Why should the JWs be classified as a cult?
They believe that all true Christian churches are of the devil.
They believe that ONLY 144,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses will go to heaven.
They believe that salvation is impossible outside of the Watchtower.
Followers are not allowed to question the Watchtower leadership or teaching.
They claim you need to read the Watchtower’s magazines and other material in order to understand the Bible correctly. If you don’t read the Watchtower’s books, you will “fall into darkness” – what they call reverting to normal Christianity.
Leaders have falsely predicted the end of the world five times.
Followers are "encouraged" to visit homes for at least 10 hours per month distributing Watchtower materials.
They use their own special translation of the Bible which according to experts greatly mistranslates the original texts.
They are well known to disown, shun, and ignore any friends and family leaving the organization.
They are not allowed to have blood transfusions, even to save a child’s life.
They are not allowed to be in the army for the defense of one’s country.
They are not allowed to celebrate birthdays or Christmas (poor kids).
Originally posted by Captain StrangeLets take you apart shall we, piece by piece, lets look at this one first,
Why should the JWs be classified as a cult?
They believe that all true Christian churches are of the devil.
They believe that ONLY 144,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses will go to heaven.
They believe that salvation is impossible outside of the Watchtower.
Followers are not allowed to question the Watchtower leadership or teaching.
They claim yo ...[text shortened]... fense of one’s country.
They are not allowed to celebrate birthdays or Christmas (poor kids).
They use their own special translation of the Bible which according to experts greatly mistranslates the original texts.
Who are these experts and on what basis have they stated that we have our own special translation which mistranslates the Bible? Have you evidence of a single verse that we have mistranslated? Do you know anything about Bible translation? if not how are you able to tell which verse we have mistranslated and which have not? Have you any idea what these original texts are?
and you forgot to mention the hate site that you lifted your material from, here I will do it for you.
http://www.cultwatch.com/jw.html
Originally posted by robbie carrobieThe New World Translation (NWT) is defined by the Jehovah's Witnesses’ parent organization (the Watchtower Society) as "a translation of the Holy Scriptures made directly from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into modern-day English by a committee of anointed witnesses of Jehovah." The NWT is the anonymous work of the “New World Bible Translation Committee.” Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that the anonymity is in place so that the credit for the work will go to God. Of course, this has the added benefit of keeping the translators from any accountability for their errors and prevents real scholars from checking their academic credentials.
Lets take you apart shall we, piece by piece, lets look at this one first,
They use their own special translation of the Bible which according to experts greatly mistranslates the original texts.
Who are these experts and on what basis have they stated that we have our own special translation which mistranslates the Bible? Have you evidence o ...[text shortened]... erse we have mistranslated and which have not? Have you any idea what these original texts are?
Originally posted by Captain Strangeyes but that does not answer a single question.
The New World Translation (NWT) is defined by the Jehovah's Witnesses’ parent organization (the Watchtower Society) as "a translation of the Holy Scriptures made directly from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into modern-day English by a committee of anointed witnesses of Jehovah." The NWT is the anonymous work of the “New World Bible Translation Committee. ...[text shortened]... untability for their errors and prevents real scholars from checking their academic credentials.
Cite a single verse that we have mistranslated and it prevents nothing, they are free to look at the New world translation and compare its accuracy with the Westcort and Hort base text which forms the basis of the Greek portion of the New world translation. The New world translation is publicly available for anyone to evaluate its accuracy.
Personally i don't think you have a clue what you are talking about. I don't even think you know what base texts were used for the translation of the New world translation and even if you did i don't think you have any idea what constitutes an accurate translation and what does not and neither apparently does your unnamed and mysterious panel of experts, Ironic all things considered.
It is only the Watchtower's pre-conceived heretical beliefs that are behind the dishonest and inconsistent translation that is the New World Translation. The New World Translation is most definitely not a valid version of God’s Word. There are minor differences among all the major English translations of the Bible. No English translation is perfect. However, while other Bible translators make minor mistakes in the rendering of the Hebrew and Greek text into English, the NWT intentionally changes the rendering of the text to conform to Jehovah’s Witness theology. The New World Translation is a perversion, not a version, of the Bible.
Originally posted by Captain Strangeuhu and yet you are unable to provide a single piece of evidence for any of your claims and seem intent to copy and paste lies, unsubstantiated assertion and unmitigated falsehood. How banal and how predictable. Thankyou, if you ever manage to actually substantiate any of your claims let me know ill be happy to debate the matter, otherwise i have better things to do than remonstrate with people that don't know what they are talking about.
