My letter to a local Jehovah's Witness re John 8:58

[Limey_Bob]

Robert Skynner

Flat XXX XXXXX House

XXXXX Street

Plymouth

Devon  XXX XXXX

(United Kingdom)

 

13th May 2017

 

Dear Eddie,

 

Thank you for the gift of the silver NWT Bible, it would be great if you would kindly explain one problem which I, a Trinitarian, have with it, namely John 8:58:

 

“Jesus said to them, most truly, I say unto you, Before Abraham came into existence, I have been.”  (John 8:58, NWT, 2013 (silver) revised edition).

 

 

The New World Translation (NWT) of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, is the only Bible which mistranslates the Greek: "ego eimi," (this is the first person singular present tense of the verb "to be"), of John 8:58, as: "I have been?" All other versions of the Bible translate it correctly as "I am," and even the New World Translation itself, translates "ego eimi," consistently and accurately as "I am," elsewhere throughout the New Testament, i.e. at John 8:24, 9:5 and 9:9; which predate and postdate this verse! Why "ego eimi," means "I am" at every occurrence bar one is a puzzle to me, especially when the Watchtower Society has no Greek or Hebrew scholars that they can name. The NWT is not translated by educated and reliable scholars, but by amateurs with no knowledge of Greek and Hebrew.

 

However, this problem is greatly compounded for the Watchtower Society, when one considers the differing marginal notes and explanations of Greek tenses, which have been used to explain the mistranslation of "ego eimi," as "I am."

 

• The 1950 NWT edition of the Greek Scriptures, on page 312, and the NWT 1960 Bible on page 3108, explains "ego eimi," here as a perfect indefinite tense, a tense which does not exist in Greek, or even in any other language.

 

• In the 1969 (Purple) edition of the Kingdom Interlinear, on page 467, this tense was now changed to the perfect tense, some nineteen years later and after millions of Bible printings which contain the earlier nonexistent tense!

 

• Then in 1985, the revised (Blue) edition of the Kingdom Interlinear, on page 451, changes this to the perfect indicative. This is a third tense!

 

Eddie, I enclose scans of these books. If you are unable to get hold of these books then please do visit me, and I can show you these originals. Please pass my details onto any Witness who is willing to study a part of the Really Teach book.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Robert Skynner

Edited May 13, 2017 by Limey_Bob

[Guest Judas Machabeus]

Umm mic drop.

well put. I don't know anything really about JW's and with a full plate not something I can take on. 

I have heard it said that the watch tower has repeatedly predicted the end of the world and clear were wrong. So for me that would be a major red flag. 

[OldCoot]

Ask them to read Isa 41:4 and ask them who is that?  Of course, they should say Jehovah God.  Next, repeat this with Isa 44:6 and Isa 48:12.  Then have them read Rev 22:13 and ask them who that is.   Now you take them to Rev 2:8...

Revelation 2:8 (NKJV)
The Persecuted Church
8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write,
‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life:

shouldn't be any confusion on who that is.  And these verses all work out in the NWT

Edited July 1, 2017 by OldCoot