For a number of years, literature published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society cited a Bible translation by a German Catholic
priest named Johannes Greber to support certain renditions of the Scriptures in their own New World Translation. His translation was
most commonly used in support of the Watchtower’s translation of John 1:1, “and the Word was a god.” For example, in the book The
Word-Who is He? - According to John, published in 1962, they say, on page 5:
Similar is the reading by a former Roman Catholic
priest: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.” (Footnote: The New Testament - A New Translation
and Explanation ... by Johannes Greber)
The Watchtower’s first major reference work, Aid to Bible Understanding, published in
1971, again uses Greber’s translation to support the New World Translation on John 1:1:
A translation by the former Roman Catholic
priest Johannes Greber (1937 ed.) renders the second appearance of the word “god” in the sentence as “a god.” (Aid to Bible Understanding
1971 pg. 1669)
Aid to Bible Understanding also used Greber’s translation in support of the Watchtower’s translation of Matt
27:52, which is rendered to eliminate the reference to the resurrection of the dead which occurred at the time of the death of Jesus:
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.” (Aid to Bible Understanding pg. 1134)
References to Greber’s translation appears several times in the
Watchtower, as late as 1976, after which they ceased using him as a reference source. They ultimately repudiated him in 1984.
So,
who is Johannes Greber?
Johannes Greber was a Catholic priest in
Scarcely was the prayer ended when the boy fell over forward
with a slump and an exhalation of breath so sudden that I was startled ... After a few seconds he was pushed upright in a series of
jerks as though by an invisible hand, and remained sitting with his eyes closed. The boy Greber describes was a medium, and the meeting
was a seance. The spirit, speaking through the boy, answered several of Greber’s questions, including one about why Christianity was
no longer exerting an influence on people in his day:
The teachings of Christ are no longer found in their original purity and
clearness in those documents which have come down to you. In what is called the New Testament, several paragraphs, indeed entire chapters,
have been omitted. What you have now are mutilated copies ... Even the last letter of the Apostle Paul addressed to all Christian
communities has been destroyed. In it he carefully explained those passages in his earlier writings that had given rise to misunderstanding.
But his explanations were not in accord with many erroneous doctrines that had subsequently crept into the Christian faith.
The
spirit who spoke through the boy later identified itself, and the nature of his mission:
You are right to ask me who I am, for
it is your first duty to test the spirits that speak to you and to assure yourself that they were sent by God ... I swear to you before
God that I am one of His good spirits, indeed one of His highest spirits, but my name keep to yourself ... From the days of the first
man down to the present, the spirit-world has communicated with mankind. That is true of both the good spirit-world and the bad. ...
[T]he World of spirits, which is separated from you materially, has various ways of communicating with you by means perceptible to
your senses ... [W]hen the Bible says: “God spoke”, it was not God himself who spoke, because as a rule, God speaks only through his
spirit-messengers.
The spirit then invited Greber to further investigate this world of spirit communication. Greber responded
to this invitation:
What captivated me most of all, and I might say, irresistibly, was the clear-cut reasoning and convincing
logic of that to which I had listened for the first time in my life. Only the truth could exert so great an influence upon me, an
influence from which I had not the power to withdraw, even had I been so inclined. ... In the end, I resolved to follow the directions
I had received [from the spirit] , even though it meant the greatest personal sacrifice, the loss of my position and my means of support.
Greber sought confirmation of the validity of the seance experience by seeking out other seances and mediums, where he heard
many of the same “truths” proclaimed. Ultimately he relinquished his position as a Catholic priest, and wrote a book in 1932 entitled
Communication with the Spirit World of God-Its Laws and Purpose, which detailed his journey into spiritism, and depicted the truths
and principles of his new understanding of Christianity, revealed to him through his communication with the spirits. He also wrote
a translation of the New Testament in 1933, aided by his communication with the spirit world. It was this work that the Watchtower
Society used to support its own translation of selected verses in their New World Translation.
Did the Watchtower Society Know
About Johannes Greber?
