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The
Jehovah's Witnesses and Hebrews 1:6
in the New World Translation
"But when he again
brings his Firstborn into the inhabited earth, he says:
'And let all God's angels do obeisance to him" The New World
Translation, 1981.
The
problem with this verse in the JW Bible is with the word
"obeisance." In the Greek, the word is
"proskuneo." It means, worship; fall down and worship, kneel,
bow low, obeisance. Obeisance means, "bending the head or body or
knee as a sign of reverence or submission or shame." While it is
certainly true that people would bow down before Jesus in the Bible,
the English word "obeisance" does not carry
sufficiently the act of worship due Him because of His divine
nature. Since the Jehovah's Witnesses deny that Jesus is God in
flesh, they cannot have their Bible teach that Jesus was
worshipped. Therefore, every single time that the word "proskuneo"
is used in reference to Christ, it is translated as "obeisance"
and never as worship. For proof of this, please see the article The New World Translation and
"Proskuneo" (worship) which has a chart of every occurrence
of the Greek word and how the New World Translation renders it.
Jesus said in Matthew 4:10 that
you should worship (proskuneo) God only, yet He willing receives worship
in Matt. 2:2; 2:11; 14:33; 28:9; and John 9:35-38. Just check
any Bible other than the New World Translation and you can plainly see
this.
In Acts 10:25-26 it says, "And when
it came about that Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet
and worshiped him. But Peter raised him up, saying, 'Stand up; I too am
just a man'" (NASB). Here, Cornelius bows down before Peter. The
Greek word here is "proskuneo." Peter knew that this
homage is to be given to God alone. Jesus, undoubtedly, knew the
same thing. Yet, when they bow down before Jesus, He does not rebuke them.
Why? Because Jesus is worthy of worship. He is God in flesh (John
1:1,14).
In Hebrews 1:6, God commands that all
the angels worship Jesus, not just give Him obeisance. The ASV, KJV, NASB, NIV, NKJV, and RSV all translate
the verse to say "worship." Is the NWT correct and all the others wrong?
Not at all. The New World Translation is simply a slanted Bible
that is used to support Jehovah's Witness theology.
The Watchtower taught
that Jesus was to be worshipped
Oddly
enough, denying worship of Jesus is not what the Watchtower Organization
has always taught. On page 216 of the July 15, 1898 edition of the
Watchtower magazine it says:
"Question:
The fact that our Lord received worship is claimed by some to be an
evidence that while on earth he was God the Father disguised in a body
of flesh and not really a man. Was he really worshiped, or is the
translation faulty?
Answer: Yes, we believe our Lord Jesus
while on earth was really worshiped, and properly so...It was proper for
our Lord to receive worship in view of his having been the only begotten
of the Father, and his agent in the creation of all things, including
man."
In
the book, New Heavens and a New Earth, on pages 27-28, published
in 1953, it says:
"For example, to
which one of the angels did he ever say: 'You are my Son; today I
have become your Father'? And again: 'I shall be a Father to him, and he
will be a Son to me'? But when he again brings his Firstborn into
the inhabited earth, he says: 'And let all God's angels worship
him.'"
Also, it is
worth noting that the Watchtower organization changes the New World
Translation as time goes
by. In the 1970 edition, Heb. 1:6 is translated as the word
"worship." In the 1980 version it is translated as 'obeisance.'
Why the change? Simple, the Watchtower Organization is methodically
altering the Bible to make it agree with their theology.
The Jehovah's Witness will probably answer this
issue the same way he
would with the false prophecies made by the
Watchtower Magazine. He would say that "the light is getting
brighter." This means that the early Watchtowers did not have the
same information and light that the present Watchtower writers do. They
made errors in the past, but now they know more and corrections need to be
made.
But if this were so, then how can the
Jehovah's Witnesses trust what is being said now? If the doctrines have changed before, what's
to prevent them from changing again? How can a Jehovah's Witness be sure that what he is
believing now won't be changed later? He can't.
God doesn't change and neither does His
word. But, if you are a man-made religion that is still writing
its doctrines, then you need a Bible that keeps up with those
changes. The New World Translation is made to order.
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