The Hebrew Scriptures followed in five volumes from 1953 to 1960; a revised one-volume complete Bible appeared in 1961, ‘made available for distribution for just one dollar (U.S.)’; a large-print reference edition with 125,000 marginal references and 11,400 footnotes followed in 1984; and the most extensive revision was released on the weekend of 5 and 6 October 2013 at the Society’s 129th annual meeting.
Claim ID claim-bible-nwt-editionsConcerns 5 October 2013Context
1993 · pp.608-610 · pars. 23, 24, 27, 28, 30, 31 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Jehovah’s Witnesses wanted a translation that embodied the benefits of the latest scholarship, one that was not colored by the creeds and traditions of Christendom, a literal translation that faithfully presented what is in the original writings and so could provide the basis for continued growth in knowledge of divine truth, a translation that would be clear and understandable to modern-day readers.”
The chapter gives the organisation’s account of why an existing translation would not do: most available versions “were made by clergymen and missionaries of Christendom’s religious sects, and to varying degrees their translations were influenced by the pagan philosophies and unscriptural traditions that their religious systems had inherited from the past as well as by the bias of higher criticism”. It records that the committee completed its final reading of the fifth Hebrew Scriptures volume on 13 March 1960, “12 years, 3 months, and 11 days” after translation began; that the one-volume revised edition followed in 1961 and was distributed for one US dollar; that four further revisions were issued, the most recent in 1984 as a large-print edition with “125,000 marginal references, 11,400 enlightening footnotes, and a concordance”; and that the committee produced The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures in 1969, updated in 1985.
Provenance and verification note for Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, Chapter 27: Printing and Distributing God’s Own Sacred Word
Confidence note. Chapter opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read in full; all dates, figures and quoted wording confirmed from the text, with page numbers taken from the document’s embedded page markers.
15 December 2015 · pp.4-8 · pars. 17, 19 (pp. 7-8) · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“On the weekend of October 5 and 6, 2013, an audience of 1,413,676 in 31 countries attended or were tied in to the 129th annual meeting of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. All were thrilled to hear a member of the Governing Body announce the release of the revised New World Translation in English.”
The article also quotes N. H. Knorr’s words when releasing the first volume on 2 August 1950: “More and more the need has been felt for a translation in modern speech, in harmony with revealed truth, and yet furnishing us the basis for gaining further truth by faithfully presenting the sense of the original writings; a translation just as understandable to modern readers as the original writings of Christ’s disciples were understandable to the simple, plain, common, lowly readers of their day.” It records that the six volumes appeared between 1950 and 1960, that a translation department was established at headquarters in 1989, and that Bible translation was made a priority in 2005.
Provenance and verification note for The Watchtower (study edition), Jehovah, the God of Communication
Confidence note. Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026; the date, attendance figure and Knorr quotation confirmed from the article text, with page numbers from the document’s page markers.
15 December 2015 · pp.14-17 · pars. 2, 16, 17 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“Over the years, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures has been revised a number of times, but the 2013 revision was by far the most extensive. For example, there are now about 10 percent fewer English words in the translation.”
The article explains the revision term by term: “impaled” to “executed on a stake”, “lose conduct” to “brazen conduct”, “long-suffering” to “patience”, “loving-kindness” to “loyal love”, “seed” to “offspring” at Genesis 3:15, “kidneys” to “innermost thoughts” at Revelation 2:23, and “sons of Israel” to “Israelites”. On the text it says: “The original New World Translation was based on the Hebrew Masoretic text and the respected Greek text by Westcott and Hort,” and that the committee added words at 2 Samuel 13:21 from the Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls, restored God’s name five times in First Samuel, and changed the order of ideas at Matthew 21:29-31, so that “some changes were based on the weight of manuscript evidence rather than on the strict adherence to a single master Greek text”.
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