One possible explanation for the Watchtower Society’s use of Johannes Greber’s translation is ignorance about
Greber’s beliefs and sources. It is clear from their own literature, however, that they were aware that he was a spiritist:
“Communication
with the Spirit World: Its Laws and Its Purpose.”... In keeping with his Roman Catholic extraction Greber’s translation is bound with
a gold-leaf cross on its stiff front cover. In the Foreword of his aforementioned book ex-priest Greber says: “The most significant
spiritualistic book is the Bible.” Under this impression Greber endeavours to make his New Testament translation read very spiritualistic
... Greber’s translation of these verses [1 John 4:1-3] reads: “My dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits,
to learn whether they come from God. For many false spirits have emerged from the abyss ... and are speaking through human mediums
...” Very plainly the spirits in which ex-priest Greber believes helped him in his translation. (Watchtower 2/15/56 pg. 111)
Notice
that this article appeared six years before the first reference to Greber in the Watchtower, and at that time the Society was aware
both of his book and the nature of his New Testament translation. In spite of this, they continued to use Greber as a reference for
nearly twenty years, including a place in their major reference work, Aid to Bible Understanding. Another possibility for the Watchtower
Society’s use of Greber’s translation might be that the Society looks lightly on spiritism. This is also not the case. The Watchtower
Society actively condemns any type of spiritism as communication with demons. For example, in their reference work Insight on the
Scriptures they say:
It, therefore, logically follows that any claimed communication ... [with spirits] ... must be from an
evil source that stands in opposition to Jehovah God. The Bible clearly indicates that wicked spirits, demons, are this evil source.
The Society ultimately stopped using Greber as a reference in 1983, when the following Questions from Readers appeared in the
Watchtower:
•Why, in recent years, has The Watchtower not made use of the translation by the former Catholic priest, Johannes
Greber? ... This translator relied on “God’s Spirit World” to clarify for him how he should translate difficult passages. It is stated:
“His wife, a medium of God’s spirit world, was often instrumental in conveying the correct answers from God’s Messengers to Pastor
Greber.”
The Watchtower has deemed it improper to make use of a translation that has such a close rapport with spiritism (Deuteronomy
18:10-2).
Do the Watchtower Society Teachings Have Anything in Common with Those of Johannes Greber?
After his encounter with
the “good spirits” through mediums and seances, Greber set out to learn from them the principles of the spirit world. He also sought
a better understanding of the many areas where, according to the spirits, Christianity had become corrupted over the ages. In his
book, Communication with the Spirit World, he says:
The teachings received by me relating to the laws governing spirit-communication
... shed so much light on events related in the Bible which theretofore I had not been able to understand. ... However, the great
religious problems were what concerned me most of all. ... I [was] primarily interested in discovering whether all the religious doctrines
I had so far believed and taught were true, or whether among the tenets of my church there were any which were at variance with the
truth. ... I could scarcely have foreseen that such discrepancies would prove to be as numerous and as wide as I subsequently found
them to be ... It was from this spirit-world that I hoped to learn the truth concerning the most important questions of life.
...
Once we grant the possibility of men being initiated into the full truth by direct communication with God’s good spirits, the foundations
of the churches begin to totter. ... men will no longer have to depend on the clergy in their search after truth, but will, through
their communication with God’s spirit-world, learn of the direct road to the source of truth... Greber then detailed his revelations
from the spirit world on the major issues of Christianity: God, Christ, the redemption, heaven and hell, and a number of others.
When
Greber’s spirit-channelled doctrines are compared with those of the Watchtower Society, the similarity is at once striking and troubling.
Listed below is a comparison between these doctrines and those of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is important to keep several things
in mind as one reads these comparisons. First, these are not Greber’s opinions or beliefs, but those of the spirits with whom Greber
communicated. The Society accurately depicts the Bible’s condemnation of such communication with spirits as contact with demons.
Secondly,
keep in mind that Greber was originally a Roman Catholic priest, and therefore held beliefs in harmony with those taught by all the
major orthodox denominations of Christendom-beliefs which the Watchtower Society condemns as originating with Satan. It is worth considering
why the demons with whom Greber communicated would want to “enlighten” him by teaching him doctrines which the “faithful and wise
servant” of the Watchtower Society is now distributing as “meat in due season”, i.e., Biblical truths taught by the anointed leaders
of the Society.
