The Watchtower (study edition), “A Living Translation of God’s Word”
“So in September 2007, the Governing Body gave approval to revise the English text. Thousands of questions from Bible translators were reviewed during the revision process.”
The article explains that questions from translators working into other languages exposed problems in the English text: “approval was given” to render “Sheol” and “Hades” as “the Grave”, and “approval was given” to render neʹphesh and psy·kheʹ by sense rather than always as “soul”, because the older rendering “could give the impression that the ‘soul’ is an immaterial part of man”. It also states that the Governing Body “has given priority” to Bible translation because of the trend to omit the divine name.
Official source (opens in new tab)
Provenance and verification note for The Watchtower (study edition), A Living Translation of God’s Word
Confidence note. Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026; wording and page markers confirmed from the document.
Corroborated by. src-nwto-w-2015-1215-revision-2013, src-nwto-nwtsty-a2-features
Notes. Directly relevant to the anonymity question: the translation committee’s work is approved and prioritised by the Governing Body, which is named.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-nwto-w-2015-1215-living-approval