New World Translation Examined

I am in a reading mood!!Has anyone read “The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation: With a special look at the New World Translation of Jehovah's Witnesses?”

Many claims have been made here regarding the reliability of the NWT. I have assumed since leaving that the JW translation is/was probably lacking. Is it? Any comments on this book? Any observations on Dr. Rolf Furuli, the author?

I am ordering the book to hopefully expand my knowledge regarding the “outside” view of the NWT.

Here is the book review:

"The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation: With a special look at the New World Translation of Jehovah's Witnesses"

In the natural sciences, a basic principle is to break everything down to the smallest possible units and then study each unit. In linguistics and in the study of the biblical languages, a similar principle was followed with the word as the basic unit, but from the middle of this century the view has developed that the smallest units which were meaningful for translation had to be the sentence or even the paragraph. The author believes that the pendulum has swung too far in one direction, and that it still is meaningful to work with the word as the fundamental unit of translation. The book therefore suggests that for a particular target group - those who, by the help of their mother tongue, want to come as close as possible to the original languages - a literal translation will be better than an idiomatic one. In the course of discussion it is shown that the principles on which such a translation is based accords fully with modern linguistic principles." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Rolf Furuli has worked with the biblical text for four decades. Since his first Greek lecture 24 years ago, his interest in translational questions, particularly in the finer nuances of the verbal systems of the biblical languages, has mushroomed, culminating in the publication of this book.

Rolf Furuli has earned his B.A. and mag.art (a degree between M.A. and Ph.D) from the University of Oslo, with an emphasis on Hebrew; he has also studied Accadian, Arabic, Aramaic, Ethiopic, Greek, Latin,... read more

“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet

ThiChi,

The book is very good to read. I hope you enjoy it.

Fred: My copy is on the way......

“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet

Furuli is not an unbiased scholar. He is a JW. Perhaps our three Norway posters will comment on him. I believe that Norm knows him well.

Larc:
Really? I would like to know..........

“We all fell down from the milky way, hanging around here for the judgement day, heaven only knows who’s in command.”- Jimmy Buffet

Furuli has distinguished himself in online discussions about JW issues to be quite braindead -- at least as braindead as the JWs running the Watchtower Society. He has also tangled with Carl Olof Jonsson in addressing issues related to the whacko JW "Bible chronology", and has distinguished himself as thoroughly biased and therefore dishonest, by ignoring strong arguments against the JW positions and advancing weak arguments he knows to be grasping at straws. When trying to support the WTS position on blood last sprint on a forum run by a British medical journal, he distinguished himself by again ignoring arguments and facts, and advancing arguments that ultimately boiled down to "the JW Governing Body is right because it has authority from God".

AlanF

Personally, I don't see the NWT as any better or any worse than any other Bible. All of them have their translators personal bias translated into them. Personally, that is why I use multiple translations and still, consult dictionaries and such.

If God's Spirit is filling a Kingdom Hall, how is it that Satan can manuever the ones within that Kingdom Hall at the same time?

Furuli is most definitely a Jehovah's Witness. He is a former district overseer and has served for a number of years as an HLC member.

As Alan has observed, he is not terribly honest in his treatment of evidence antithetical to his JW beliefs. In other words, he's biased.

I've also noticed that like many otherwise intelligent JW's, he is prone to invent whatever argument is expedient at the moment while ignoring the question of whether it is contradicted by other aspects of JW theology.

Tom

Well, I ordered Greg Stafford's new book from elihubooks and Furuli's showed up instead.

I casually went through it. It was okay. That is, if you're interested in that kind of stuff.