In the following list, Greber’s spirit doctrines are preceded by JG, and the Watchtower’s teachings by WT. The
Greber quotes are all taken from Communication with the Spirit World: Its Laws and Its Purpose, unless otherwise stated.
Doctrines About God
God Has a Body
JG: Material forms are images of spiritual forms, and since all material things have form and shape,
so, too, have all spiritual things, and so, also, has God. ... Inasmuch, then, as God has a shape, He can be seen by the other spirits.
(p. 260-61)
WT: The bodies of spirit persons (God, Christ, the angels) are glorious. (Insight on the Scriptures p.348)
God Is Not Omnipresent
JG: Inasmuch as God possesses shape and personality, He is not omnipresent ... as a personified spirit He is
not everywhere. (p.261)
WT: The true God is not omnipresent, for he is spoken of as having a location. (Insight on the Scriptures p.969)
God Is Not Omniscient
JG: You have plenty of proof that I am a truthful spirit ... When I tell you that God has
no foreknowledge of the voluntary actions of men, I am not detracting from His greatness. ... such unerring foreknowledge is possessed
by no spirit, nor even by God Himself. (p. 263,265)
WT: Jehovah has the ability to foreknow events, but the Bible shows that he makes selective and discretionary use of that ability ... (Reasoning from the Scriptures p.141)
Doctrines About Christ
Christ is God’s First & Highest Creation
JG: Christ is the highest of the spirits created by God and the sole one to be created
directly. ... Christ Himself was not God, but only the first of God’s sons. ... Christ is the highest spirit which the omnipotent
God could create. Christ ... is the first created “son of God”, and as such, His highest and most perfect Creature. (p. 301, 267)
WT: Thus the Scriptures identify the Word (Jesus in his prehuman existence) as God’s first creation, his first-born Son. (Insight
on the Scriptures Vol. 2 p.52) ... This means that [Jesus] was created before all the other spirit sons of God, and that he is the
only one who was directly created by God. (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth p. 58)
JG: Christ was therefore the Son of God,
and claimed to be nothing more. He was not the Deity. Not once did he say: “I am God.” (p. 330)
WT: Well, did Jesus ever say that
he was God? No, he never did. Rather, in the Bible he is called “God’s Son.” (You Can Live Forever in
JG: Save for the first created Son of God, the entire spirit-world was brought into existence
not by direct Divine creation ... but was called into being through the Son upon whom God had conferred creative power.(p.267-8)
WT:
The Son’s share in the creative works did not make him a co-Creator with his Father. The power for creation came from God through
his holy spirit... ((Insight on the Scriptures Vol. .2 p.52)
Scriptures That Show Christ Is Not God
JG: You see how illogical it is
for your [Greber’s] former religion to base its contention of the Divinity of Christ upon the phrase: “I and the Father are one”,
in the face of the fact that the same oneness that exists between them is promised to all who believe. (p. 333)
WT: This charge of
blasphemy arose as a result of Jesus having said, “I and the Father are one.” (Joh 10:30) ... this did not mean that Jesus claimed
to be the Father or to be God ... ((Insight on the Scriptures Vol. 2 p.54)
JG: After His resurrection, Christ said: “I ascend unto
my Father and your Father, and my God and your God. (John 20:17) (p. 364)
WT: He taught men, not to worship him, but to worship Jehovah
his Father ... “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” (Make Sure of All Things p.283)
JG: Again,
nothing is known by the Son of the Day of Judgement, the knowledge of which is God’s alone: “The day and the hour of fulfillment are
known to no one, neither the angels of heaven, nor to the Son, but to my Father alone.” (Matt 24:36)
WT: Also, Jesus explained that
there were some things that neither he nor the angels in heaven knew, but that only God knew (Mark 13:32) (You Can Live Forever in
Paradise on Earth p. 39)
Christ Did Not Rise Bodily From The Dead
JG: Not even of Christ was the natural body raised. (p.385)WT: Jesus
Christ was spoken of as “the first resurrected from the dead.”(Acts 26:23) This means he was the first to be resurrected of those
who would not have to die again. Also, he was the first to be raised as a spirit person. (
Christ’s Post-Resurrection
Appearances Were Materializations
JG: Materialized in human form, Christ appeared to those who had been closest to Him in life ...
