Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible
Encyclopedia
The Joseph Smith Translation (JST), also called the Inspired Version (IV), was a revision of the Bible
by Joseph Smith
, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement
. Smith considered this work to be "a branch of his calling" as a prophet
. Smith was murdered before he ever deemed it complete, though most of his work on it was performed about a decade previous. The work is the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) with some significant additions and revisions. It is considered a sacred text and is part of the canon
of Community of Christ
, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), and other Latter Day Saint churches. Selections from the Joseph Smith Translation are also included in the footnotes and the appendix in the LDS-published King James Version
of the Bible, but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has only officially canonized certain excerpts that appear in its Pearl of Great Price
. These excerpts are the Book of Moses
and Smith's revision of part
of the Gospel of Matthew
.
from ancient documents, as the term translation is commonly used by scholars. Neither was it an automatic and infallible process where "correct" words and phrases simply were revealed to Smith in final form. As with Joseph Smith's other translations, he reported that he was forced to "study it out in [his] mind" as part of the revelatory process. Sometimes Smith might revisit a given passage of scripture at a later time to give it a "plainer translation," because of additional knowledge or revelation about a subject.
Philip Barlow
observes that Smith made six basic types of changes in the JST:
Smith's translation was a work in progress throughout his ministry. Some parts of the translation (parts of Genesis and the four Gospels) were completed from beginning to end, including unchanged verses from the KJV; some parts were revised more than once, and other parts were revised one verse at a time. The manuscripts were written, re-written, and in some cases, additional edits were written in the columns, pinned to the paper or otherwise attached. Smith relied on a version of the Bible that included the Apocrypha
, and marked off the Bible as verses were examined (the Apocrypha was not translated). Skeptics view this nonlinearity as evidence that Smith's translation was not inspired; however, Latter Day Saints
see Smith's translation as representing a gradual, developing inspiration.
The bulk of Joseph Smith’s work on the JST took place between June 1830 and July 1833. By 1833, he felt it was sufficiently complete that preparations for publication could begin, though continual lack of time and means prevented it from appearing in its entirety during his lifetime. He continued to make a few revisions and to prepare the manuscript for printing until he was killed in 1844. Regarding the completeness of the JST as we have it, Matthews has written:
LDS scholar Royal Skousen
discusses the question of whether one should assume that every change made in the JST constitutes revealed text. Besides arguments that can be made from the actual text of the JST, there are questions regarding the reliability of and degree of supervision given to the scribes who were involved in transcribing, copying, and preparing the text for publication. Differences are also apparent in the nature of the translation process that took place at different stages of the work. For example, while a significant proportion of the Genesis passages that have been canonized as the book of Moses “[look] like a word-for-word revealed text,” evidence from a study of two sections in the New Testament that were translated twice indicates that the later “New Testament JST is not being revealed word-for-word, but largely depends upon Joseph Smith’s varying responses to the same difficulties in the text.”
. During the process of translation, when he came across troubling Biblical issues, Smith often dictated revelations relevant to himself, his associates, or the church. About half of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants
are in some way connected to this translation process, including background on the Apocrypha (LDS D&C
section 91 RLDS D&C 88), the three degrees of glory
(LDS section 76 RLDS Section 85), the eternal nature of marriage
and plural marriage
(LDS section 132), teachings on baptism for the dead
(LDS section 124 RLDS Section 107), various revelations on priesthood (LDS sections 84, 88, 107 RLDS Sections 83 104) and others.
Overall, 3,410 verses in the printed editions of JST differ in textual construction from the King James Version (KJV), using the numbering of the IV as the basis for comparison. Of the total of 1,289 verses changed in the Old Testament, 25 correspond to the additions of Moses 1, and 662 occur in the book of Genesis. Hence, more than half of the changed verses in the JST Old Testament and 20% of those in the entire JST Bible are contained in Moses 1 and Genesis, with the most extensive modifications occurring in Genesis 1-24. As a proportion of page count, changes in Genesis occur four times more frequently than in the New Testament, and twenty-one times more frequently than in the rest of the Old Testament. The changes in Genesis are not only more numerous, but also more significant in the degree of doctrinal and historical expansion. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw
has suggested that one reason for this emphasis may have been "early tutoring in temple-related doctrines received by Joseph Smith as he revised and expanded Genesis 1-24, in conjunction with his later translation of relevant passages in the New Testament and, for example, the stories of Moses and Elijah." Additional evidence suggests that the Book of Moses
itself could be seen as a temple text, in the sense discussed by BYU professor John W. Welch.
