Explaining about Westcott and Hort
Westcott and Hort were Cambridge University Scholars, not Jehovah's Witnesses. They spent 28 years working on that text. It was finished in 1881. They looked at very old manuscripts. They used the Sinaitic Manuscript and the Vatican Manuscript No. 1209, both of the fourth century C.E.
The New World Translation Committee used the Westcott and Hort translation as well as Nestle's Greek text of 1948.
Not only Jehovah's Witnesses but others also use Westcott and Hort for their translations. Notice this:
E. J. Goodspeed says in his Preface in “An American Translation” (1939): “I have closely followed the Greek text of Westcott and Hort, now generally accepted. Every scholar knows its great superiority to the late and faulty Greek texts from which the early English translations from Tyndale to the Authorized Version were made.” (Authorized version is referrring to the King James Bible)
Dr.*Philip Schaff called the Westcott-Hort text “the purest Greek text” and “the last and best edition of the Greek Testament”.With regard to the King James Bible, did you know? So many changes have been made, many of them in the readings of passages, that the Committee on Versions (1851-56) of the American Bible Society found 24,000 variations in six different editions of the King James Version!
And since the King James version was written new scrolls have been found that are very very old. The King James Version used scrolls from the 12th and15th century but scrolls have been found since then that are from the 4th century. Naturally the older scrolls would be more accurate.
The significant thing is this: The translators of the King James Version, the Bible most widely used in the English-speaking world, did not have access to these ancient manuscripts. Even the Alexandrian manuscript did not get into the hands of Bible translators until 1628, after the King James Bible of 1611 had been published. So the foundation for a Bible far more accurate and understandable than the Authorized Version has been laid since 1611.
That is why Jehovah's Witnesses decided to provide an accurate reliable translation. You should take a look at it and do some study about the reason they translated the way they did. It is very interesting and could open your eyes to some things.
Westcott and Hort were Cambridge University Scholars, not Jehovah's Witnesses. They spent 28 years working on that text. It was finished in 1881. They looked at very old manuscripts. They used the Sinaitic Manuscript and the Vatican Manuscript No. 1209, both of the fourth century C.E.
The New World Translation Committee used the Westcott and Hort translation as well as Nestle's Greek text of 1948.
Not only Jehovah's Witnesses but others also use Westcott and Hort for their translations. Notice this:
E. J. Goodspeed says in his Preface in “An American Translation” (1939): “I have closely followed the Greek text of Westcott and Hort, now generally accepted. Every scholar knows its great superiority to the late and faulty Greek texts from which the early English translations from Tyndale to the Authorized Version were made.” (Authorized version is referrring to the King James Bible)
Dr.*Philip Schaff called the Westcott-Hort text “the purest Greek text” and “the last and best edition of the Greek Testament”.With regard to the King James Bible, did you know? So many changes have been made, many of them in the readings of passages, that the Committee on Versions (1851-56) of the American Bible Society found 24,000 variations in six different editions of the King James Version!
And since the King James version was written new scrolls have been found that are very very old. The King James Version used scrolls from the 12th and15th century but scrolls have been found since then that are from the 4th century. Naturally the older scrolls would be more accurate.
The significant thing is this: The translators of the King James Version, the Bible most widely used in the English-speaking world, did not have access to these ancient manuscripts. Even the Alexandrian manuscript did not get into the hands of Bible translators until 1628, after the King James Bible of 1611 had been published. So the foundation for a Bible far more accurate and understandable than the Authorized Version has been laid since 1611.
That is why Jehovah's Witnesses decided to provide an accurate reliable translation. You should take a look at it and do some study about the reason they translated the way they did. It is very interesting and could open your eyes to some things.
