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Using the KIT to Witness to JWs

By Gary F. Zeolla

 

In the following e-mail exchange, the e-mailer's comments are in black and enclosed in "greater than" and "lesser than" signs. My comments are in red.


Hi Gary,

....

Concerning your discussion on this page.

You might want to give people following advice: Agree with witness that the most accurate translation is the one that is closest to the original text; that would Greek or Hebrew.

The JWs usually trust their NWT [New World Translation] and reject other bibles, if verse contradicts with what reads in NWT. However, you can make a JW to start thinking about their NWT translation accuracy by saying:

"Hmm, I see. The verse reads different here. Could we put a mark on this verse and confirm it later. I have been told that you have original Greek texts where it can be verified. (New Testament)."

A door-to-door JW does not necessarily know about KIT, but they will, after you ask them to bring KIT with them next time.

"Oh, I believe your Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures (KIT) will certainly tell us how this verse reads in the original texts. I look forward to study this next time we meet."

Next time, return to the verses and 99% of the cases your Bible (any of them) will prove to be more accurate than NWT.

The JW sitting on there with you, is struggling with serious problems. He has seen with his own eyes, that Watchtower's KIT, the original Greek text, agrees with the Bible "from the other camp" and that NWT does not translate accurate verses. He is feeling very mixed up.

Continue studying, by always using KIT only when you remember or look up the verse from (any bible). The witness will soon start lacking his confidence. He must abort the session with thoughts that he must sort out by himself. He is thinking "I must study KIT alone - I'm sure I have misunderstood something--the KIT will prove I'm still right..."

You will hello and ask him to come back so that you could read more from the original Greek, which brings the true words of God closer than any other Bible.

Hopefully he will not lay down KIT any more--instead, the more he studies with it, the Greek text, the more he will be lead to the other other conclusions what the verses say. Eventually if he continues studying, he can see the truth.

------------------

Gary, the key idea is that although WH [Westcott and Hort, the Greek text the KIT and NWT are based on] is different regarding the MT/TR [Majority Text/ Textus Receptus], it is still in agreement with, according to studies, 85% with the TR/MT.

And believe or not, that is enough. All the important verses where our Christian belief is based on (e.g. the famous ho Theos - John 20:28, which was addresses to Jesus) can still be found from KIT.

JWs trust their own literature and fortunately the light itself can still shine from KIT. It is just, that only the elders carry KIT. But it should be pointed to the regular JW as well. From there they all can still find the truth about Jesus.

------------------

I'm just concluding my study on NWT versus KIT (WH) and NWT verses NOVUM 1-5 (TR book series, which is 3rd version of Stehanus's TR, translated in Finnish) and to my surprise KIT proves a sword to us Christians to show that NWT is inaccurate.

That's all it is needed. Every Christian should purchase KIT. With it, he can show the correct way to a JW. The witness can't argue against it - he would argue against Watchtower itself.

.... 

Peace,
Jari
12/4/01<

Good advice. In fact, I refer to the KIT quite a bit in my evaluation of the NWT. And yes, it can be used to show how poor of a translation the NWT is. But even at that, it's not the best interlinear around.


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