The translators of the Revised Standard Version also used a still later, very authoritative text, that of Nestle, which text the New World Bible Translation Committee also consulted. That Committee, as can be seen from their footnotes, made comparisons with many other fine texts, both in Greek and in other languages. For example, they consulted nineteen Hebrew versions of the Christian Greek Scriptures that served as a basis for their using the divine name Jehovah in many places in the Christian Greek Scriptures.

The Westcott and Hort Greek text is now available to all Bible lovers in The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. One of the latest products of the New World Bible Translation Committee, it was released in 1969 at the “Peace on Earth” International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

This scholarly work has on each page a wide column and a narrow one. In the wide column to the left there appears the Westcott and Hort text and under each Greek word the English equivalent, a word-for-word translation. In the narrow right-hand column appears an improved text of the 1961 New World Translation. This Kingdom Interlinear Translation also contains much valuable information in its introduction and appendix, and regarding the Greek language itself on the front and back endsheets.

The foregoing accounts for many of the differences between the New World Translation and the King James Version and other old versions. The more striking differences consist of things appearing in the older versions that are not found in the later ones or that are shown only in footnotes. Why is that? Because most copyists’ errors are additions to the text rather than omissions. Thus Bible scholars today agree that the last twelve verses of the Gospel of Mark (16:9-20) and the first eleven verses of the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John 8:1-11 were not part of the original writings. And neither were the words “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth,” which are found at 1 John 5:7, 8 in the Douay and the King James versions.

The Westcott and Hort Greek text is now available to all Bible lovers in The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. One of the latest products of the New World Bible Translation Committee, it was released in 1969 at the “Peace on Earth” International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

This scholarly work has on each page a wide column and a narrow one. In the wide column to the left there appears the Westcott and Hort text and under each Greek word the English equivalent, a word-for-word translation. In the narrow right-hand column appears an improved text of the 1961 New World Translation. This Kingdom Interlinear Translation also contains much valuable information in its introduction and appendix, and regarding the Greek language itself on the front and back endsheets.

The earliest and most reliable Masoretic manuscript that has been made available to modern Bible scholars is the Ben Asher Masoretic text of about 930 C.E.

This is the text that one of the leading Hebrew scholars of the twentieth century, Rudolf Kittel, and his associates and successors used in producing the third and later editions of the Biblia Hebraica. Its 7th, 8th and 9th editions (1951-1955) were used by the New World Bible Translation Committee in producing their version of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Committee also consulted other fine Hebrew texts, especially that of the eminent scholar D. Ginsburg, following his text as the main reading in a number of places.

The New World Bible Translation Committee also used for purposes of comparison leading earliest translated texts. The most important of these is the Greek Septuagint. It began to be produced in 280 B.C.E., reputedly by seventy scholars, from which fact it got its name. It is the version that was mainly used by the writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures, as can be seen from both their direct and indirect quotations.

The Committee also consulted the leading Latin version, Jerome’s Vulgate. He translated it from the original languages into the then common language of the people, for which reason it was called the Vulgate or “vulgar” version. Published at the beginning of the 5th century C.E., it also is referred to many times in the footnotes of the first and 1963 editions of the New World Translation.

Also consulted and deserving mention are the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Aramaic Targums. The Samaritan Pentateuch is actually a transliteration rather than a translation. That is, the Hebrew words were simply put in the characters of the Samaritan alphabet, making it possible for Samaritans to read but not necessarily understand it. It was produced during the fourth century B.C.E., although extant copies go back only to the tenth century C.E. The Aramaic Targums were the earliest translations, or more correctly stated, paraphrases of Bible books. But they were first put in writing at the beginning of the Common Era, until then being transmitted only by word of mouth.

The scholarly basis for the renderings found in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, as noted in the foregoing, gives confidence in the accuracy of this translation. Further giving us confidence in it is the fact that the members of the New World Bible Translation Committee firmly believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible, knowing that it is indeed the Word of God and that “the saying of Jehovah endures forever.”​—1 Pet. 1:25.