New World translation

[Linnyo]

I have started a new job in a new school. My Classroom assistant is a Jehovah’s witness. My class bibles are Jehovah witness ones. I cannot do much about it because it is not a Christian school but I do not like using them to teach RE. Also, I don’t wish to offend my new classroom assistant. It is so weird - it doesn’t even read like my Bible. And it clearly has errors - fundamental errors. The school is happy about using these Bibles as the staff aren’t particularly clued up and I don’t think they see any difference. What to do??

 

[chewchoo]

I have started a new job in a new school. My Classroom assistant is a Jehovah’s witness. My class bibles are Jehovah witness ones. I cannot do much about it because it is not a Christian school but I do not like using them to teach RE. Also, I don’t wish to offend my new classroom assistant. It is so weird - it doesn’t even read like my Bible. And it clearly has errors - fundamental errors. The school is happy about using these Bibles as the staff aren’t particularly clued up and I don’t think they see any difference. What to do??

can you bring in your own bibles?
or print out selected passages from an internet bible for particular lessons?

 

[Linnyo]

can you bring in your own bibles?
or print out selected passages from an internet bible for particular lessons?

That’s what I did today but the CA is soo enthusiastic about sharing her bibles. I was embarrassed not to let her.

 

[chewchoo]

That’s what I did today but the CA is soo enthusiastic about sharing her bibles. I was embarrassed not to let her.

be strong and put your faith in jesus, you don’t want to lead your students astray. of course she wants to use her bibles, that’s her whole point in having them there.

 

[Yerusalyim]

Get a different bible, and if she’s upset about it tell her that for scholastic integrity you can only use bibles that list the individual translators so that their credentials as translators can be verfied. (The NWT does not list WHO sat on the translation committee, therefore there is no way to check their credentials…however their not well kept secret is that now deceased President of the WTBTS was the most qualified of the 5 member translation committee…and he had NO DEGREE AT ALL in language.

She wants to use her bible because it’s an attempt at evangelizing for her religion.

 

[Fidelis]

I have started a new job in a new school. My Classroom assistant is a Jehovah’s witness. My class bibles are Jehovah witness ones.** I cannot do much about it because it is not a Christian school but I do not like using them to teach RE.** Also, I don’t wish to offend my new classroom assistant. It is so weird - it doesn’t even read like my Bible. And it clearly has errors - fundamental errors. The school is happy about using these Bibles as the staff aren’t particularly clued up and I don’t think they see any difference. What to do??

I don’t get it. If “it is not a Christian school,” what kind of school is it?

If it is a non-Christian religious school, why are you teaching RE?

Or, conversely, if it is a secular school, why are they teaching RE and using Bibles at all?

 

[Pious_Mat]

You ought to aviod using the New World translation not so much for religious reasons, but for scholarly reasons–Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, and Secular Biblical scholars all agree that the New World Translation has zero credability, and is merely a tool to put forth the somewhat outlandish teachings of the watchtower society.

And at the end of the day, you’re the teacher, and this person can’t tell you what materials to use.

By the way, does anybody have a definitive list of all the mistranslations in the NWT?

 

[Linnyo]

I don’t get it. If “it is not a Christian school,” what kind of school is it?

If it is a non-Christian religious school, why are you teaching RE?

Or, conversely, if it is a secular school, why are they teaching RE and using Bibles at all?

Firstly, I live in the UK. When all the schools were handed over from the churches a legal document was made making it compulsory for schools to teach RE. It is a legal requirement even in secular schools. This has developed and in most schools, the majority of RE is Christian in nature although, obviously in areas where a high percentage of the school population is a different religion, the emphasis would be on their religion.
So, whilst it is known as a ‘non-denominational’ school, RE must still be taught. Therefore, it is illegal not to teach RE in schools in Scotland unless they are private schools. Private schools are not very common with most major cities only having a handful.

I cannot enter a new job and tell the staff that their resources are heretic. I have to be diplomatic. I did use the smartboard to use an online Bible in my lesson today and I think that was fine. It was diplomatic but I still got my way. Ooooh, I wish I didn’t have to teach RE!

 

[Fidelis]

And at the end of the day, you’re the teacher, and this person can’t tell you what materials to use

I agree. Find a low-cost neutral but more orthodox alternative that includes the deuterocanonicals/“apocrypha” (like the Jerusalem Bible). Thank your assistant for her concern, and send her NWT’s packing.

I cannot enter a new job and tell the staff that their resources are heretic.

I thought the materials were donated by your assistant rather than supplied by the school? Again–if you are the teacher, you should have the say, not her.

 

[Rolltide]

If you’re in the UK, why not try the KJV of the Bible, with the Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha included? It will be close enough to the Catholic version that you can point out differences, it should be acceptable to most Protestants, and even the JW’s will use it in a pinch!

But yeah, don’t use the NWT! It actively writes the Trinity out of its pages! All you have to do is look at John 1:1 - “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was A God”!
The “a” is inserted to demonstrate that Jesus was not part of God, but simply the Archangel Michael (or is that Gabriel, I can never remember…).

 

[Jaypeeto4]

They think Jesus is MICHAEL, LOL.
Use ANY recognized version of the Bible
instead of the New World Translation.
It is a grossly misleading, loaded translation that
has been manipulated in scores and scores of passages
to teach Watchtower Doctrine. Get rid of it.
As one person suggested already, use the excuse that
the “translators” are all anonymous and their credentials cannot be verified, if you want to be diplomatic about it.
God bless,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

what grade are you teaching?

