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  • The “New World Translation”—Scholarly and Honest
    The Watchtower—1991 | March 1
    • According to Matthew 26:26 in the New World Translation, Jesus, when instituting the celebration of the Lord’s Evening Meal, says of the bread that he passes to his disciples: “This means my body.” Most other translations render this verse: “This is my body,” and this is used to support the doctrine that during the celebration of the Lord’s Evening Meal, the bread literally becomes Christ’s flesh. The word translated in the New World Translation as “means” (es·tinʹ, a form of ei·miʹ) comes from the Greek word meaning “to be,” but it can also signify “to mean.” Thus, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament says that this verb “is often i.q. [equivalent to] to denote, signify, import.” Indeed, “means” is a logical translation here. When Jesus instituted the Last Supper, his flesh was still on his bones, so how could the bread have been his literal flesh?a

  • The “New World Translation”—Scholarly and Honest
    The Watchtower—1991 | March 1
    • a At Revelation 1:20, German translator Curt Stage rendered the same verb as follows: “The seven lampstands mean [ei·sinʹ] the seven congregations.” Fritz Tillmann and Ludwig Thimme similarly render it “mean” [es·tinʹ] at Matthew 12:7.

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