[24] Additionally, over the centuries since the King James Version was produced, more copies of earlier manuscripts of the original texts in the Hebrew and Greek languages had become available.

[25] A fresh translation of the New Testament, which Jehovah's Witnesses usually refer to as the Christian Greek Scriptures, was proposed in October 1946 by the president of the Watch Tower Society, Nathan H.

[26][27][28] Work began on December 2, 1947, when the "New World Bible Translation Committee" was formed, composed of Jehovah's Witnesses who professed to be anointed.

[32] The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures was released at a Jehovah's Witness convention at Yankee Stadium, New York, on August 2, 1950.

Fredrick Franz had stated that he was familiar with not only Hebrew, but with Greek, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and French for the purpose of biblical translation.

[51] In 1989, a Translation Services Department was established at the world headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses, overseen by the Writing Committee of the Governing Body.

[36] The committee also referred to the Novum Testamentum Graece (18th edition, 1948) and to works by Jesuit scholars José M. Bover (1943),[36] and Augustinus Merk (1948).

[34][61] Headings were included at the top of each page to assist in locating texts; these have been replaced in the 2013 revision by an "Outline of Contents" introducing each Bible book.

"[66] The New World Translation also uses the name Jehovah 237 times in the New Testament where the extant texts use only the Greek words kyrios (Lord) and theos (God).

[69] Walter Martin, an evangelical minister, wrote, "It can be shown from literally thousands of copies of the Greek New Testament that not once does the tetragrammaton appear.

[85] Production of the NWT in American Sign Language began in 2006; the New Testament was made available by 2010,[86][87] and the complete ASL edition was released in February 2020.

[91][92][93] Since 2015, a Study Edition of the New World Translation has been gradually released online starting with the books of the New Testament, based on the 2013 revision with additional reference material.

[101] In 2004, Anthony Byatt and Hal Flemings published their anthology 'Your Word is Truth', Essays in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (1950, 1953).

[102] George D. Chryssides stated in 2019 that the unfavourable criticisms by Harold Henry Rowley (1953), Julius R. Mantey (1974) and William Barclay (1953) "were extremely vague", but that Bruce M. Metzger (1953) "mentioned a few specific passages which he believed were wrongly translated.

Furuli added that Rowley's assessment based on his own preference for idiomatic translations ignores the NWT's stated objective of being as literal as possible.

"[107] He concluded, "this work indicates a great deal of effort and thought as well as considerable scholarship, it is to be regretted that religious bias was allowed to colour many passages.

[103] According to the October 15, 1999 issue of The Watchtower, Goodspeed wrote to the Watch Tower Society in 1950 stating, "I am interested in the mission work of your people, and its world wide scope, and much pleased with the free, frank and vigorous translation.

[116] Byington concludes: "the book does not give enjoyable continuous reading; but if you are digging for excellent or suggestive renderings, this is among the richer mines.

... We heartily recommend the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, published in 1950 by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

[119] In 1953, former American Bible Society board member Bruce M. Metzger stated that the translation was written to support Jehovah's Witness doctrines, with "several quite erroneous renderings of the Greek",[120] and cited 6 examples (John 1:1,[121] Col. 1:15-17,[122] Phil.

In 1964, Metzger again reviewed the NWT and concluded, "on the whole, one gains a tolerably good impression of the scholarly equipment of the translators (their names are not divulged).

[127] J. Carter Swaim in 1953 wrote that "objection is sometimes made to new translations on the ground that to abolish archaic phrases tends to cheapen the Scripture".

"[132] Frederick E. Mayer wrote in 1954: "It is a version that lends support to denial of doctrines which the Christian churches consider basic, such as the co-equality of Jesus Christ with the Father, the personhood of the Holy Spirit, and the survival of the human person after physical death.

"[133][134] In 1961 F. F. Bruce stated: "some of its distinctive renderings reflect the biblical interpretations which we have come to associate with Jehovah's Witnesses (e. g. 'the Word was a god" in John 1:1)".

In their so-called New World Translation, the term Kyrios is rendered Jehovah instead of Lord everywhere in the New Testament (237 times) except at Philippians 2.11, where St. Paul refers the word to Christ.

"[145] In 2004, historian Jason BeDuhn examined New Testament passages in which he believed "bias is most likely to interfere with translation"[146] from nine of "the Bibles most widely in use in the English-speaking world".

"[156] The Evangelical German Bible Society reviewed the German-language edition of 1986 and described the NWT as a "translation that is accurate in many respects, but tendentious in the sense of the special teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses".

[158] Sverre Bøe in 2011 said, "the Norwegian version of The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT) by Jehovah's Witnesses intends to be 'accurate', literal and precise, and in many respects it really is.

"[143] According to the February 1, 1998 issue of The Watchtower, Jason BeDuhn ordered copies of the KIT for his students at Indiana University Bloomington, and wrote that "it is the best interlinear New Testament available".

[161][162] Much criticism of the New World Translation involves the rendering of certain texts in the New Testament considered to be biased in favor of specific Witness practices and doctrines.