, apparently acting on behalf of Brigham Young
, requested the new translation from her. Consequently, when Young's followers moved to the Salt Lake Valley, they did so without the new translation of the Bible.
Following Joseph Smith's death, John Milton Bernhisel
asked permission of Emma Smith to copy the notes that were made into his own Bible. He spent much of the spring of 1845 working on this project. The LDS Church has this in its offices in Salt Lake City, but it contains less than half of the corrections and is not suitable for publication. For many years the Bernhisel Bible was the only source for LDS Church members living in the Salt Lake Valley
.
In 1866, Emma Smith gave the manuscripts into the custody of the RLDS church, to which she was a member and her son Joseph Smith III
the prophet-president. In 1867 the RLDS published the first edition of the translation and obtained a copyright for it. The RLDS Church (now Community of Christ
) still retains the original manuscripts and publishes the Inspired Version through its publishing arm, Herald House Publishing. The copyright has expired on the 1867 edition and a bound photo reproduction of that edition is published by a private concern. In 1944, the RLDS Church brought out a carefully prepared “new corrected edition.”
See the entry on the Community of Christ
for information on current views and use within the church.
, a facsimile transcription of all the original manuscripts of the JST was at last published in 2004.
and the Book of Moses
, containing translations and revelatory expansions of Matthew 24 and Genesis 1-7 respectively and contained in the LDS Pearl of Great Price, are portions of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible that the LDS Church has canonized
as part of its standard works
. Additionally, over 600 of the more doctrinally significant verses from the translation are included as excerpts in the current LDS Church edition of the King James Version of the Bible. This step has ensured an increase in the JST's use and acceptance in LDS churches today. An official editorial of the Church News
, dated December 7, 1974, contained these words:
Regarding the Joseph Smith Translation, Bruce R. McConkie
(1915–1985) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
said, "The Joseph Smith Translation, or Inspired Version, is a thousand times over the best Bible now existing on earth".
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
by Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith was founder of what later became known as the Latter Day Saint movement or Mormons.Joseph Smith may also refer to:-Latter Day Saints:* Joseph Smith, Sr. , father of Joseph Smith...
, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
. Smith considered this work to be "a branch of his calling" as a prophet
Prophet, seer, and revelator
Prophet, seer, and revelator is an ecclesiastical title used in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that is currently applied to the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles...
. Smith was murdered before he ever deemed it complete, though most of his work on it was performed about a decade previous. The work is the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) with some significant additions and revisions. It is considered a sacred text and is part of the canon
Biblical canon
A biblical canon, or canon of scripture, is a list of books considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community. The term itself was first coined by Christians, but the idea is found in Jewish sources. The internal wording of the text can also be specified, for example...
of Community of Christ
Community of Christ
The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , is an American-based international Christian church established in April 1830 that claims as its mission "to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace"...
, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), and other Latter Day Saint churches. Selections from the Joseph Smith Translation are also included in the footnotes and the appendix in the LDS-published King James Version
LDS edition of the Bible
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publishes editions of the Bible in English and Spanish that it encourages its members to use. The text of the LDS Church's English-language Bible is the Authorized King James Version and the church's Spanish-language Bible is a revised Reina-Valera...
of the Bible, but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has only officially canonized certain excerpts that appear in its Pearl of Great Price
Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism)
The Pearl of Great Price is part of the standard works of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and some other Latter Day Saint denominations....
. These excerpts are the Book of Moses
Book of Moses
The Book of Moses is part of the scriptural canon of Mormonism dictated by founder Joseph Smith, Jr. It is an amalgamation of the "Vision of Moses," which Smith dictated in June 1830, the "Book of Enoch," dictated December 1830, and material deriving from Smith's revision of the Book of Genesis in...
and Smith's revision of part
Joseph Smith—Matthew
Joseph Smith—Matthew is a book in the Pearl of Great Price, a scriptural text used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Latter Day Saint denominations. Joseph Smith—Matthew consists of Joseph Smith, Jr.'s "retranslation" of portions of the Gospel of Matthew...
of the Gospel of Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
.
Translation
The translation was intended to restore what Smith described as “many important points touching the salvation of men, [that] had been taken from the Bible, or lost before it was compiled.” But the work was not a literal translationTranslation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
from ancient documents, as the term translation is commonly used by scholars. Neither was it an automatic and infallible process where "correct" words and phrases simply were revealed to Smith in final form. As with Joseph Smith's other translations, he reported that he was forced to "study it out in [his] mind" as part of the revelatory process. Sometimes Smith might revisit a given passage of scripture at a later time to give it a "plainer translation," because of additional knowledge or revelation about a subject.
