Biblical Hebrew Forum

[alanf00 AT home.com]

I'd like to thank everyone for their comments regarding my question about the 
proper translation of Isaiah 40:26.
Since the topic is still ongoing and many participants may be on holiday, 
I'll reserve comments until later.

I'd also like to partially answer some of Monty Self's questions regarding 
the translators of The New World
Translation. Since all but two of the men on the original New World Bible 
Translation Committee are dead, including
the main translator, I don't know that it is possible even in principle to 
answer questions about motives for a
particular rendering. Of course, the men who make up the present-day NWT 
Committee might know, but they
remain anonymous.

The following list of translators is a compilation from a variety of sources:

Frederick W. Franz: Main translator. Took liberal arts sequence at University 
of Cincinnati; 21 semester hours of
classical Greek, some Latin. Partially completed a two-hour survey course in 
Biblical Greek in junior year; course
titled "The New Testament--A course in grammar and translation." Left in 
spring of 1914 before completing junior
year. Self-taught in Spanish, biblical Hebrew and Aramaic. Entered Brooklyn 
headquarters facility of Watchtower
Society in 1920. Probable ghost writer for J. F. Rutherford (2nd president of 
WTS) from late 1920s through 1942.
Vice president of WTS from 1942 to 1977, president from 1977 until death in 
1992 at age 99.

Franz writes in his autobiography: "What a blessing it was to study Bible 
Greek under Professor Arthur Kensella!
Under Dr. Joseph Harry, an author of some Greek works, I also studied the 
classical Greek. I knew that if I wanted
to become a Presbyterian clergyman, I had to have a command of Bible Greek. 
So I furiously applied myself and
got passing grades" (_The Watchtower_, May 1, 1987, p. 24). Franz gives the 
impression that the bulk of his Greek
studies were "Bible Greek" under "Professor Kensella" and that classical 
Greek was secondary under "Dr. Joseph
Harry." The opposite is true. As mentioned above, Franz only took one 2-hour 
credit class of "Bible Greek" but 21
hours of classical Greek. According to the course catalog of 1911, Arthur 
Kensella was not a professor of Greek, as
Franz wrote, but an "instructor in Greek." Kensella did not have a Ph.D. and 
he therefore taught entry-level courses.

Nathan H. Knorr: No training in biblical languages. Entered Brooklyn 
headquarters in 1923; 3rd president of WTS
from 1942 to 1977. Died 1977 at age 72.

Milton G. Henschel: No training in biblical languages. Private secretary and 
traveling companion to N. H. Knorr from
late 1940s until early 1970s. 4th president of WTS from 1992 to 2000. Still 
living, age mid-80s.

Albert D. Schroeder: No training in biblical languages. Took 3 years of 
mechanical engineering, unspecified
language courses in college, dropped out in 1932 and soon entered Brooklyn 
headquarters. Registrar of "Gilead
School" from 1942 to 1959. Still living, age 90.

Karl Klein: No training in biblical languages. Entered Brooklyn headquarters 
in 1925; member of Writing Dept. since
1950. Died 2001 at age 96.

George D. Gangas: No training in biblical languages. Greek-speaking Turkish 
national, entered Brooklyn
headquarters in 1928 as a Greek translator from English to modern Greek 
publications. Died 1994 at age 98.

Franz was the only man capable of doing translation work. Gangas was a native 
Greek speaker, knew little of Koine
Greek, and apparently helped out with a variety of non-translation tasks 
including reviewing the English grammar for
continuity of expression. From all information published about him 
personally, one readily concludes that Knorr was
the business administrator for the Translation Committee. Henschel might have 
been on it to take care of
legal/secretarial matters. Schroeder and Klein did the copious footnotes 
(which included textual sources) and cross
references and marginal notes, which in the original six volumes of the NWT 
were more extensive than in the 1984
edition.

The NWT Committee has always been extremely secretive, and so information 
about who was on it has only
trickled out of the Brooklyn headquarters as various staff members have left 
and revealed what they knew. Scant
information has been published, other information has leaked by word of mouth.

Frederick Franz has been criticized for supposedly not being proficient in 
Biblical Hebrew. This is patently false,
since *someone* had to be competent enough to produce a workable translation, 
and it certainly was not the other
men on the NWT Committee. Franz's nephew, Raymond Franz, who resigned from 
the Jehovah's Witnesses
Governing Body in 1980 and was excommunicated in 1981, listed some of the 
members of the NWT Committee in
his 1983 book "Crisis of Conscience". He has told me and others that he once 
observed his uncle silently reading
an ancient Hebrew manuscript in a museum display case, which the elder Franz 
is not likely to have done in private
unless he was actually able to make sense of it. But because the elder Franz 
has internally been termed "the
oracle of the [JW] organization" and was clearly its "head theologian" from 
1942 until his gradual retirement in the
1980s, he certainly inserted his religious biases into his translation work.

Now for a few of Monty's specific questions:

"Are theologically charged words translated the same on every occurrence or 
was their translation dependent more
upon context?"

Both. This is the basic rule as stated in the "Introduction" (p. 7) to the 
1984 "New World Translation of the Holy
Scriptures--With References":

"Uniformity of rendering has been maintained by assigning one meaning to each 
major word and by holding to that
meaning as far as the context permits. At times this has imposed a 
restriction upon word choice, but it aids in
cross-reference work and in comparing related texts."

