The bible is accepted as the word of god as far as it is translated correctly. According to this reasoning, one would conclude that the title page must have been written after about a. Thats how many changes byu linguistics professor royal skousen said he made to the book of mormon while transcribing its printers. Changes to latterday scripture lds leaders have made. In 2001, the lds church reported that all or part of the book of mormon was available in the native language of 99 percent of latterday saints and 87 percent of the worlds total population. In 1981 the lds church published a new edition of the book of mormon, making a. Printers manuscript of the book of mormon the joseph smith papers. The authorized edition is based on the original printers manuscript and the 1837 second edition or kirtland. Community of christ publishes two versions of the book through its official publishing arm, herald house.
Spaldingrigdon theory of book of mormon authorship wikipedia. Several other book of mormon passages were corrected to clarify the distinction of christ instead of the father. The idea that the church has somehow hidden the original text or manuscripts of the book of mormon in order to hide this is simply unbelievable. Historians share insights from book of mormon printers. Book of mormon printers manuscript is now online church news. The mormon church has four books of scripture referred to as the standard works. A valuable new analysis of the many types of changes in the text of the book of mormon is brian c. Lds church acquires book of mormon printers manuscript. The church of jesus christ of latterday saints wikipedia. The original book of mormon transcript the book of. Much like lamoni calls approach in the 1890s, jerald tanner sat down eighty years later with an 1830 edition and a 1964 edition of the book. This sub is for fellowship and faithful belief in the restored gospel of jesus christ ephesians 2. Have you ever asked yourself how many times the holy bible has been changed from the time the original revelations were received over a period of several thousand years at least.
These and similar changes show why editing was necessary to make the manuscript more understandable. This wellwritten book is relevant to every member of the church of jesus christ of latterday saints. Welcome to r latterdaysaints a gathering place for those supporting or investigating the church of jesus christ of latterday saints and its members. An 1885 book printed by the reorganized church of jesus christ of latter day saints rlds church said it contained the wording of the. Book of mormon changes the fall of mormonism rich kelsey.
Each change is color coded and identifies the person making the change. If the book of mormon is true then why has it been. Hales reminds us that the tanners and others have been deceptive in their treatment of the minor changes and corrections that have been made, creating the. Book of mormon original manuscript being readied for. I dont know what that number is, but i guarantee you it makes 4,000. A new volume of the joseph smith papers project featuring the printers manuscript of the book of mormon was released tuesday by the church historians press, an imprint of the history department of the church of jesus christ of latterday saints, reads a mormon newsroom statement.
How a mormon lawyer transformed archaeology in mexicoand. The manuscript revelation books, ensignthe volumes in the series titled revelations and translations will reproduce the earliest manuscripts of joseph smiths written revelations and translations, together with the official editions of these documents as they were published during his lifetime. Church of jesus christ of latterday saints,2 and two halfpages at the. Part 2 contains the text of the book of mormon from alma 36 through moroni. Hales, changing critics criticisms of book of mormon changes, interpreter. Jerald and sandra tanners 1965 publication, 3,9 changes in the book of mormon, has probably had a greater influence. We have not tried to show capitalization or punctuation changes in this study. The critics have claimed that this shows that joseph smith originally believed in a trinitarian god, that his uniquely lds views of god evolved later, and that he changed later editions of the book of mormon to harmonize with new views. Understanding the nature of the thousands of small changes in the book of mormon may be helpful and interesting. F or many mormons, an examination of the book of abraham and its true history becomes the most significant stumbling block to joseph smiths claim as a prophetic translator of ancient languages. How can someone believe the book of mormon is a divine.
They also analyze negative points of evidence not only between the book of mormon and the maya but between the book of mormon and a 1973 article published by coe in dialogue and between the book of mormon and several podcast interviews with coe by a prominent critic of the church. Printers manuscript of the book of mormon, circa august. Engraved golden plates buried circa 500 ad by moroni, who returned as an angel to instruct joseph smith to retrieve and translate them through inspiration. Many people are unaware that over the years the church of jesus christ of latterday saints mormon church has made thousands of changes to its scriptures. Dingers significant textual changes in the book of mormon. Page 167the same were not numbered among the people of the church mosiah 26. According to the lds church, is the book of mormon a translation from a foreign language. The book of mormon, the pearl of great price, and the doctrine and covenants are accepted as scripture without any qualifications whatsoever. Due to the king james bible errors and deuteroisaiah passage in the book of mormon, it further proves that the the book of mormon is a work of joseph smiths 19th century mindset, and even apologetic lds historian richard bushman concluded that it is riddled with nineteenthcentury protestant theology and phrasing, but still is an incredible. Book of mormon manuscript may be worlds most expensive book. The book of abraham narrative clearly demonstrates the manner in which the lds church works diligently to massage or reinterpret inconvenient facts to continue to defend its most extraordinary truth. On july 11, 20, i was surprised to get an email from a community of christ colleague informing me that the smithpettit foundation was publishing john s. Brian hales has written much on joseph smiths polygamy in the past.
You can listen in under 26 minutes here key quotes below. Three previous answers to this question, by three lds respondents and all three are either wrong, incomplete, or intentionally misleading. Roberts concluded, assuming a hemispheric geography theory for the book of mormon, sufficient parallels existed that future critics could claim that view of the hebrews had provided a structural foundation for the book of mormon story. The original book of mormon manuscript byu studies. He recently wrote this article changing critics criticisms of the book of mormon changes for the interpreter in 218. Lds church acquires book of mormon printers manuscript the. Portions of the original manuscript were also used for typesetting. Lds leaders have added and deleted words and tampered with previously published revelations by writing in new material and falsely attributing it to an earlier date. The book of mormon is a sacred text of the latter day saint movement, which, according to.
