The New World Translation Bible was created by the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. This translation of the Bible has been the center of much debate in regard to its accuracy and has even been accused of being deceptive.
The "Bible Version Debate" is outside the scope of this Web site but there is a difference between simply paraphrasing difficult to read passages into modern day English and changing the meaning of the verse with the paraphrase. When the meaning of the verse is altered, God's word is being polluted and the translation cannot be trusted. It has been shown that the translation committee that worked on the New World Translation Bible were not experts in New Testament Greek. This needs to be taken into consideration when examining the reliability of the New World Translation of the Bible.
This question wasn't always so easy to answer. Perhaps for the first and only time, the translating committee of a Bible was kept a complete secret. The Jehovah's Witnesses passed the secrecy off claiming that they wanted all credit to go to Jehovah God,
Awake, Oct 22, 1989, p. 20 "It is the truth rather than its servant that should be honored and proclaimed," Russell wrote in 1900, adding: "There is too much disposition to credit truth to the preacher, forgetful that all truth is of God, who uses one or another servant in its proclamation as it may please him."
Another instance of this secrecy is when Franz (one of the presidents of the Jehovah's Witnesses) was asked a question under oath in a trial in Glasgow, Scotland in 1954 who the translators were. Franz answered,
"That is an absolute secret. It will never be revealed now or even after death."
Franz was then asked,
"What happens if somebody submits a translation. Does the committee examine it?" Mr. Franz: No. I give it my 0.K., then the President, Mr. N. H. Knorr, has the last word." He was then asked to explain how "translations and interpretations of the Bible were made." Franz answered that they came directly from God, "passed to the Holy Spirit who, invisible, communicates with Jehovah's Witnesses - and the publicity department."
Later, the information on who put together the New World Translation came out. The people responsible are Nathan Knorr, Albert Schroeder, George Gangas, Fred Franz, M. Henschel. Congratulations guys!
Does all this secrecy really discredit the reliability of the NWT? No, not by itself. But once you find out that 4 out of 5 of the above people who translated ancient Hebrew & Greek Scriptures for our understanding had no training in that field and never got past a high school education that should concern you. Fred Franz was the only one with any sort of training and even that was only 2 years of Greek in college. Anybody that has taken 2 years of a language knows that is not enough time to start translating anything. How was he in Hebrew? Well, he was self-taught in Hebrew, so good luck there.
I found this quote in the Watchtower's official website,
www.watchtower.org - "How can you find out what God Requires" section, paragraph #3, "God made sure that the Bible was accurately copied and preserved."
If the Bible was accurately preserved, why was a New World Translation needed? This translation is extremely new relative to the majority of other translations already existing. If the NWT does not have an agenda to customize the Bible and slant it toward their religion, wouldn't a King James Version or other existing translation work just fine?