Hi Everyone
I am NOT defending any one translation as there is no PERFECT translation. All most all translations are defective to because of either translator bias, lack of idiomatic ancient language usage, lack of translator skills, lack of access to all ancient MSs, etc. Some more so than others. In English, I have found the following to be the most accurate - the New English Bible (NEB), The New World Translation (NWT), An American Translation (AAT), American Standard Version (ASV), and an interlingua lexicon of the New Testament by Dr. J.J. Griesbach [a word for word translation of the Koine Greek in the Vatican MS 1209 into English]. I am constantly comparing one translation with others, not only in English, but in my native language and others. I have found in the inspired 66 books that there is better than 95% agreement in substance between translations even if the wording may vary. Recently I have been quoting a lot from the Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible as many readers are Catholic; before this I quoted mainly from the American Standard Version (ASV). As the late Dr. Edgar Goodspeed, of the University of Chicago and the head of the translation committee that translated An American Translation (AAT) once said, the way of judging a translation is whether the translators were consistent in rendering translational constructs and/or similar translational constructs the same in all cases or whether they rendered certain passages using the same and/or similar translational constructs at different places different to placate their biases.
Your opinion of the New World Translation (NWT) is like your opinions on doctrine, NOT in accordance with fact. Furthermore, it shows that you have no concept with respect the differences between a literal translation such as the New World Translation (NWT), Youngs Literal Translation (YLT), MS Vatican 1209, and free flowing translations such as the American Standard Version (ASV), the New English Bible (NEB), New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), etc. Also, you have no concept of how experts in the field quantify the quality of a translation. Dr. Jason Benuhn, of Northern Arizona University and Dr. Rolf Furuli, of the University of Oslo, the two leading Bible translation and ancient language experts in the world strongly disagree with you. In fact, Dr. Jason Benuhn has written a book comparing the leading modern Bible translations with one another and specifically citing the translational shortcomings of each, Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament published by University Press of America, isbn# 0761825568. The problem is so many express unfounded opinions on both Bible translations and doctrine that they do not have the foggiest knowledge of the facts on. This is patently ridicules and dishonest. I for my part do not do such things, I go out and research the facts and then do not present opinions, but the facts based on my research.
Your Friend in Christ Iris89