The fact Christ after his death upon earth appeared to his followers in material form has led you to the erroneous conclusion that
His spirit re-entered His former physical body. In reality He made Himself visible in the same manner in which all spirits do so,
namely by materialization of his spiritual body. (p. 351, 387)
WT: Jesus Christ ... his resurrection was “in the spirit,” to life
in heaven. .... However, for 40 days after his resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples on different occasions in various fleshly
bodies, just as angels ahd appeared to men of ancient times. ((Insight on the Scriptures Vol. 2 p.786)
Jesus Was Capable of Sinning
JG:
The further fact [is] that Christ had human weaknesses and failings ... Thus Christ, as a mortal, had to learn obedience ... The word
“sin” is used here not to designate transgressions due to human infirmities from which not even Christ was free, but with reference
to the iniquity which severs us from God ... (p.323)
WT: Still a Free Moral Agent - ... this certainty did not relieve God’s Son of
the weight of responsibility, nor did it eliminate his freedom of choice:either to be faithful or unfaithful. ((Insight on the Scriptures
Vol. 2 p. 68)
Doctrines About the Trinity
The Trinity is a Human Creation
JG: You teach the union of three persons
in one Godhead ... This is a piece of human fallacy and is an absurdity. (p.265) ... Christ taught a unipersonalist God ... He knows
of no triune God of Whom the Catholic and other Christian denomonations teach. Only the Father is God. (p. 364)
WT: The reason
the Bible does not clearly teach the Trinity doctrine is simple: It is not a Bible teaching. Had God been a Trinity, he would surely
have made it clear so that Jesus and his disciples could have taught it to others. And that vital information would have been included
in God’s inspired Word. It would not have been left to imperfect men to struggle with centuries later. (Watchtower 11/1/91 p.23)
Doctrines
About Hell
JG: A doctrine to which you cling with astonishing tenacity ... is that of an “eternal Hell.” ... This is a wholly
mistaken, manmade idea. ... there is no authority in the bible to support your inhuman and untrue doctrine of an everlasting Hell.
(p. 377, 379)
WT: Did Almighty God create such a place of torment? ... If the idea of roasting people in fire had never come
into God’s heart, does it seem reasonable that he created a fiery hell for thse who do not serve him? (
Questions
for Thoughtful Jehovah’s Witnesses
•Why would an organization that believes the Bible’s warnings about mediums, seances, and
spiritism use a translation written by a spiritist to support its own Bible translation ?
•Can doctrines put forth by demons be true?
•Why would demons try to convince Greber that his beliefs were wrong, and convert him to doctrines containing Jehovah’s light and
truth, when Greber’s beliefs were those of apostate Christendom to begin with?
•Should you associate with an organization whose teachings
agree with those taught by demons?
Source : http://caic.org.au/jws/theology/wtgreber.htm
(Another article on Johannes Greber)
During the 1960s and 1970s, the Watchtower Society occasionally used the translation of the New Testament by Johannes
Greber to support their similar renderings of John 1:1 and Matthew 27:52,53. In 1983 they officially stopped using his translation
because of its "close rapport with spiritism." The information that Geber Was a Spiritist Was readily available to the Society's writers.
In 1955 and 1956 the Society's writers themselves wrote of Greber's spiritism. Their use of Greber's translation to support their
New World Translation and their explanations for it is evidence of shallow scholarship. Johannes Greber was a Catholic priest turned
spiritist who translated the New Testament "with the help of God's spirits." His experiences with spirits and their communications
with him are related in his book, Communication With the Spirit World published in 1932. (See previous article) Greber's translation
reads similarly to the New World Translation at Jn. 1:1 and Matt. 27:52,53. The Society quoted and referred to it in support of their
controversial renderings of these verses in material they published from 1961 to 1976.
