Acts 10:36 New
World Translation:
"Why is 'others' added? To imply Jesus is not Lord of God."
Answer: If you look up Acts 10:36 in the
Jerusalem Bible we can see that the English word "men"
has been "added", so that in this version it reads:
"...but Jesus Christ is Lord of all men." -
italics mine. Another Bible translation, this time by the Greek
scholar Edgar Goodspeed, The Bible-An American Translation
reads here: "..He is Lord of us all."(italics
mine) Notice the addition of the word "us."
Would anyone claim that the reason why the translations above
"added" the words "men" and "us,"
is to "imply that Jesus is not Lord of God"?
(sic, ? = Lord and God) Actually, neither in the NWT with the
word "others" or with the other Bible translations
above quoted has anything been added! Why is that so? Because the
Greek word rendered as "all" is pantas an
inflected form of pas. According to the Manual
Greek Lexicon of The New Testament of G. Abbott-Smith
under this word pas we read: "all, every, of
every kind." Notice that it can mean not only "all"
but "of every kind." Translators are now faced
with how to translate clearly the meaning here at this place.At
Acts 2:36 we see that Jesus' 'Lordship' was given him
by God. This Lordship does not mean that Jesus was made the 'Lord
God'. For God, Jehovah, has always been the supreme Lord, Lord of
the whole Universe. No one could give Jehovah God
'Lordship'. But this is the case with Jesus-- his
Lordship was given him. It was given to him by his
superior, God, his Father.
Note also the context of Acts 10:36. In verse 38 Peter did not
say that Jesus "was God," but that "God was with
him[Jesus]" for him to do "good and healing."
Again, Jesus is distinguished from God in verses 40 and 42. In
conclusion then, the NWT has certainly not mistranslated Acts 10:36
nor does this verse make Jesus "Lord God." We also
might compare Acts 10:36 with Philippians 2:9. According to
the Contemporary English Bible(1995-produced and
sponsored by Trinitarian churches and translators) it reads:
"..Then God gave Christ the highest place and
honored his name above all others[Gk:pas].
Again, we see that this Bible translation has translated the
Greek word 'pas' as "all others." See
also the translations by C.B. Williams and Goodspeed
.
Clearly then, the word can be so translated and this Lordship
which was given by God(actually the Greek word rendered
"given" here is charisomai and is better
rendered by the NWT as "kindly gave". Check
KIT at this place).
Criticisms as we find above is shallow research both into the
Greek word and the context, aswell as not acknowledging that
there are other translations(including trinitarian ones) that
translate Acts 10:36 similiarly.