I suggest, you contact a bible society about donating the Good News Catholic or Non-Catholic Today’s English Verson edition ( or even the more modern Contemporary English Version ) under the grounds that it is an easier translation to understand, and that it is more in line with students reading levels. The NWT claims to be more “literal” and therefore is wooden, and as such does not translate well into our culture. I would go with the non-catholic edition so it does not look like you are pushing catholic religion on them. You can explain in your justification for replacement the differences between **dymatic equivance **vs literal wooden translations.

Teach the concept of dymatic equivance to your students and encourage them to write paraphrases of the text in their own words to their peers, or to a sciencist, or to a computer programmer.

Also, encourage students to look at various translations online for the purpose of encouraging “critical thinking” bible.cc/ Why for example does one translation say “the word was a god” while many others say “the word was god”?
Historically, what did the churches teach? Arianism did not pop up until the 4th century. Recently within the last year the press and Biblical Archeology today reported the finding of a church foundation where it said Jesus is God. You can encourage them to look for other sources of information like archeology. extra biblical sources.

Also share a print out of this what **scholars really **said about the NWT to show that it is not part of the mainstream of biblical scholarship, but instead is a sectarian which is out of step with the mainstream of biblical scholarship.

forananswer.org/Top_JW/Scholars%20and%20NWT.htm

As the Teacher if you can score a donanation of TEV good news bible written in a language that is on grade level for the whole school, I doubt they will turn such down.

biblesociety.org.uk/l3.php?id=206

store.bibles.com/Category/Bibles/ABS_NEW/Bibles_English.aspx

Also, look up the **Textbook Adoption Criteria **for your school and try to word your justification in lines with it. Often for bibles in schools a criteria is the bible must be competemporary and NON-sectarian. google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=textbook+criteria+Bible+non-sectarian&spell=1

Contact, some chrisitan lawyers to find out if there have been any lawsuits on using sectrain bible translations in schools. And, point out it only takes one parent to bring a lawsuit over a sectarian bible translation.
alliancedefensefund.org/about/purpose/Default.aspx

Maybe they allowed her to put her bible in their schools out of fear of her bringing a lawsuit.

Now the watchtower published

Steven T. Byington, The Bible in Living English. New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1972.

Steven T. Byington, translator of The Bible in Living English, explains why he uses God’s name: “The spelling and the pronunciation are not highly important. What is highly important is to keep it clear that this is a personal name. There are several texts that cannot be properly understood if we translate this name by a common noun like ‘Lord,’ or, much worse, by a substantivized adjective [for example, the Eternal].”

watchtower.org/library/na/article_05.htm

You may want to have a friend email them to find out if they still publish it. It would be a good compromise, because it does teach the deity of christ.

“At the first there was the Word, and the Word was where God was, and the Word was God” Steven T. Byington, translator of The Bible in Living English

The Living Language of Christian Worship
Keith F. Pecklers SJ
columba.ie/catalogue.php?cat=Academic%20Books&ISBN=0814661912

Dynamic equivalence - the attempt to translate words, idioms, and grammatical constructions of the original language into precise equivalents in the receptor language. This type of translation keeps historical distance on all historical and most factual matters, but “updates” matters of language, grammar, and style (Fee & Stuart).
georgefox.edu/academics/undergrad/departments/religion/students/glossary.html

englishbibles.blogspot.com/2006/10/whats-joke.html

this blog has a bia towards literal translations, so you can see what arguments they will present.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

Below is an Lingistic Joke emailed around the internet among those who translate bibles. It does a great job of illustrating how far dymatic equivence can go, and may make a good introduction on such to encourage students to paraphrase the bible for themselves.

New Revised Academic Version

                     Parables for Modern Academia
                  ----------------------------------

By Deborah and Loren Haarsma December, 1996

The kingdom of heaven is like an original manuscript in a used book store. When a historian found it, she sold all her other books to buy the manuscript. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a scientist looking for new projects. When he found one theory of great promise, he joyfully gave up all his other projects to focus on it. (Matt 13:44-46)

there are a lot more examples at the link
listserv.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9612a&L=ivcf-l&T=0&P=2123

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

listserv.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9612a&L=ivcf-l&T=0&P=2123

challenge to all, read the paraphrases at the link and chose a passage, and come up with your own paraphrase of that passage to see if we can guess what passage it is.

Here is mine, ( from a well known parapharase, written for school students by the way ).

If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing. This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience - it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen. All gifts except love will be superseded one day For if there are prophecies they will be fulfilled and done with, if there are “tongues” the need for them will disappear, if there is knowledge it will be swallowed up in truth. For our knowledge is always incomplete and our prophecy is always incomplete, and when the complete comes, that is the end of the incomplete. When I was a little child I talked and felt and thought like a little child. Now that I am a man my childish speech and feeling and thought have no further significance for me. At present we are men looking at puzzling reflections in a mirror. The time will come when we shall see reality whole and face to face! At present all I know is a little fraction of the truth, but the time will come when I shall know it as fully as God now knows me! In this life we have three great lasting qualities - faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

also, look into the reading, english, social studies, learning objectives to see which you can fit to a dymatic equivance translation vs a literal translation to use in your justifications.

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

Are there other chrisitan teachers in your school that you can brain storm with?