The Society Quotes Greber
The Society's
much disputed translation of Jn. 1:1 is "the Word was a god" in clause c. Since this translation is usually considered "tendentious"
or even impossible by recognized scholars, the Society has sought support for this rendering in lesser known, and in some cases, obscure
sources. They have, for example, quoted Johannes Greber's and John S. Thompson's translation that render it in the same manner. Both
individuals apparently received this translation from spirits. [1]
The Society quoted Greber's translation of Jn. 1:1 as if he was
a noteworthy Greek scholar or authority in their publications The Word--Who Is He According to John, 1962, p. 5; The Watchtower, Sept.
15, 1962, p. 554; Make Sure of all Things, 1965, p. 489, and Aid to Bible Understanding, 1971, p. 1669.
Greber's New Testament translation
was also used by the Society in support of their unusual translation of Matt. 27:52,53. These verses describe an apparent resurrection
at the time of Jesus' death. Most translations render these verses much like the NIV which has:
The tombs broke open and the bodies
of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the
holy city and appeared to many people.
The early church Father Ignatious apparently referred to a resurrection of some Old Testament
"holy people" at the time of Jesus' death and resurrection that were seen in
They quoted Greber's translation of these verses to support their similar translation
in The Watchtower, Jan. 1, 1961, p. 30; Aid to Bible Understanding, 1971, p. 1134; The Watchtower, Oct. 15, 1975, p. 640, and The
Watchtower, April 15, 1976, p. 231.
Greber a Spiritist
The Society however, in 1955 and 1956 wrote material that used Greber's
translation and book as an example of spiritism. This appeared in the booklet, What do the Scriptures Say About "Survival After Death?"
where they said:
It comes as no surprise that one Johannes Greber, a former Catholic clergyman, has become a spiritualist and has published
the book entitled "Communication With the Spirit World, Its Laws and Its Purpose." (1932, Macoy Publishing Company,
Also the February 15, 1956,
Watchtower made these famous statements:
Says Johannes Greber in the introduction of his translation of The New Testament, copyrighted
in 1937: "I myself was a Catholic priest, and... never as much 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,.... 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." (Page 15, ¶ 2, 3).... Greber endeavors to make his New Testament read very spiritualistic.... ex-priest Greber believes
[spirits] helped him in his translation. [4]
From these quotations it is apparent that the information that Greber was a spiritist
and that he "translated" the New Testament with the help of spirits was readily available to the Society's writers and was known by
at least one of the Society's writers in 1955 and 1956. This is only five years before they began quoting Greber favorably.
Letter
to the Greber Foundation
The Johannes Greber Memorial Foundation republished Greber's New Testament translation and Communication
book in 1980.[5] Apparently aware of the Society quoting approvingly of his translation they sent a copy of the 1980 ed. of the translation
as well as a copy of Greber's Communication With the Spirit World of God book to the Society's headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y.. In
response, the person occupying desk "EG:ESF" in the Society's correspondence department responded with a thank you letter dated December
20, 1980. This letter said:
JOHANNES GREBER MEMORIAL FOUNDATION
Gentlemen:
This is
to acknowledge receipt of the two books you recently sent to us, The New Testament translated by Johannes Greber, and his book "Communication
With the Spirit World of God."
We appreciate you sending these volumes on to us. For some years we have been aware of the translation
by Johannes Greber and have on occasion even quoted it. Copies of the translation, though, have been hard to obtain. Since we have
four libraries... we wonder about the possibility of obtaining a few additional copies of The New Testament.[ 6]
Here the writer
at the headquarters asks for more copies of the translation but not of the Communication book. "EG" knows that they have been quoting
from it "on occasion" and have been aware of it for "some time".
The Society Responds to Questions
Before and after the
above letter from the Society was sent to the Greber Foundation, numerous individuals wrote the Society about the translation. For
example, Keith Morse of Personal Freedom Outreach (PFO) wrote the Society one year after the above letter was sent to the Greber Foundation.
