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The Bible and the translation · Claim record

Scholarly opinion on the New World Translation is genuinely divided rather than uniform: the same rendering of John 1:1 that Bruce Metzger called a 'frightful mistranslation' in 1953, and 'not justified' again in 1964, was defended by Jason BeDuhn in 2003 as the more literal reading of the Greek; and the insertion of 'other' at Colossians 1:16-17 that Metzger called unwarranted on both occasions was judged by BeDuhn to be justified by what the Greek implies.

Claim ID claim-bible-two-centuries-of-disagreementConcerns 2003Context
Context · 2003 Verified

Scholarly opinion on the New World Translation is genuinely divided rather than uniform: the same rendering of John 1:1 that Bruce Metzger called a 'frightful mistranslation' in 1953, and 'not justified' again in 1964, was defended by Jason BeDuhn in 2003 as the more literal reading of the Greek; and the insertion of 'other' at Colossians 1:16-17 that Metzger called unwarranted on both occasions was judged by BeDuhn to be justified by what the Greek implies. Theology Today, April 1953The Bible Translator, July 1964Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, 2003Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, 2003

Show the evidence (4 sources)
Peer-reviewed / scholarly Verified

Theology Today, “The Jehovah's Witnesses and Jesus Christ: A Biblical and Theological Appraisal”

April 1953 · pp.65-85 (the John 1:1 passage on p. 75, the Colossians 1:15-17 passage on p. 76) · Section IV, 'Erroneous Translations', items 1 and 2 · Bruce M. Metzger · Princeton Theological Seminary (published by SAGE; DOI 10.1177/004057365301000110)

“As a matter of solid fact, however, such a rendering is a frightful mistranslation. It overlooks entirely an established rule of Greek grammar which necessitates the rendering, '. . . and the Word was God.'”

Metzger is discussing the 1950 New World Translation's rendering of John 1:1 as 'and the Word was a god'. He argues from E. C. Colwell's 1933 rule on the Greek definite article, and says that none of the thirty-five parallel passages cited in the translation's own appendix is actually parallel. In the same section he writes that the fourfold insertion of 'other' at Colossians 1:15-17 is 'unwarrantably inserted' and 'not present in the original Greek', and he criticises the renderings of Philippians 2:6, Titus 2:13, 2 Peter 1:1 and Revelation 3:14.

Official source Link not auto-checkable

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The full scan text was downloaded from the Internet Archive on 19 September 2026 and read in full; the quoted sentences, the section heading and the page markers were confirmed by eye. The bibliographic record (Theology Today vol. 10 no. 1, April 1953, pp. 65-85, DOI 10.1177/004057365301000110) was independently confirmed in Crossref. The publisher's own page on journals.sagepub.com returns HTTP 403 to automated requests and was not opened. [Independent audit, 19 September 2026] The scan was downloaded again and read independently. The quotation is verbatim. The running heads run 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 79, 81, 82, 85, which confirms the 65-85 range; the 'frightful mistranslation' sentence falls between the p. 75 and p. 76 markers and the 'unwarrantably inserted' sentence between the p. 76 and p. 77 markers, so the two passages are on pp. 75 and 76. Crossref independently returns the same title, subtitle, author, volume, issue, pagination and month.

Scan provenance. Optical-character-recognition text of a scanned offprint of the article, hosted by the Internet Archive (item 'TheJehovahsWitnessesAndJesusChrist'). The offprint reproduces the journal's own page numbering (65-85), which the running heads and page markers in the scan confirm. The canonical /download/ URL answers with a redirect that some clients will not follow; the file itself resolves at an Internet Archive node host, https://ia601608.us.archive.org/0/items/TheJehovahsWitnessesAndJesusChrist/Jehovahs_Witnesses_and_Jesus_Christ_Metzger_djvu.txt, which is what was fetched. The copy consulted is hosted by a third party and its lawfulness is not established, so no link to it is published here.

Notes. This is a theological appraisal of the movement as a whole, of which the translation criticism is one section (Section IV). It is not a formal review of the translation; Metzger's short review of the translation itself came eleven years later in The Bible Translator (src-nwt-metzger-1964-bible-translator), which has now also been read. In April 1953 Metzger was associate professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary; he was made full professor in 1954. Do not call him 'Professor of New Testament' as of 1953.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-nwt-metzger-1953-theology-today

Peer-reviewed / scholarly Verified

The Bible Translator, “Book Review: New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures”

July 1964 · pp.150-152 (quoted passages at pp. 151 and 152) · Bruce M. Metzger · United Bible Societies (published by SAGE; DOI 10.1177/000608446401500311)