Oliver cowdery copied the entire book of mormon onto a second manuscript, known today as the printers manuscript. Textual variants in book of mormon manuscripts the dialogue. The book provides an honest comparison of the source material available to joseph smith, a book titled view of the hebrews, that preceded the book of mormon. Box 1884 salt lake city, utah 84110 or visit their website. The church has in its possession wilford woodruffs original copy, but for generations prohibited viewing. For example, publishing the title page in two paragraphs and adding the word moroni in some editions undoubtedly influenced virtually all early students of the book of mormon to conclude that moroni was the only author of the title page. Royal skousen has spent decades studying the original manuscript and the printers manuscript of the book of mormon along with the 1830 and other editions of the book that came out during joseph smiths lifetime and under his direction and those later editions from the church of jesus christ of latterday saints and the, now, community of christ, as well.
Understanding textual changes in the book of mormon. In this study we will show that there have been at least 3,9 changes made in the book of mormon from the time it was first published in 1830. In 1981 the lds church published a new edition of the book of mormon, making a number of additional. If so, what foreign language manuscripts did joseph smith use to produce the book of mormon. By now, however, oliver cowdery had left the church, taking the printers manuscript with him. As you can see, the book of mormon is a changing document. Book of mormon manuscripts why the lds church is true. For most of the history of the lds church, the book of mormon was not used as. Typographical facsimile of the extant text provo, ut. Photos of the printers manuscript can be seen at the university of utah. This changed in the 1980s when efforts were made to reemphasize the book of. How a mormon lawyer transformed archaeology in mexicoand ended up losing his faith. Replicas of the 1830 book of mormon are easily obtained on, and the text is freely available online. The book of mormon printers manuscript, recently purchased by the.
The church of jesus christ of latterday saints, often informally known as the lds church or mormon church, is a nontrinitarian, christian restorationist church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by jesus christ. As late as 15 january 1842 joseph smith was still making. The first printed edition compared to the manuscripts and to the subsequent major lds english printed editions and that there was to be. Book of mormon manuscript excerpt, circa june 1829 1.
Only a handful of copies were distributed before the press was destroyed. In reality, though, the kind of stylistic accuracy achieved by these changes has little to do with what joseph meant when he called the book of mormon the most correct of any book on earth. Comparison of the community of christ and the church of. Church admits book of mormon not history and to go to lengths to translate the words he wants so that he can be redundant as if saying that it is a miraculous miracle somehow makes it even better than anyone might have thought otherwise. Community of christ rlds church sells the book of mormon. From the printers manuscript, the 1830 edition of the book of mormon was typeset.
The most recent history of the book of mormon critical text project can be. The primary research for this information was taken from the book 39 changes in the book of mormon by jerald and sandra tanner. The words dictated by joseph smith between april 7 and june 30, 1829, were published with few alterations. Joseph smith placed that manuscript in the cornerstone of the nauvoo house, the hotel they were building in nauvoo in 1841, and it lay there for 41 years, said brother skousen, who has been the editor of the book of mormon critical texts project since 1988 and has published many books on the book of mormon in connection with that project. The church history department is doing some interesting things with the original manuscript of the book of mormon this is the one that got placed into the cornerstone of the nauvoo house and partially destroyed after water seeped in. Foundation for ancient research and mormon studies, brigham young university, 2001. In making this study we obtained photocopies of an original 1830 edition of. The printers manuscript is virtually 100% extant and is held by the reorganized church of jesus christ of latterday saints, now renamed the community of.
The next one, to have hope, the book of mormon in the original text has the main verb have followed by the direct object hope18 to 0, there is one occasion where this is actually due to editing by joseph smith, he changed it to to have hoped he made the have. A complete transcript of the extant parts of the original manuscript of the book of mormon has been published as royal skousen, ed. The church is headquartered in salt lake city, utah, in the united states, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. Robertss manuscript was private and shared only with lds church leadership. The lds version of the book of mormon has been translated into 83 languages and selections have been translated into an additional 25 languages. Book of mormontextual changeswhite changed to pure. Types of changes in the book of mormon text the following statistics are derived from my computerized collation of the two manuscripts of the book of mormon the original and the printers manuscripts and 20 standard page 173 editions of the book of mormon fifteen lds editions, from 1830 to 1981, the 1858 wright edition, and four rlds. In the 1879 lds edition, however, orson pratt changed the original. The salt lake citybased church of jesus christ of latterday saints. Both community of christ and lds church accept the book of mormon as a second canon of scripture and views it as an additional witness of jesus christ that complements the bible. The book of commandments, published in july 1833, was a compilation of early lds revelations. People of all and any faiths are welcome here on the grounds of goodwill and faith. The handcopied 464page printers manuscript of the book of mormon is. All but one line of the printers manuscript has survived it is in the archives of the rlds church in independence, missouri.
836 804 1422 1402 264 362 1207 596 927 1384 538 574 1344 594 1259 314 1482 882 1237 1190 1485 1343 172 120 736 278 1394 602 978 1207 1520 1490 407 974 664 398 581 201 463 1131