Philip Barlow
Philip Barlow
Philip Layton Barlow is a Harvard-trained scholar who specializes in American Religious History, religious geography, and Mormonism. In 2007 he became the country’s first full-time professor of Mormon studies at a secular university by being appointed as the Leonard J...
observes that Smith made six basic types of changes in the JST:
- Long revealed additions that have little or no biblical parallel, such as the visions of Moses and Enoch, and the passage on Melchizedek
- “Common-sense” changes (e.g., Genesis 6:6 “And it repented the Lord that he had made man” is revised in Moses 8:25 to read: “And it repented Noah, and his heart was pained that the Lord had made man”. God, who is perfect, needs no repentance)
- “Interpretive additions,” often signaled by the phrase “or in other words,” which Smith appended to a passage he wished to clarify
- “Harmonization”, in which Smith reconciled passages that seemed to conflict with other passages
- Many changes Smith made are not easily classified; one can observe only that frequently the meaning of a given text has been changed, often idiosyncratically
- Grammatical improvements, technical clarifications, and modernization of terms, which were by far the most common type of change Smith made in the Bible
Smith's translation was a work in progress throughout his ministry. Some parts of the translation (parts of Genesis and the four Gospels) were completed from beginning to end, including unchanged verses from the KJV; some parts were revised more than once, and other parts were revised one verse at a time. The manuscripts were written, re-written, and in some cases, additional edits were written in the columns, pinned to the paper or otherwise attached. Smith relied on a version of the Bible that included the Apocrypha
Biblical apocrypha
The word "apocrypha" is today often used to refer to the collection of ancient books printed in some editions of the Bible in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments...
, and marked off the Bible as verses were examined (the Apocrypha was not translated). Skeptics view this nonlinearity as evidence that Smith's translation was not inspired; however, Latter Day Saints
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...
see Smith's translation as representing a gradual, developing inspiration.
The bulk of Joseph Smith’s work on the JST took place between June 1830 and July 1833. By 1833, he felt it was sufficiently complete that preparations for publication could begin, though continual lack of time and means prevented it from appearing in its entirety during his lifetime. He continued to make a few revisions and to prepare the manuscript for printing until he was killed in 1844. Regarding the completeness of the JST as we have it, Matthews has written:
- …the manuscript shows that Smith went all the way through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. But it also shows that he did not make all the necessary corrections in one effort. This situation makes it impossible to give a statistical answer to questions about how much of the translation was completed or how much was not completed. What is evident, however, is that any part of the translation might have been further touched upon and improved by additional revelation and emendation by Smith.
LDS scholar Royal Skousen
Royal Skousen
Royal Jon Skousen is a professor of linguistics and English at Brigham Young University , where he is editor of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project...
discusses the question of whether one should assume that every change made in the JST constitutes revealed text. Besides arguments that can be made from the actual text of the JST, there are questions regarding the reliability of and degree of supervision given to the scribes who were involved in transcribing, copying, and preparing the text for publication. Differences are also apparent in the nature of the translation process that took place at different stages of the work. For example, while a significant proportion of the Genesis passages that have been canonized as the book of Moses “[look] like a word-for-word revealed text,” evidence from a study of two sections in the New Testament that were translated twice indicates that the later “New Testament JST is not being revealed word-for-word, but largely depends upon Joseph Smith’s varying responses to the same difficulties in the text.”
Criticism
Several criticsExamples: 5 books published by the Lighthouse Ministry: Inspired Revision of the Bible, and Kevin Barney, The Joseph Smith Translation and Ancient Texts of the Bible, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 19:3 (Fall, 1986): 85-102} and linguists have noted areas where the translation appears to have been faulty. For example Smith's translation of Mark 15:22 (appearing in the JST at Mark 15:25) states: "...Golgotha, which is, (being interpreted,) The place of a burial." However, the word Golgotha is an Aramaic word which means "place of the skull". This type of criticism, however, overlooks that fact that the JST is not claimed to be a literal translation in the traditional sense of the word. Additionally, the death of Joseph Smith and his inability to complete the project means that it is not possible to know whether the margin notes in his Bible were intended as revisions or personal notes.Doctrinal development
Many of Smith's revisions to the Bible led to significant developments in the doctrines of MormonismMormonism
Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...
