Jess Whitlock
Judge Rutherford, founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion, attempted to explain away 2nd Peter 3:10 by stating, “…the apostle is here using symbolic language.” The inspired apostle Peter wrote, “…the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” The New World Translation (NWT) has corrupted the inspired text to say: “Yet Jehovah’s day will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a hissing noise, but the elements being intensely hot will be dissolved, and the earth and the worked in it will be discovered.” [emphasis mine, jlw] There is a world of difference in something discovered and that same object being burned up!
The very first time that I read that perversion of God’s Word I thought of the words of inspiration, “To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them” (Isa. 8:20). The NWT is the “official” Bible of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They will not tell you and it is most difficult to discover the names of the “mis-translators” who served on that committee. Most of them are novices in the Greek language, like yours truly.
The words burned up, from the Greek word, katakaio, which real Greek scholars tell us means “to burn up, to consume with fire.” The Greek, katanoeo, correctly renders “discovered.” That the scholars have written, “…discovered is strange and improbable” (Thayer). And, “…discovered obviously makes utter nonsense of the place” (Burgeon). The evidence favors “burned up.” the Majority Text (the majority of surviving Greek documents) support the KJV, NKJV, and ASV (1901) as burned up.