In certain cases Franz slavishly adhered to this rule of "one Hebrew/Greek 
word goes to the same English word."
An example of this is the Greek word "parousia", which is always rendered as 
"presence" in the NWT. This is
definitely a "theologically charged word" for the Jehovah's Witnesses.

An example of translating by context is the word in Isaiah 40:26 that we are 
here considering, " 'ohnim ". There are
12 passages of interest, where the word is translated as follows:

As "generative power":

Genesis 49:3
Reu'ben, you are my firstborn, my vigor and the beginning of my generative 
power, the excellence of dignity and the
excellence of strength.

Deuteronomy 21:17
For he should recognize as the firstborn the hated one's son by giving him 
two parts in everything he is found to
have, because that one is the beginning of his generative power.

Psalm 78:51
Finally he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, The beginning of their 
generative power in the tents of Ham.

Psalm 105:36
And he proceeded to strike down every firstborn in their land, The beginning 
of all their generative power.

As "valuable things":

Job 20:10
His own sons will seek the favor of lowly people, And his own hands will give 
back his valuable things.

Hosea 12:8
And E'phra·im keeps saying, 'Indeed, I have become rich; I have found 
valuable things for myself. As regards all my
toiling, they will find, on my part, no error that is sin.

As "vigor":

Job 18:7
His steps of vigor will become cramped. Even his counsel will cast him off.

Job 18:12
His vigor becomes famished, And disaster stands ready to make him limp.

As "dynamic energy":

Job 40:16
Here, now, its power is in its hips, And its dynamic energy in the tendons of 
its belly.

Isaiah 40:26
Due to the abundance of dynamic energy, he also being vigorous in power, not 
one [of them] is missing.

Isaiah 40:29
He is giving to the tired one power; and to the one without dynamic energy he 
makes full might abound.

Hosea 12:3
In the belly he seized his brother by the heel, and with his dynamic energy 
he contended with God.


Next question:

"How much paraphrasing did the translator(s) of the NWT intend to employ?"

I'll let the "Introduction" to the 1984 NWT Reference Bible answer (p. 7):

"Paraphrases of the Scriptures are not offered. Rather, an effort has been 
made to give as literal a translation as
possible where the modern-English idiom allows and where a literal rendition 
does not, by any awkwardness, hide
the thought. In that way the desire of those who are scrupulous for getting 
an almost word-for-word statement of the
original is met. It is realized that even such a seemingly insignificant 
matter as the use or omission of a comma or
of a definite or an indefinite article may at times alter the correct sense 
of the original passage.

Taking liberties with the texts for the mere sake of brevity, and 
substituting some modern parallel when a literal
rendering of the original makes good sense, has been avoided. Uniformity of 
rendering has been maintained by
assigning one meaning to each major word and by holding to that meaning as 
far as the context permits. At times
this has imposed a restriction upon word choice, but it aids in 
cross-referencing work and in comparing related texts.

Special care was taken in translating Hebrew and Greek verbs in order to 
capture the simplicity, warmth, character
and forcefulness of the original expressions. An effort was made to preserve 
the flavor of the ancient Hebrew and
Greek times, the people's way of thinking, reasoning and talking, their 
social dealings, etc. This has prevented any
indulgence in translating as one may think the original speaker or writer 
should have said it. So, care has been
taken not to modernize the verbal renderings to such an extent as to alter 
their ancient background beyond
recognition. This means the reader will encounter many Hebrew and Greek 
idioms. In many cases the footnotes
show the literalness of certain expressions."


Next question:

"Another realm that must be addressed in evaluating a translators skills or 
the validity of a translation is
understanding the presuppositions of the translators."

You are absolutely correct that "Every translator translates with 
presuppositions." You may have noted Dr./Mr.
Swift’s observation that Franz ‘freely admitted his presuppositions’. These 
were set by previous Watchtower
doctrines, some of which he himself had a hand in formulating. Some of these 
are clearly enunciated in the
introductory material to specific volumes. A solid discussion of these is 
probably beyond the scope of this forum,
but an idea can be readily derived by understanding the very basic doctrines 
held by the Watchtower Society when
the NWT originally was produced, from the late 1940s through the late 1950s. 
These include the notions that the
Bible is absolutely inspired and inerrant, that Christ returned invisibly in 
1914 (hence the concern with "parousia"),
that a special group of Jehovah's Witness leaders are God's exclusive and 
collective 'spokesman' to all mankind,
that the Bible does not teach the Trinity, and so forth. As "head theologian" 
and vice-president of the Watchtower
Society, Franz was required to ensure that his work was consistent with 
existing doctrine, just as any group of
translators is required by those who commission them to follow the precepts 
of the group. Deviation from accepted
ideas may be grounds for dismissal.


Next comment:

"Knowing his or her name permits a scholar to look at the corpus of the 
translators writings and discover the
translators presupps."

Frederick Franz either wrote or contributed to most of the WTS's large-format 
bound theological books published
from the late 1920s through the early 1970s. He also wrote or contributed to 
countless articles appearing in "The
Watchtower" magazine. Once one becomes acquainted with Franz's distinctive 
writing style, it is not hard to see
which publications he wrote or contributed substantially to. Of course, these 
are not easy to come by for people
outside the Jehovah's Witness organization, and the task of reading them is 
daunting, so I don't know what to tell
you.

Alan Feuerbacher