1. John 1:1

Changed: The NWT reads: "the Word was a god."

The Bible (KJV): “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

The Greek has no second god in it — 'the Word was God' (theos ēn ho logos). The indefinite article does not exist in Greek; where John's construction required 'a god,' his Gospel would contradict his own first chapter's monotheism and Isaiah's 'besides me there is no God.' The Watch Tower inserts the article to demote Christ from Jehovah God to a created archangel — the very doctrine the verse was written to exclude.

2. Colossians 1:16

Changed: The NWT inserts the word "other" — "all other things were created" (and repeats it in vv. 17, 18, 20).

The Bible (KJV): “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”

The word 'other' is not in any Greek manuscript. It is added so Christ can be a creature through whom God made the 'other' things. Paul wrote 'all things' — five times — and 'all' that includes the Creator's own category leaves no room for Christ among the created. A translation that must add words to its text to save its doctrine has answered itself.

3. John 8:58

Changed: The NWT reads: "before Abraham came into existence, I have been."

The Bible (KJV): “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”

Jesus chose the words of Exodus 3:14 — 'I AM' (egō eimi) — the Jews who heard Him understood Him exactly, which is why 'then took they up stones to cast at him' for blasphemy (v. 59). The NWT's 'I have been' softens a present-tense absolute claim into a remark about age. The claim that provoked the stones is the claim the translation erases.

4. Luke 23:43

Changed: The NWT moves the comma: "Truly I tell you today, You will be with me in Paradise."

The Bible (KJV): “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

Every other 'verily I say unto thee' formula in the Gospels (over seventy of them) introduces what follows, never 'today I tell you.' The moved comma exists for one reason: Watch Tower doctrine denies the soul's survival and any paradise before the resurrection, so the dying thief must not be promised paradise 'to day.' The thief received what Christ said — 'to day shalt thou be with me in paradise' — the same day the Lord's spirit went to the Father (John 19:30; Luke 23:46).

5. Matthew 25:46

Changed: The NWT reads "everlasting cutting-off" instead of "everlasting punishment."

The Bible (KJV): “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

The Greek word is kolasin — punishment (used also in 1 John 4:18, 'fear hath torment'). One adjective, aiōnion ('everlasting'), governs both halves of the sentence in a single breath: the same everlasting that measures the life of the righteous measures the punishment of the wicked. To soften the second into mere 'cutting-off' (annihilation) while keeping the first at full strength is not translation; it is editing the Judge's sentence.

6. Hebrews 1:8

Changed: The NWT reads: "God is your throne forever."

The Bible (KJV): “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.”

The verse quotes Psalm 45:6, spoken to the Son: 'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever' — God the Father addressing the Son as God. 'God is your throne' inverts the sentence to avoid the plain vocative. The whole chapter argues the Son's superiority to angels from texts like this one; the NWT's rendering makes the argument vanish at its climax.

7. Acts 20:28

Changed: The NWT reads: "the blood of his own Son."

The Bible (KJV): “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”

Paul's charge says the church of God was purchased 'with his own blood' — God's own blood, through the incarnate Son. The added word 'Son' (absent from the Greek) relieves the sentence of its mystery: that God should purchase us with His own blood. The mystery is the doctrine — the blood of Jesus Christ is the blood of God manifest in the flesh, and it is precisely the verse's force.

8. Genesis 1:2

Changed: The NWT reads: "God's active force was moving about."

The Bible (KJV): “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

The Holy Spirit becomes an impersonal 'active force' — electricity with a possessive. But the Spirit of God speaks, wills, forbids, grieves, and can be lied to (Acts 5:3–4, where lying to the Holy Ghost is lying to God — 'thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God'). Forces do not grieve (Ephesians 4:30) and cannot be blasphemed with eternal consequence (Matthew 12:31). The NWT's 'force' is a person demoted, three chapters into the Bible.

9. John 3:16

Changed: The NWT reads "everyone exercising faith in him."

The Bible (KJV): “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

'Exercising faith' replaces the plain 'believeth' throughout the New Testament in the NWT — a small change with a doctrinal engine: believing becomes a work performed, an activity exercised, fitting a system of salvation by organizational effort. The KJV's 'believeth on him' keeps faith where the Bible keeps it — the hand that receives, not a work that earns (Romans 4:5, 'to him that worketh not, but believeth').

10. Philippians 2:6

Changed: The NWT reads: Christ "gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal to God."

The Bible (KJV): “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:”

Paul says the opposite direction: Christ, 'being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God' — equality was His by nature, not a prize to seize. The NWT reverses the sentence into a lesson about humility alone, so that equality with God becomes something Christ would never consider. The verse that crowns His deity is made to deny it.

11. Zechariah 12:10

Changed: The NWT reads: "they will look to the One whom they pierced."

The Bible (KJV): “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”

Jehovah is the speaker — 'I will pour upon the house of David... and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.' The NWT's capital-O 'One' moves the piercing off Jehovah onto a third party. John, quoting the verse at the cross, kept it direct: 'They shall look on him whom they pierced' (John 19:37) — and Revelation 1:7 repeats it of Christ's return. The verse is a prophecy that Jehovah Himself would be pierced; only one Person in history fulfils it.

12. Titus 2:13

Changed: The NWT splits the verse: "of our great God and of our Savior, Christ Jesus."

The Bible (KJV): “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;”

Greek grammar (the Granville Sharp rule) binds the two titles to one Person: 'the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ' — Jesus Christ IS the great God of this verse, as 2 Peter 1:1 likewise calls Him 'our God and Saviour.' The NWT inserts a second 'of' to split Him into two, because the verse as written ends the argument about who Jesus is.

13. John 1:18

Changed: The NWT reads: "the only-begotten god."

The Bible (KJV): “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

Whatever reading of the Greek is adopted ('only begotten Son' in the Received Text), John's sentence ends with that One in 'the bosom of the Father' who 'hath declared him' — and John's Gospel never multiplies gods. The little-g 'god' of the NWT exists to file Christ under creature; the verse itself, like 1:1, is answered by Thomas's confession in John 20:28: 'My Lord and my God.'

14. Romans 9:5

Changed: The NWT stops the sentence early: "...Christ. God, who is over all, be praised forever."

The Bible (KJV): “Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.”

Paul's sentence runs unbroken: Christ came 'of' Israel 'as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever.' The NWT severs the doxology from Christ and reassigns it to the Father alone, against the sentence's grammar. The apostle who wrote 'they shall look upon me whom they pierced' of Jehovah knew exactly Whom he was blessing.

The 237 Insertions of “Jehovah”

Separately, the NWT inserts the name "Jehovah" 237 times into the New Testament, where every Greek manuscript reads kyrios ("Lord") or theos ("God") and no manuscript contains the divine name. A translation may not add to the words of the book (Revelation 22:18) — least of all 237 times.