Furthermore we have
had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall
we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? (Heb
12:9 KJV)
Furthermore, we used
to have fathers who were of our flesh to discipline us, and we used to give
them respect. Shall we not much more subject ourselves to the Father of our
spiritual life and live? (Heb 12:9 NWT)
Commenting on the NWT’s mistranslation of in τῷ πατρὶ τῶν πνευμάτων Heb 12:9, D. Charles Pyle wrote:
In [the NWT’s] rendering
of Hebrews 12:9 it refers to God as “the Father of our spiritual life.” Older
editions prior to 2013 admitted in a footnote that it literally read “Father of
the spirts” there. But since 2013 they removed even that admission. But is such
a translation as they have rendered correct? The answer actually turns out to
be in the negative. There are a few days in which Greek could mean “of the
spiritual life.” Examples of such was are the following: της ζωης της πνευματικης, της ζωης πνευματικης, ζωης της πνευματικης or ζωης πνευματικης. Any one of these is
what we would expect to be present if the text should be translated as “the
Father of our spiritual life.” Trouble is, the Greek text does not use any of
these phrases. What it actually does use is: των πνευματων. This, in no way is
the New World Translation a faithful translation of the Greek of Hebrews
12:9. It is not even close. Why might they have done this? Most likely it is
because of their denial that man has a spirit. No spirit of man; no need for a “Father
of our spirits” in such a passage. (D. Charles Pyle, I
Have Said Ye are Gods: Concepts Conducive to the Early Christian Doctrine of
Deification in Patristic Literature and the Underlying Strata of the Greek New
Testament Texts (Revised and Supplemented) [North Charleston,
N.C.: CreateSpace, 2018], 366)
Interestingly, on p. 1001 of the Kingdom Interlinear, the translation in
the interlinear portion of the text does not read "spiritual life"
but "Father of the Spirits":
As for soul sleep (the doctrine that
informs the NWT’s mistranslation of the verse), see the discussion at:
Response to Douglas V. Pond on Biblical and LDS Anthropology and Eschatology (see the section entitled "The Status of the Dead")