. During the process of translation, when he came across troubling Biblical issues, Smith often dictated revelations relevant to himself, his associates, or the church. About half of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants
Doctrine and Covenants
The Doctrine and Covenants is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement...
are in some way connected to this translation process, including background on the Apocrypha (LDS D&C
Doctrine and Covenants
The Doctrine and Covenants is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement...
section 91 RLDS D&C 88), the three degrees of glory
Degrees of glory
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' theology, there are three degrees of glory which are the ultimate, eternal dwelling place for nearly all who lived on earth after the Spirit world.Joseph Smith, Jr...
(LDS section 76 RLDS Section 85), the eternal nature of marriage
Celestial marriage
Celestial marriage is a doctrine of Mormonism, particularly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and branches of Mormon fundamentalism.Within Mormonism, celestial marriage is an ordinance associated with a covenant that always...
and plural marriage
Plural marriage
Polygamy was taught by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890.The Church's practice of polygamy has been highly controversial, both within...
(LDS section 132), teachings on baptism for the dead
Baptism for the dead
Baptism for the dead, vicarious baptism or proxy baptism is the religious practice of baptizing a living person on behalf of one who is dead, with the living person acting as the deceased person's proxy...
(LDS section 124 RLDS Section 107), various revelations on priesthood (LDS sections 84, 88, 107 RLDS Sections 83 104) and others.
Overall, 3,410 verses in the printed editions of JST differ in textual construction from the King James Version (KJV), using the numbering of the IV as the basis for comparison. Of the total of 1,289 verses changed in the Old Testament, 25 correspond to the additions of Moses 1, and 662 occur in the book of Genesis. Hence, more than half of the changed verses in the JST Old Testament and 20% of those in the entire JST Bible are contained in Moses 1 and Genesis, with the most extensive modifications occurring in Genesis 1-24. As a proportion of page count, changes in Genesis occur four times more frequently than in the New Testament, and twenty-one times more frequently than in the rest of the Old Testament. The changes in Genesis are not only more numerous, but also more significant in the degree of doctrinal and historical expansion. Jeffrey M. Bradshaw
Jeffrey M. Bradshaw
Jeffrey M. Bradshaw is a Senior Research Scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition , where he leads the research group developing the KAoS policy services framework....
has suggested that one reason for this emphasis may have been "early tutoring in temple-related doctrines received by Joseph Smith as he revised and expanded Genesis 1-24, in conjunction with his later translation of relevant passages in the New Testament and, for example, the stories of Moses and Elijah." Additional evidence suggests that the Book of Moses
Book of Moses
The Book of Moses is part of the scriptural canon of Mormonism dictated by founder Joseph Smith, Jr. It is an amalgamation of the "Vision of Moses," which Smith dictated in June 1830, the "Book of Enoch," dictated December 1830, and material deriving from Smith's revision of the Book of Genesis in...
itself could be seen as a temple text, in the sense discussed by BYU professor John W. Welch.
Publication and use by the RLDS
Smith was killed prior to the publication of the translation. At the death of Joseph Smith Jr. the manuscripts and documents pertaining to the translation were retained by his widow, Emma Smith, who would not give them to the Quorum of the Twelve although Willard RichardsWillard Richards
Willard Richards was an early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and served as Second Counselor in the First Presidency to church president Brigham Young in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death.Willard Richards was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, to...
, apparently acting on behalf of Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...
, requested the new translation from her. Consequently, when Young's followers moved to the Salt Lake Valley, they did so without the new translation of the Bible.
Following Joseph Smith's death, John Milton Bernhisel
John Milton Bernhisel
John Milton Bernhisel was an American physician, politician and early member of the Latter-day Saint movement. He was a close friend and companion to both Joseph Smith, Jr. and Brigham Young...
asked permission of Emma Smith to copy the notes that were made into his own Bible. He spent much of the spring of 1845 working on this project. The LDS Church has this in its offices in Salt Lake City, but it contains less than half of the corrections and is not suitable for publication. For many years the Bernhisel Bible was the only source for LDS Church members living in the Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley
Salt Lake Valley is a valley in Salt Lake County in the north-central portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It contains Salt Lake City and many of its suburbs, notably West Valley City, Murray, Sandy, and West Jordan; its total population is 1,029,655 as of 2010...
.
In 1866, Emma Smith gave the manuscripts into the custody of the RLDS church, to which she was a member and her son Joseph Smith III
Joseph Smith III
Joseph Smith III was the eldest surviving son of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and Emma Hale Smith...
the prophet-president. In 1867 the RLDS published the first edition of the translation and obtained a copyright for it. The RLDS Church (now Community of Christ
Community of Christ
The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , is an American-based international Christian church established in April 1830 that claims as its mission "to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace"...
