothering to check what they are told, or not knowing where to, or how to check for truth. One could do much worse than reading this book. It is an eye opener. I also recommend truth seekers to try the 2001 Translation, more so if you are a critical thinker and exegetical reader and studier of the Bible. Many times I have been saddened to read erstwhile reviewers of a Bible translation stating, "this does not read true according to such and such a translation, with many setting the King James Bible up as the standard to judge by. Read this book and see where/how the King James version got it's start, why it is not the honest rendition that people think it is. Does the Bible teach a trinity? Most certainly not if you read and search for the truth. The trinity teaching is a fallacy that has duped most of Christians world wide for far too long. I beg, you who read this review to take note of Revelation warning, "I heard another voice coming from the sky that said:‘Come out of her my people!‘Come on out, so you don’t share in her sins and receive part of her plagues! Revelation 18:4, - 2001 Translation. "“The Spirit of Truth. ‘The world won’t receive it, because they can’t see it or understand it. However, you will recognize it, for it’ll stay with you and in you.” 2001 Translation. God has promised you his Holy Spirit as a helper, why not give it a try and work with it exegetically and not against it eisegetically?

One of the best books I've ever read. I like the clarity of his writing for what could have been a very dense and esoteric subject. He is very well researched on the topic, and his approach is balanced, reasonable, and dare I say "unbiased", as he tackles some very controversial passages in the bible.

Amazing. It’s a known fact the KJV has never been accurate in recent times, but Catholics and Protestants alike need to read this book by a scholar and expert in the Greek language. This throws away the bias by all religions and helps you see what an accurate translation looks like.