In their ongoing efforts to provide “meat in due season” (Matthew 24:45) to Jehovah’s Witnesses the Watchtower Society will quote “authorities” to substantiate a point they want to make.  In this case they quoted Johannes Greber, for two very different reasons.  Read the following quotes to see the conflict.  (Bold type is ours.)

1956 – Watchtower, February 15, 1956. The theme of this magazine was spiritualism and how to recognize it and guard against it.

“Says Johannes Greber in the introduction of his translation of The New Testament, copyrighted in 1937: ‘I myself was a Catholic priest, and until I was forty-eight years old had never as much as believed in the possibility of communicating with the world of God’s spirits. The day came, however, when I involuntarily took my first step toward such communication, and experienced things that shook me to the depths of my soul…. My experiences are related in a book that has appeared in both German and English and bears the title, Communication with the Spirit-World: Its Laws and Its Purpose.’… Very plainly the spirits in which ex-priest Greber believes helped him in his translation” (pages 110-111).

1962 – “The Word” – Who Is He? According to John. This booklet defends the Watchtower’s position on Jesus’ identity as “a god.”

“But most controversial of all is the following reading of John 1:1,2: ‘The Word was in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. This Word was in the beginning with God.’ This reading is found in The New Testament in An Improved Version, published in London, England, in 1808. Similar is the reading by a former Roman Catholic priest.”

(Greber’s New Testament rendering of John 1:1 is quoted and then The Word book adds the following footnote)

“The New Testament – A New Translation and Explanation Based on the Oldest Manuscripts, by Johannes Greber (a translation from German into English), edition of 1937, the front cover of this bound translation being stamped with a golden cross” (pages 4,5).

1965 – Make Sure of All Things.  Cites Greber’s translation of John 1:1 as evidence supporting the Watchtower position on the Trinity.

“’In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was a god.’ – The New Testament – A New Translation and Explanation Based on the Oldest Manuscripts (a translation from German into English; 1937), by Johannes Greber” (page 489).

1971 – Aid To Bible Understanding.  This is a Watchtower published Bible dictionary that cites Greber in two locations. 

The first citation defends the Watchtower’s rendering of Matthew 27:52,53 “concerning the ‘memorial tombs’ [that] were opened’ as the result of an earthquake occurring at the time of Jesus’ dearth has caused considerable discussion, some holding that a resurrection occurred.  However, a comparison with the texts concerning the resurrection makes clear that these verses do not describe a resurrection but merely a throwing of bodies out of their tombs….”

“The translation by Johannes Greber (1937) of these verses reads as follows: ‘Tombs were laid open, and many bodies of those buried were tossed upright. In this posture they projected from the graves and were seen by many who passed by the place on their way back to the city’” (page 1134).

The second citation of Greber uses his translation of John 1:1 to support the same rendering in the New World Translation.

“A translation by a former Roman Catholic priest, Johannes Greber (1937 ed.) renders the second appearance of the word ‘god’ in the sentence as ‘a god’” (page 1669).

1975 – The Watchtower, October 15, 1975. A response in the Questions From Readers section regarding the Matthew 27:52, 53 passage cited above.

“Without wresting the Greek grammar, a translator can render Matthew 27:52, 53 in a way that suggests that a similar exposing of corpses resulted from the earthquake occurring at Jesus’ death.  Thus the translation by Johannes Greber (1937) renders these verses; ‘Tombs were laid open, and many bodies of those buried there we tossed upright. In this posture they projected from the graves and were seen by many who passed by the place on their way back to the city.’ – Compare the New World Translation” (page 640).

Not until the early 1980’s did the various discernment ministries to Jehovah’s Witnesses know that Johannes Greber was a spiritualist.  When this became known letters were sent to the Watchtower Society inquiring about how to obtain the Greber translation.  The Watchtower reply was that they did not know how to obtain one, their library copy was dated 1937 and had a New York City address.

Bill Cetnar, a former Jehovah’s Witness and Bethelite, discovered the current publisher of the Greber translation in Teaneck, NJ.  When he visited them he inquired about the Watchtower’s use of the Greber Bible.  They were only too happy to inform Cetnar of the Watchtower’s recent request (1980) for copies for their libraries.

In 1983, when the heat was on for their use of a spiritualist translator they “discovered” that Greber obtained his translations from demons and decided to stop using his Bible. This was explained to Witnesses through a Questions From Readers column in the April 1, 1983 Watchtower, page 31.

Inside every copy of the Greber “translation” is a flyer explaining to the reader how Greber obtained his special renderings.  He asked his wife, a medium, to inquire of “God’s Spirit World” how the texts should be translated.  The Watchtower had this flyer in every copy they ordered from The Johannes Greber Memorial Foundation and, therefore, they knew how it was tainted.  But then, they knew that in 1956 when they wrote their article on spiritualism and cited Greber as a prime example to avoid.  The most common characteristic of Watchtower scholarship is dishonesty.

By David Henke
April 2001