"..for truly I say to you that sooner would[Greek: HEWS] heaven and earth pass away than for one smallest letter or particle of a letter to pass away from the Law...Matthew 5.18 New World Translation.(italics ours)
Why has the New World Translation translated HEWS, occuring often in the Greek N.T. as a subordinating conjunction, hence with the meaning "until", as "sooner would" rather than as simply "until" as in most other translations at this place? We of this site are not spokespersons for why the New World Translation did this or that or course, but we can evaluate it from our own studies.
When this conjunction relates to time then it
is often rendered as "until." But does it have this
meaning here? R.T.France remarks: "The saying so introduced["Truly(Greek
Amen), I say to you"]is similiar to Luke
16:17, and affirms that the law(possibly, in the light
of v.17, meaning the whole Old Testament, though v.19 will speak
of 'commandments')will remain intact till heaven and earth
pass away. (Jesus' own words will remain even longer: 24:35!
But the expression is probably less specific note of time
than an idiom for something inconceivable.)-Matthew;
Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, IVP, 1985, p.115. Bold/Underlining
ours. C.F.D.Moule alludes to this "idiom" for HEWS
by writing: " 'Improper' Prepositions.....21.[HEWS] seems
essentially to be a conjunction meaning while or until.
But it is also used as a preposition, with Gen[initve], meaning up
to, as far as, both spatially and metaphorically..."-An
Idiom-Book of New Testament Greek, Cambridge University Press,
1953, p.85.
From this then one can see why "until" might not
actually indicate what Jesus was trying to put over to his
listeners. Not that the Law will remain "until" heaven
and earth pass away, not that heaven and earth will pass away then
the "smallest letter or particle of a letter" would
"pass away from the Law," nor that as long as
heaven and earth remain, but that "sooner would" heaven
and earth pass away than one letter or particle of one letter of
the Law pass away. Jesus was showing by this hyperbole
that it is "inconceivable" that the Law would not be
"fullfilled". And Jesus states that it would. As The
Expositor's Greek Testament says: "[HEWS HAN PARELQE]etc.:
not intended to fix a period after which the law will pass away, but
a strong way of saying never."(underlining
ours) Luke records Jesus' word with this meaning when he
writes: "But it is easier for heaven and earth to
pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be
dropped."-Luke 61.17. Interestingly, in the Anchor Bible we
find this remark: "This saying is certainly hyperbolic for
purposes of effect." -Matthew, A New Translation with
Introduction and Commentary by W.F.Albright and C.S.Mann.
Doubleday, 1971, p.58.
This is no doubt why Charles B. Williams in his The New Testament in the Language of the People reads: "For I solemnly say to you, heaven and earth would sooner pass away than...."(ftnote: Grk., until heaven, etc)-italics ours.
We must not forget that when evaluating the accuracy of the New World Translation that though it strove as much as possible for a 'word for word' correspondency for the original, keeping as close at it could to the Hebrew and the Greek, it would not sacrifice meaning and so at times a more dynamic translation if often called for. In this instance we can see the good grounds for the NWT Translation Committee's choice.