<P> According to the Watch Tower Society, Hebrew scholar Benjamin Kedar - Kopfstein, a professor emeritus at University of Haifa, said in 1989: "In my linguistic research in connection with the Hebrew Bible and translations, I often refer to the English edition of what is known as the New World Translation . In so doing, I find my feeling repeatedly confirmed that this work (the Old Testament) reflects an honest endeavor to achieve an understanding of the text that is as accurate as possible...Giving evidence of a broad command of the original language, it renders the original words into a second language understandably without deviating unnecessarily from the specific structure of the Hebrew...Every statement of language allows for a certain latitude in interpreting or translating . So the linguistic solution in any given case may be open to debate . But I have never discovered in the New World Translation (Old Testament) any biased intent to read something into the text that it does not contain". </P> <P> Regarding the NWT's use of English in the 1953 first volume of the NWT (Genesis to Ruth), Baptist biblical scholar Harold Henry Rowley was critical of what he called "wooden literalism" and "harsh construction ." He characterized these as "an insult to the Word of God", citing various verses of Genesis as examples . Rowley concluded, "From beginning to end this (first) volume is a shining example of how the Bible should not be translated ." </P> <P> Theologian and televangelist John Ankerberg accused the NWT's translators of renderings that conform "to their own preconceived and unbiblical theology ." John Weldon and Ankerberg cite several examples wherein they consider the NWT to support theological views overriding appropriate translation . Ankerberg and Weldon cite Julius R. Mantey, co-author of A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament and A Hellenistic Greek Reader, who also criticized the NWT, calling it "a shocking mistranslation ." </P> <P> William Barclay, Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism, concluded that "the deliberate distortion of truth by this sect is seen in the New Testament translation...It is abundantly clear that a sect which can translate the New Testament like that is intellectually dishonest ." </P>

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