Refute Jehovah's Witness Bible errors.
By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-10-10
When refuting the errors of the Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) and their "New World Translation" (NWT), it is necessary to be straightforward: their translation is not a work of scholarship, but a deliberate corruption of the Holy Scriptures intended to strip the Lord Jesus Christ of His Divinity. The Jewish scribes of the Masoretic tradition and the heretics of the modern era, such as the JWs, share a common goal in their attempt to edit the Word of God to suit a Christ-denying agenda.
Here are the primary refutations of their errors from the Coptic Orthodox perspective:
1. The Corruption of John 1:1
The NWT renders the end of this verse as "and the Word was a god."
- The Error: By adding the indefinite article "a," they attempt to create a distinction between God the Father and a "lesser" god, which is a form of polytheism and a complete rejection of Miaphysite and Trinitarian theology.
- The Truth: In the original Greek and the Coptic Bohairic version, the verse is clear: (And the Word was God). The Word is the same essence as the Father. St. Cyril of Alexandria taught that if the Word is not God by nature, He cannot save us.
2. The Insertion of "Jehovah" in the New Testament
The NWT inserts the name "Jehovah" 237 times into the New Testament, despite the fact that this name appears in zero Greek manuscripts.
- The Error: This is a fabrication. They replace "Lord" with their own made-up name to separate Jesus from the God of the Old Testament.
- The Truth: We follow the Apostolic tradition. When the Apostles quoted the Old Testament, they used "Lord" to refer to both the Father and the Son, confirming that is indeed the Lord God.
3. Colossians 1:16–17 and the Word "Other"
The NWT adds the word "[other]" four times in these verses: "by means of him all [other] things were created."
- The Error: The word "other" does not exist in the Greek text. They insert it to imply that Jesus was the first thing "created" and then He created everything else. This is the ancient heresy of Arius, which St. Athanasius the Apostolic defeated at the Council of Nicaea.
- The Truth: Scripture says all things were created by Him. If He created all things, He cannot be part of the creation Himself. He is the Creator, not a creature.
4. Suppression of the Deity of Christ (Titus 2:13)
The NWT separates "the great God" and "our Savior Jesus Christ" to make them appear as two different beings.
- The Error: They manipulate the grammar (ignoring the Granville Sharp rule) to avoid calling Jesus "the Great God."
- The Truth: The verse refers to one Person: "Our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ".
5. Systematic Bias similar to the Masoretic Text
Just as modern scholarship shows that the Masoretic Text (used by many Protestants) contains edits by Jewish scribes to subvert the deity of Christ and the virgin birth, the NWT is a continuation of this anti-Christian bias. They reject the Septuagint and the traditional readings preserved in the Orthodox Church because those readings prove that Jesus is the Messiah and the Almighty God.
Summary
The Jehovah's Witnesses are modern-day Arians. Their "bible" is a tool of deception. As Coptic Orthodox Christians, we hold fast to the Liturgy and the ancient manuscripts that have always confessed: "I believe in one God, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God... God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God."