“On the whole, one gains a tolerably good impression of the scholarly equipment of the translators (their names are not divulged). … Frequently an intelligent use of critical information is apparent. (p. 151) … Some of the translations which are simply indefensible include the following. The introduction of the word 'Jehovah' into the New Testament text, in spite of much ingenuity in an argument filled with a considerable amount of irrelevant material (pp. 10-25), is a plain piece of special pleading. (p. 152)”

A signed review of the 1950 New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures in the United Bible Societies' translation journal, running from the heading 'BOOK REVIEW' on p. 150 to the signature 'BRUCE M. METZGER' at the foot of p. 152. It is mixed, not uniformly hostile. Metzger notes the Westcott and Hort Greek text, records that 'one of the most notable features of the translation is the introduction of the name Jehovah 237 times into the main body of the text, as well as 72 times in the footnotes in the lower margin' (p. 151), and allows the translators 'a tolerably good impression of the scholarly equipment'. He then objects that rendering the same Greek word by the same English word 'has a specious show of faithfulness to the original, but the application of the principle with any degree of consistency tends to produce a certain woodenness' (p. 151); that 'and the Word was a god' at John 1:1, 'while entirely in accord with the Arian theology of the sect, is not justified despite a lengthy note which attempts to support it' (p. 152); and that 'in the interest of providing support for their Unitarianism, the translators have not hesitated to insert four times the word “other” (totally without warrant from the Greek) before the word “things” in Col. 1: 16 f.' (p. 152).

Official source Archived or alternative copy Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Opened and read in full on 19 September 2026 — all three printed pages. journals.sagepub.com still returns HTTP 403 to automated requests and the live ubs-translations.org page now returns HTTP 404, but the Wayback Machine serves the United Bible Societies' own page images of the issue: a150.jpg, a151.jpg and a152.jpg under /tbt/1964/03/. Those three images were downloaded and read, and the quotations above are transcribed from them. The review is signed 'BRUCE M. METZGER'. Crossref independently confirms The Bible Translator vol. 15 no. 3 (July 1964), pp. 150-152, by B. Metzger.

Scan provenance. Page images of the printed journal from the United Bible Societies' own Bible Translator archive at ubs-translations.org, preserved in the Wayback Machine. The review occupies the images a150.jpg, a151.jpg and a152.jpg in /tbt/1964/03/, whose printed page numbers are 150, 151 and 152; the viewer's own index maps image a151.jpg to printed page 151, which is the page the secondary literature cites. The live ubs-translations.org page now returns HTTP 404.

Notes. This record previously said the text could not be opened and that nothing should be quoted from it. [Independent audit, 19 September 2026] It has now been read, and that judgement is reversed. The much-circulated sentence about 'a plain piece of special pleading' is accurate word for word, and it is on p. 152. The citation 'pp. 150-153' that circulates online is wrong: the review ends on p. 152. Note two traps. First, the same three pages contain the favourable sentence that defenders of the translation quote, so a page that uses one half without the other is quoting selectively. Second, Wikipedia's rendering of the p. 151 sentence, 'Frequently an intelligent use of a critical information is apparent', has a stray 'a'; the printed text reads 'an intelligent use of critical information'.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-nwt-metzger-1964-bible-translator

Peer-reviewed / scholarly Supported

Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, “Chapter 11, 'And the Word Was …'”

2003 · pp.124-125, 133 · Jason David BeDuhn (Northern Arizona University) · University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland

“Ironically, some of these same scholars are quick to charge the NW translation with 'doctrinal bias' for translating the verse literally, free of KJV influence, following the most obvious sense of the Greek. It may very well be that the NW translators came to the task of translating John 1:1 with as much bias as the other translators did. It just so happens that their bias corresponds in this case to a more accurate translation of the Greek. (pp. 124-125) … Bias has shaped most of these translations much more than has accurate attention to the wording of the Bible. The NW translation of John 1:1 is superior to that of the other eight translations we are comparing. I do not think it is the best possible translation for a modern English reader; but at least it breaks with the KJV tradition followed by all the others, and it does so in the right direction by paying attention to how Greek grammar and syntax actually work. (p. 133)”

BeDuhn defends 'and the Word was a god' as a defensible rendering of the Greek, drawing on Philip Harner's 1973 study of qualitative predicate nouns, and argues that the customary rendering owes more to the King James tradition than to the grammar. The same p. 133 paragraph ends: 'All that we can ask is that a translation be an accurate starting point for exposition and interpretation. Only the NW achieves this, as provocative as it sounds to the modern reader.' This is the rendering Bruce Metzger called a 'frightful mistranslation' in 1953 and 'not justified' in 1964.