He asked about the translation and was told in a response by the Society:
With reference to your inquiry regarding the publication
the New Testament, by Johannes Greber, we have to inform you that we do not publish or stock this book. In line with your comments,
on the title page of our library copy of this book, against the date 1937, the publishers are given as John Felsburg, Inc.,
Here, one year after receiving a copy of
the 1980 edition of his New Testament translation and asking for additional copies for their other libraries, the Watchtower correspondent,
desk "EW:ESG", says the only information they have is the address of their library copy (not 'copies') which was the 1937 John Felsburg
edition. What happened to the other copies? Did they throw them away because of their spiritistic origin or were they in different
libraries which the correspondence desk didn't check? Others who wrote asking about the Greber New Testament and an address of where
to obtain a copy got the same answer. [8]
This prompted M. Kurt Goedelman of PFO to write the Society about this. In his letter
dated September 27, 1982, he gave the Society some of the references in their literature to Greber as scholarly support of their translation
and then said:
The reason I am directing this letter to you is to receive a response to why you use Greber's work to support
your theology? This may seem like a peculiar question, however when one checks into the source of Mr. Greber's work, we find he is
a spirit medium. The fact that he is a medium is not hidden from public knowledge, but rather is the very heart of the Greber message.
I
have enclosed a photocopy of a flyer furnished by the Johannes Greber Memorial Foundation which explains briefly his mediumship. Also
this flyer gives insight into how Greber allegedly made his 'New Testament' translation. I have marked this flyer as "Figure #1" for
your convenience.
In addition to Greber's 'New Testament' he has written a book entitled Communication With the Spirit World
of God, .... I know that the Watchtower Society is aware of this publication as they have purchased a copy of this very work from
the Greber Memorial Foundation. This is proven by the enclosed photocopied Watchtower letter (marked "Figure #2"), which has also
been provided by the Greber Foundation.
Thus I restate my question as to why the writers of Watchtower material are in use of
a double standard. That is, numerous Watchtower publications roll off your presses instructing members to have nothing to do with
spiritistic works, then they themselves quote from spiritistic material to endorse the theology of Jehovah's Witnesses....
Also
in closing I would very much appreciate your comments concerning the enclosed photocopied Watchtower letter to Mr. Keith Morse (marked
"Figure #4"). The Society informed Mr. Morse that they do not know where to obtain a Greber 'New Testament' translation and only furnished
him with an out-of-date address. Take careful note of the date of the letter to Mr. Morse (December 10, 1981) and then note the date
of the letter to the Greber Foundation (December 20, 1980). This proves that the Society did have an up-to-date address, but provided
bogus information to Mr. Morse's inquiry.
I ask that you please not pass my letter over or discard it before a reply is sent.
I will be anxiously awaiting your prompt response.
Sincerely,
M. Kurt Goedelman,
Director [9]
Needless to say, they never
sent him a reply. Counter-cult groups like PFO published material on the Society's use of Greber and what they considered the "bogus"
information and cover-up of their knowledge of Greber. This information eventually reached JWs themselves. For example, Marilyn Zweiful
wrote a letter to the Society dated December 21, 1982, after a friend of hers was asked about the Greber situation by her son-in-law
who had heard a recorded message tape ('A message for JWS') that discussed this subject. It discussed the Society's use of Greber,
his spiritism as explained by the Society itself in the 1956 Watchtower article and their recent correspondence with the Greber Foundation.
She stated that she didn't know how to explain this contradictory information to her "confused" friends and asked for the Society's
help. In reply, the Society wrote a letter dated March 15, 1983(desk ER:ESZ). This letter to me is revealing. In it they stated:
No
doubt you have had opportunity to read the comments in our letter dated December 31, 1982, to Brother Jack Gottfried, secretary of
your congregation. In our letter we addressed the issue of the propriety of the Society in quoting Johannes Greber's translation as
an example of another translation that agreed with the New World Translation. It was stated that it was not our concern to go into
the background or religious convictions of each translator. Who really can say if Mr. Greber was under the influence of the demons
when translating a particular verse or portion of his translation? If he was under demon influence in translating John 1:1, then it
is not beyond the Devil or the demons to tell the truth on occasions, if doing so will advance their evil ends in some way, such as
giving opposers some excuse for claiming that the translation published by Jehovah's Witnesses must not be correct because it happens
to translate John 1:1 in a manner similar to the way the translation in question does....
You also mention in your letter a tape recording which mentions a "thank you" letter to the Greber Foundation from the Society.... Our having this Bible translation in our library by no means indicated that we agreed with everything in it. We have a large number of books written by a wide range of religions.We keep these simply for reference.