It is only the Watchtower's pre-conceived heretical beliefs that are behind the dishonest and inconsistent translation that is the New World Translation. The New World Translation is most definitely not a valid version of God’s Word. There are minor differences among all the major English translations of the Bible. No English translation is perfect. ...[text shortened]... ovah’s Witness theology. The New World Translation is a perversion, not a version, of the Bible.
New wold translation the 'most accurate' English translation on the planet - Associate Professer Jason BeDhun
Professor Benjamin Kedar, a Professor of History and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said in 1989: "In my linguistic research in connection with the Hebrew Bible and translations, I often refer to the English edition of what is known as the New World Translation. In so doing, I find my feeling repeatedly confirmed that this work [the NWT Old Testament] reflects an honest endeavor to achieve an understanding of the text that is as accurate as possible."[65]
2003 study by Jason BeDuhn, associate professor of religious studies at Northern Arizona University in the United States, of nine of "the Bibles most widely in use in the English-speaking world," including the New American Bible, The King James Bible and The New International Version, examined several New Testament passages in which "bias is most likely to interfere with translation." For each passage, he compared the Greek text with the renderings of each English translation, and looked for biased attempts to change the meaning. BeDuhn reported that the New World Translation was "not bias free", but emerged "as the most accurate of the translations compared",
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Translation_of_the_Holy_Scriptures
The New World Translation renders the Greek term word staurós "cross" as "torture stake" because Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that Jesus was crucified on a cross. The New World Translation does not translate the words sheol, hades, gehenna, and tartarus as "hell” because Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in hell. The NWT gives the translation "presence" instead of “coming” for the Greek word parousia because Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Christ has already returned in the early 1900s. In Colossians 1:16, the NWT inserts the word “other” despite its being completely absent from the original Greek text. It does this to give the view that “all other things” were created by Christ, instead of what the text says, “all things were created by Christ.” This is to go along with their belief that Christ is a created being, which they believe because they deny the Trinity.
The most well-known of all the New World Translation perversions is John 1:1. The original Greek text reads, “the Word was God.” The NWT renders it as “the word was a god.” This is not a matter of correct translation, but of reading one's preconceived theology into the text, rather than allowing the text to speak for itself. There is no indefinite article in Greek in English, "a" or "an", so any use of an indefinite article in English must be added by the translator. This is grammatically acceptable, so long as it does not change the meaning of the text.
There is a good reason why theos has no definite article in John 1:1 and why the New World Translation rendering is in error. There are three general rules we need to understand to see why.
1. In Greek, word order does not determine word usage like it does in English. In English, a sentence is structured according to word order: Subject - Verb - Object. Thus, "Harry called the dog" is not equivalent to "the dog called Harry." But in Greek, a word's function is determined by the case ending found attached to the word's root. There are two case endings for the root theo: one is -s theos, the other is -n theon. The -s ending normally identifies a noun as being the subject of a sentence, while the -n ending normally identifies a noun as the direct object.
2. When a noun functions as a predicate nominative in English, a noun that follows a being verb such as "is", its case ending must match the noun's case that it renames, so that the reader will know which noun it is defining. Therefore, theo must take the -s ending because it is renaming logos. Therefore, John 1:1 transliterates to "kai theos en ho logos." Is theos the subject, or is logos? Both have the -s ending. The answer is found in the next rule.
3. In cases where two nouns appear, and both take the same case ending, the author will often add the definite article to the word that is the subject in order to avoid confusion. John put the definite article on logos “the Word” instead of on theos. So, logos is the subject, and theos is the predicate nominative. In English, this results in John 1:1 being read as "and the Word was God" instead of "and God was the word".
The most revealing evidence of the Watchtower's bias is their inconsistent translation technique. Throughout the Gospel of John, the Greek word theon occurs without a definite article. The New World Translation renders none of these as “a god.” Just three verses after John 1:1, the New World Translation translates another case of theos without the indefinite article as "God." Even more inconsistent, in John 1:18, the NWT translates the same term as both "God" and "god" in the very same sentence.
The Watchtower, therefore, has no hard textual grounds for their translation—only their own theological bias. While New World Translation defenders might succeed in showing that John 1:1 can be translated as they have done, they cannot show that it is the proper translation. Nor can they explain the fact that that the NWT does not translate the same Greek phrases elsewhere in the Gospel of John the same way. It is only the pre-conceived heretical rejection of the deity of Christ that forces the Watchtower Society to inconsistently translate the Greek text, thus allowing their error to gain some semblance of legitimacy in the minds of those ignorant of the facts.