Official source Link not auto-checkable

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The book itself was never opened. The previous confidence label of 'verified' rested entirely on Google Books' in-volume snippet search, which no longer runs from this environment at all: books.google.com, books.google.co.uk, books.google.de, books.google.ca and www.googleapis.com/books/v1 all answer HTTP 429, and WebFetch is redirected to Google's 'sorry' interstitial. An auditor cannot reproduce the retrieval, and a snippet is in any case not the document. Downgraded to 'supported' on 19 September 2026. Both passages were confirmed independently on that date against reproductions that quote them in full with page attributions: pp. 124-125 at rfmcelroyiii.wordpress.com, p. 133 at tetragrammaton.org. BeDuhn's own sigla for the New World Translation is 'NW', not 'NWT': Allin quotes him with 'NW', the reproduction of pp. 124-125 has 'the NW translation', and JW.org expands it as 'The NW [New World Translation]'. The tetragrammaton.org reproduction silently prints 'NWT' throughout. Where the two differ, 'NW' is used here. Until the printed book is in hand, do not present these quotations as letter-perfect. One reproduction prints 'the other eight translation we are comparing'; the singular is evidently that site's typing slip and 'translations' is used above.

Scan provenance. Not opened. The pp. 124-125 passage is transcribed from the excerpt collection at rfmcelroyiii.wordpress.com and the p. 133 paragraph from the long review at tetragrammaton.org; the two are independent of each other.

Notes. BeDuhn's own preferred rendering is not the New World Translation's; he says on p. 133 that he does not think it is the best possible translation for a modern English reader. [Independent audit, 19 September 2026] The earlier version began the quotation with a bracketed supply, '[the NW rendering of] John 1:1 is superior…'. The bracket was unnecessary: the printed sentence is 'The NW translation of John 1:1 is superior to that of the other eight translations we are comparing', and it is preceded by 'Bias has shaped most of these translations much more than has accurate attention to the wording of the Bible', which is the sentence that gives the passage its force. Both have been restored. Note also that the page is pp. 124-125, not p. 125 alone.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-nwt-beduhn-2003-john-1-1

Peer-reviewed / scholarly Supported

Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament, “Chapter 7, 'Probing the Implicit Meaning'”

2003 · pp.83-87 · Jason David BeDuhn (Northern Arizona University) · University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland

“It is ironic that the translation of Colossians 1:15-20 that has received the most criticism is the one where the added words are fully justified by what is implied in the Greek. … The decision whether or not to make something implicit explicit is up to the translators, and cannot be said to be either right or wrong in itself. Accuracy only comes into it when assessing whether something made explicit in the translation really is implied in the Greek. If it is, then it is accurate to make it explicit. In Colossians 1:15-20, it is accurate to add 'other' because 'other' is implied in the Greek.”

BeDuhn examines the New World Translation's insertion of '[other]' four times at Colossians 1:16-17 — the insertion Bruce Metzger called 'unwarrantably inserted' in 1953 and 'totally without warrant from the Greek' in 1964. BeDuhn argues (p. 84) that 'all' is commonly used in Greek as a hyperbole and that Paul does not mean to include God or Christ in the phrase 'all things', so that 'all other things' makes the implication explicit.

Official source Link not auto-checkable

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The book itself was never opened. The previous confidence label of 'verified' rested entirely on Google Books' in-volume snippet search, which no longer runs from this environment at all: books.google.com, books.google.co.uk, books.google.de, books.google.ca and www.googleapis.com/books/v1 all answer HTTP 429, and WebFetch is redirected to Google's 'sorry' interstitial. An auditor cannot reproduce the retrieval, and a snippet is in any case not the document. Downgraded to 'supported' on 19 September 2026. The passage was confirmed independently on 19 September 2026 against the reproduction at tetragrammaton.org, which quotes it continuously and attributes it to pp. 83-87 — not to p. 87 alone, as this record previously said. Two details: BeDuhn italicises 'other' rather than putting it in quotation marks, and the reproduction reads 'really is implied the Greek', apparently dropping a word, which is restored above as 'implied in the Greek'. BeDuhn's own sigla for the New World Translation is 'NW', not 'NWT': Allin quotes him with 'NW', the reproduction of pp. 124-125 has 'the NW translation', and JW.org expands it as 'The NW [New World Translation]'. The tetragrammaton.org reproduction silently prints 'NWT' throughout. Where the two differ, 'NW' is used here. Until the printed book is in hand, do not present these quotations as letter-perfect.

Scan provenance. Not opened. Transcribed from the long review at tetragrammaton.org, which reproduces the passage and attributes it to pp. 83-87.

Notes. Editions before the 2013 revision printed the word in brackets — 'all [other] things'. The 2013 revision removed the brackets. That change has not been checked against a primary text in this research. [Independent audit, 19 September 2026] The earlier version of this record ended the quotation with a second sentence, 'But if words are added that cannot be shown to be implied in the original Greek, then the translation that adds them is inaccurate', run on without an ellipsis as though it followed directly. No reproduction anywhere attests that sentence, and the continuous text runs differently. It has been removed and replaced with the wording that is attested.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-nwt-beduhn-2003-colossians

Claim page

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