The layout resembles the 1901 edition of the American Standard Version. The translators use the terms “Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures” and “Christian Greek Scriptures” rather than “Old Testament” and “New Testament”, stating that the use of “testament” was based on a misunderstanding of 2 Corinthians 3:14.^[37] Headings were included at the top of each page to assist in locating texts; these have been replaced in the 2013 revision by an “Outline of Contents” introducing each Bible book. There is also an index listing scriptures by subject.

Square brackets [ ] were added around words that were inserted editorially, but were removed as of the 2006 printing. Double brackets were used to indicate text considered doubtful. The pronoun “you” was printed in small capitals (i.e., YOU) to indicate plurality, as were some verbs when plurality may be unclear. These features were discontinued in the 2013 release. The New World Translation attempts to indicate progressive rather than completed actions, such as “proceeded to rest” at Genesis 2:2 instead of “rested”. The 2013 release indicates progressive verbs only where considered contextually important.

The name Jehovah is a translation of the Tetragrammaton (Hebrew: יהוה‎, transliterated as YHWH), although the original pronunciation is unknown. The New World Translation uses the name Jehovah 6,979 times in the Old Testament.^[38] According to the Watch Tower Society, the Tetragrammaton appears in “the oldest fragments of the Greek Septuagint”.^[39] In reference to the Septuagint, biblical scholar Paul E. Kahle stated, “We now know that the Greek Bible text as far as it was written by Jews for Jews did not translate the Divine name by Kyrios, but the Tetragrammaton written with Hebrew or Greek letters was retained in such MSS (manuscripts). It was the Christians who replaced the Tetragrammaton by Kyrios, when the divine name written in Hebrew letters was not understood any more.”^[40] However, according to professor Albert Pietersma, since pre-Christian times « adonai » and the Tetragrammaton where considered equivalent to the Greek term « kyrios ». Pietersma stated that “The translators felt no more bound to retain the tetragram in written form than they felt compelled to render distinctively Hebrew el, elohim or shaddai.”^[41] Moreover, he considers that old manuscripts containing the tetragram, like the papyrus Fouad 266, “is evidence of a secondary stage.”^[42]

The New World Translation also uses the name Jehovah 237 times in the New Testament where the extant texts use only the Greek words kyrios (Lord) and theos (God).^[43] The use of Jehovah in the New Testament is very rare, but not unique to the New World Translation.^[44] Walter Martin, an evangelical minister, wrote, “It can be shown from literally thousands of copies of the Greek New Testament that not once does the tetragrammaton appear.”^[45] However, the translators of the New World Translation believed that the name Jehovah was present in the original manuscripts of the New Testament when quoting from the Old Testament, but replaced with the other terms by later copyists. Based on this reasoning, the translators consider to have “restored the divine name”, though it is not present in any extant manuscripts.^[46][47]

In 1984, a Reference edition of the New World Translation was released in addition to a revision of the regular volume.^[48][49] The regular edition includes several appendices containing arguments for various translation decisions, maps, diagrams and other information; and over 125,000 cross references. The reference edition contains the cross references and adds footnotes about translation decisions and additional appendices that provide further detail relating to certain translation decisions and doctrinal views.^[50]

The New World Bible Translation Committee included the English text from the New World Translation in its 1969 and 1985 editions of the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. It also incorporates the Greek text published by Westcott and Hort in The New Testament in the Original Greek and a literal word-for-word translation.^[51][52]

In 1978, the Watch Tower Society began producing recordings of the New World Translation on audio cassette,^[53] with the New Testament released by 1981^[54] and the Old Testament in three albums released by 1990.^[55] In 2004, the NWT was released on compact disc in MP3 format in major languages.^[56] Since 2008, audio downloads of the NWT have been made available in 18 languages in MP3 and AAC formats, including support for Podcasts.

In 1983, the English Braille edition of the New World Translation‘s New Testament was released;^[57] the complete English Braille edition was released by 1988.^[58] NWT editions have since become available in several additional Braille scripts.^[59] Production of the NWT in American Sign Language began in 2006, with the complete New Testament made available by 2010;^[60] sign language editions are also available for download.^[61]

In 1992 a digital edition of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures—With References was released on floppy disk. Since 1994, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures—With References has been included in the Watchtower Library on CD-ROM, available only to baptized Jehovah’s Witnesses.^[62][63] Both editions of the New World Translation are available online in various languages and digital formats.^[64][65][66] Since 2015, a Study Edition of the New World Translation has been gradually released online starting with the books of the New Testament, based on the 2013 revision with additional reference material.^[67]