) still retains the original manuscripts and publishes the Inspired Version through its publishing arm, Herald House Publishing. The copyright has expired on the 1867 edition and a bound photo reproduction of that edition is published by a private concern. In 1944, the RLDS Church brought out a carefully prepared “new corrected edition.”
See the entry on the Community of Christ
Community of Christ
The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , is an American-based international Christian church established in April 1830 that claims as its mission "to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace"...
for information on current views and use within the church.
Scholarship on JST Manuscripts
Because LDS scholars had not yet had an opportunity to compare the corrected edition of the 1944 RLDS edition of the Bible version to the original manuscripts, its initial acceptance by LDS Church members was limited. Explorations of the textual foundations of the JST began in earnest with the pioneering work of the RLDS scholar Richard P. Howard and the LDS scholar Robert J. Matthews beginning in the 1960s. Matthews' summary of an exhaustive study corroborated the RLDS claims that the 1944 and subsequent editions of the “Inspired Version,” notwithstanding their shortcomings, constituted a faithful rendering of the work of Joseph Smith and his scribes—insofar as the manuscripts were then understood. With painstaking effort over a period of eight years, and with the full cooperation of the Community of ChristCommunity of Christ
The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , is an American-based international Christian church established in April 1830 that claims as its mission "to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace"...
, a facsimile transcription of all the original manuscripts of the JST was at last published in 2004.
LDS View
The LDS Church accepts many of the changes as doctrinally significant. Joseph Smith—MatthewJoseph Smith—Matthew
Joseph Smith—Matthew is a book in the Pearl of Great Price, a scriptural text used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Latter Day Saint denominations. Joseph Smith—Matthew consists of Joseph Smith, Jr.'s "retranslation" of portions of the Gospel of Matthew...
and the Book of Moses
Book of Moses
The Book of Moses is part of the scriptural canon of Mormonism dictated by founder Joseph Smith, Jr. It is an amalgamation of the "Vision of Moses," which Smith dictated in June 1830, the "Book of Enoch," dictated December 1830, and material deriving from Smith's revision of the Book of Genesis in...
, containing translations and revelatory expansions of Matthew 24 and Genesis 1-7 respectively and contained in the LDS Pearl of Great Price, are portions of the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible that the LDS Church has canonized
Biblical canon
A biblical canon, or canon of scripture, is a list of books considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community. The term itself was first coined by Christians, but the idea is found in Jewish sources. The internal wording of the text can also be specified, for example...
as part of its standard works
Standard Works
The Standard Works of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are the four books that currently constitute its open scriptural canon.* The Holy Bible * The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ...
. Additionally, over 600 of the more doctrinally significant verses from the translation are included as excerpts in the current LDS Church edition of the King James Version of the Bible. This step has ensured an increase in the JST's use and acceptance in LDS churches today. An official editorial of the Church News
Church News
The Church News is a weekly tabloid-sized supplement to the Deseret News and the MormonTimes , a Salt Lake City, Utah newspaper owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
, dated December 7, 1974, contained these words:
“The Inspired Version does not supplant the King James Version as the official Church version of the Bible, but the explanations and changes made by the Prophet Joseph Smith provide enlightenment and useful commentary on many biblical passages." …
Regarding the Joseph Smith Translation, Bruce R. McConkie
Bruce R. McConkie
Bruce Redd McConkie was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1972 until his death...
(1915–1985) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is one of the governing bodies in the church hierarchy...
said, "The Joseph Smith Translation, or Inspired Version, is a thousand times over the best Bible now existing on earth".
External links
- Full text of the Community of Christ's Inspired Version of the Bible
- Full text into a single file
- Full text with the numbering of the King James Version
- Only the verses reconstituted (numbering of the KJV)
- A Concordance of Numbering for the Joseph Smith Translation and the King James Bible
- A Comparison of the Inspired Version Holy Scriptures to the King James Version of the Bible
- Joseph Smith Translation in LDS Guide to the Scriptures - From The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints official website
- The Joseph Smith Translation for the e-Sword Bible program.
- The Joseph Smith Translation: “Plain and Precious Things” Restored by David Rolph SeelyDavid Rolph SeelyDavid Rolph Seely is a professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University . He has written several books and articles related to the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon. Among these are Glimpses of Lehi's Jerusalem which he co-edited with John W. Welch and Jo Ann H. Seely.Seely has a BA...