The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures

admin · March 6, 2016

The 1969 version had a purple cover:

This allows the NWT Translation Committee to give their reasons why they produced the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures (in 1969 and later in 1985)and the benefits that can be derived from such a publication by ardent students of this part of God's Word. The following also answers the oft met critical question(which we are often asked)of why there are differences between the translation offered under the Greek text in the Kingdom Interlinear Translation and The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures itself(see last paragraph).

-p.5 of the Kingdom Interlinear Translation(Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society) of 1969.

BY WAY OF EXPLANATION
The inspired Greek Scriptures, completed near the end of the first century of our Common Era, are an indispensable part of the Sacred Scriptures inspired by the Creator of heaven and earth. In fact, the original Greek Scriptures give us the key to the proper understanding of the first and larger part of the Holy Bible, that is, the inspired Hebrew Scriptures commonly called The Old Testament. Comparatively few persons in this latter half of the twentieth century C.E. have studied the original language of the inspired Greek Scriptures so as to able to pry directly into the basic thoughts of the original written text. The inspired Greek Scriptures were written, not in the ancient classical Greek nor in the modern Greek which dates from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 C.E., but in the common or kione Greek of the first century of our Common Era, the international language of that time. Hence the kione Greek of the divinely inspired Scriptures is a special study in itself.

Sincere searchers for eternal, life-giving truth desire an accurate understanding of the faith-inspiring Greek Scriptures, an understanding that will not be confused by sectarian, denominational religious teachings but that is fortified by the knowledge of what the original language says and means. To aid such seekers of truth and life is the purpose behind the publishing of The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. Its literal interlinear English translation is especially designed to open up to the student of the Sacred Scriptures what the original kione Greek basically or literally says, without any sectarian religious coloration.

In the broad left hand column of the pages of the main material will be found the original kione Greek text as revised(in 1881 C.E.)by the renowned Greek scholars B.F.Westcott and F.J.A.Hort, and in between the lines of the Greek text will be found the word-for-word English translation. In the slim right-hand column of the page will be found the twentieth-century language translation entitled "New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures," in its latest revision. The word-for-word interlinear translation and the New World Translation are arranged parallel on the page, so that comparisons can be made between the two readings and the accuracy of any modern translation can be determined.

For the interlinear word-for-word rendering the English word or phrase has not been taken from the modern translation in the right-hand column and transferred to a position under the Greek word to which it corresponds. Rather, the translation under each Greek word sets out what the Greek word itself says according to its root meanings(where the Greek word is made up of two or more particles) and according to its grammatcial form. So in many cases the reading in the English word-for-word interlinear translation is not the same as that found in the right-hand column. This aids us in determining what the Greek text actually, basically says.