Aineo wrote:If you believe God and all the prophesies concerning the Jews and the Promised Land, it is not difficult to take the 144,000 as literal Jews from the 12 tribes listed. God made promises as well as covenants with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), and David that He has not annulled.
No, I do not believe there is an "ideal" English translation of the Bible. I have yet to find one that does not contain the bias of the translators, which I think is why we are admonished to "study to show ourselves approved".
As to the NWT, I find it to be a stilted translation that contains a lot of free interpretation of the Hebrew and Greek. I also find the inappropriate use of capital letters confusing to the average reader who has not taken the time to read the reasoning behind there use. Even though JW's insist the NWT is a word-for-word translation it reads more like a dynamic translation that obfuscates the meaning of the original languages. However, it can still be used to show JW's that their beliefs deny their own translation. For example, JW's believe Jesus was raised in a spiritual not a physical body and this in spite of the way the NWT reads in Luke 24:38f.
Yes, it's easy to see from Luke 24:38 that Jesus had a physical body after he was raised. Is there any particular point after this event where he actually transitions from a physical body to a spiritual body?