Johannes Greber

Johannes Greber (May 2, 1874–March 31, 1944) born in Wenigerath, Germany, was a Catholic priest

Title page of Greber's New Testament

He claimed he had never become a medium himself; his wife later became a medium and was involved in a variety of spiritualist activities.

In Germany, he was ordained in 1900 and served a church in the poor area of Hunsrueck. Many in the area suffered from tuberculosis, even ‘’organizing nurses to treat large numbers of tuberculosis’’.[1] During WW1, he also helped thousands of children escape the war by fleeing into Holland.

In 1923, he attended a séance and his life was changed. He renounced his vows and left the Catholic church. He emigrated to the USA in 1929 and began a nondenominational church, with prayer and healing sessions in Teaneck, NJ. He later worked on a translation of the New Testament, publishing ‘’The New Testament, A New Translation and Explanation Based on the Oldest Manuscripts’’ (1935). He claimed using the oldest sources available including the Greek codex D. Where a meaning was not clear, according to his prologue, he received supernatural guidance as he translated, after much time in prayer, with his wife acting as a medium, and with visions of the actual words given to him on occasion. “In the rare instances in which a text pronounced correct by the divine spirits can be found in none of the manuscripts available today, I have the text as given by the spirits.”[1]

Greber's belief in spirit communication with holy spirits of God, which he portrayed as a common occurrence throughout the Old and New Testament, clearly affected his translation. For example, 1 Corinthians 12:28 is translated as “...mediums who speak in various foreign languages’’.”[2]