Originally posted by Captain StrangeWhat is the Greek words used for cross and what is the Greek words used for Hell? Other is used in Parenthesis to indicate that its inferred from the verses and it most certainly does indicate that all other things were created. Infcat the Greek leaves no doubt that Jesus was of the creation or a part of creation.
The New World Translation renders the Greek term word staurós "cross" as "torture stake" because Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that Jesus was crucified on a cross. The New World Translation does not translate the words sheol, hades, gehenna, and tartarus as "hell” because Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in hell. The NWT gives the translation ...[text shortened]... ng their error to gain some semblance of legitimacy in the minds of those ignorant of the facts.
Originally posted by robbie carrobieYou wont take me apart piece by piece Robbie and you know it.
Lets take you apart shall we, piece by piece, lets look at this one first,
They use their own special translation of the Bible which according to experts greatly mistranslates the original texts.
Who are these experts and on what basis have they stated that we have our own special translation which mistranslates the Bible? Have you evidence o ...[text shortened]... t you lifted your material from, here I will do it for you.
http://www.cultwatch.com/jw.html
You will start hurling insults then run saying you don't want to debate any more.
Everyone on here knows your methods.
Originally posted by Captain Strangeclearly you are simply copying and pasting material. I shall waste no more time with you, you are uninterested in discussion and don't know what you are talking about. Adios.
The New World Translation renders the Greek term word staurós "cross" as "torture stake" because Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that Jesus was crucified on a cross. The New World Translation does not translate the words sheol, hades, gehenna, and tartarus as "hell” because Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in hell. The NWT gives the translation ...[text shortened]... ng their error to gain some semblance of legitimacy in the minds of those ignorant of the facts.
Originally posted by Captain StrangeYou have failed to substantiate a single claim, You have just demonstrated that you don't know what you are talking about. I have produced evidence that has refuted your lies that the New world translation is inaccurate. You cannot tell us anything about what constitutes an accurate translation all you can do is copy and paste, you have nothing because you don't know anything. Thats not an insult its a fact. You don't even know what forms the basis of the New world translation while claiming that we have mistranslated those originals, you cannot tell us who these experts are while chastising those who translated the NWT for remaining anonymous, you are a laughing stock and deserve to be mocked.
You wont take me apart piece by piece Robbie and you know it.
You will start hurling insults then run saying you don't want to debate any more.
Everyone on here knows your methods.
Originally posted by robbie carrobieYes you are starting on the insults as I predicted.
you have failed to substantiate a single claim, You have just demonstrated that you don't know what you are talking about. I have produced evidence that has refuted your lies that the New world translation is inaccurate. You cannot tell us anything about what constitutes an accurate translation. all you can do is copy and paste, you have nothing beca ...[text shortened]... o translated the NWT for remaining anonymous, you are a laughing stock and deserve to be mocked.
Do you disagree with the my other claims ?
the translation of the term that is commonly referred to as cross
An instrument such as that on which Jesus Christ met death by impalement. (Mt 27:32-40; Mr 15:21-30; Lu 23:26; Joh 19:17-19, 25) In classical Greek the word (stau·ros) rendered “torture stake” in the New World Translation primarily denotes an upright stake, or pole, and there is no evidence that the writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures used it to designate a stake with a crossbeam.
The book The Non-Christian Cross, by John Denham Parsons, states: “There is not a single sentence in any of the numerous writings forming the New Testament, which, in the original Greek, bears even indirect evidence to the effect that the stauros used in the case of Jesus was other than an ordinary stauros; much less to the effect that it consisted, not of one piece of timber, but of two pieces nailed together in the form of a cross. . . . it is not a little misleading upon the part of our teachers to translate the word stauros as ‘cross’ when rendering the Greek documents of the Church into our native tongue, and to support that action by putting ‘cross’ in our lexicons as the meaning of stauros without carefully explaining that that was at any rate not the primary meaning of the word in the days of the Apostles, did not become its primary signification till long afterwards, and became so then, if at all, only because, despite the absence of corroborative evidence, it was for some reason or other assumed that the particular stauros upon which Jesus was executed had that particular shape.”—London, 1896, pp. 23, 24.
I bet you have never even heard of the term stauros.
Originally posted by robbie carrobieThis is the internet.
the translation of the tern that is commonly referred to as cross
An instrument such as that on which Jesus Christ met death by impalement. (Mt 27:32-40; Mr 15:21-30; Lu 23:26; Joh 19:17-19, 25) In classical Greek the word (stau·ros) rendered “torture stake” in the New World Translation primarily denotes an upright stake, or pole, and there is no ...[text shortened]... icular shape.”—London, 1896, pp. 23, 24.
I bet you have never even heard of the term stauros.
Its all out there you just have to look.