Episode 14: Translating the Joseph Smith Translation

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:44)
The other day, I got an email from a friend who's looking to buy a Bible. In our conversation, she asked, what's the deal with all the different translations? Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into, what's the deal with their playing peanuts? But seriously, what is the deal with all the translations? Especially that one by Joseph Smith.
Strap yourself in because we're going to have sharp objects, we're going to have manuscripts and petticoats and cutting edge research.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:07)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:09)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:10)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the everlasting hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:38)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:43)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:51)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:14)
Joseph Smith clearly felt that his prophetic calling involved reshaping the idea of scripture.
In an environment where the Bible was the sum total of holy writ, he added the Book of Mormon. And then a few years later, a collection of his own revelations was added to the canon. But even the Bible itself wasn't seen as something static. Two months after the church was organized, two months, Joseph Smith began a very ambitious project to revise the Bible. Can you imagine you just like start a church and you're like, and now we're gonna rewrite the Bible? Just stop there for a minute. Revise the Bible?
The Book of Mormon always gets all the press for being such a bold act, which it is. But the Joseph Smith Translation doesn't get the attention it probably should. I mean, you have to think about how much work that is. Hints that this was coming appeared to be in the Book of Mormon. First Nephi 13 outlines a vision given to Nephi. In this account, he sees the Bible, which originally included the, quote, plainness of the gospel, but then dun, dun, dun, the great and abominable church took away, quote, many parts which are plain and most precious and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away and all of this they have done that they might pervert the right ways of the Lord, that they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men, end quote, such jerks.
And I just gotta say, there's a lot of argument that Joseph Smith was just sort of an ordinary con man. But if that were true, then think about what kind of con man actually decides to revise the Bible and take down modern day Christianity as he sought. That's a long con, I think.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:57)
So the project starts with Oliver Cowdery as the scribe, but then he leaves for the mission to Indian territory, which we talked about already.
So then Joseph Smith has to play his familiar game of musical scribes.
John Whitmer comes on board for about two pages, and then Emma is even a scribe for two pages, which is fun. And then it seems only fair since Oliver Cowdery left his post, he needed to then baptize his replacement. So if you remember when we talked about the first baptisms in Kirtland, we noted that Sidney Rigdon was among them.
So after his baptism, Rigdon took off from New York to meet Joseph Smith almost immediately. While he was there, Joseph Smith dictates a revelation regarding Rigdon, and as part of that, Rigdon was instructed to be Joseph Smith's scribe, and that quote, the scriptures shall be given even as they are in mine own bosom, close quote. And this part of the revelation is key because it shows just how Joseph Smith understood the project. It was to restore the Bible text to how God wanted it, essentially.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:49)
The first part of the project was a long revelation that describes a vision given to Moses. Over time, though, the nature of the revision project sort of changed. As the Joseph Smith paper's project notes, quote, the lengthy opening vision in some portions later in the manuscript record prophetic experience at best hinted at in the biblical texts. But as the transcript unfolded over the next several months, it became a commentary on and often an expansion of the King James Version of Genesis, end quote.
After just a few months, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were told to pivot and work on the New Testament, setting a pattern for basically every future Mormon except maybe David Boccavoi. Their heart was more in the New Testament, which is actually my experience as a modern Mormon too. I mean, I had read the New Testament several times and the Book of Mormon and other Mormon scripture, but not really the Old Testament. In fact, I don't even think I can remember all the books in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is about three times the size of the New Testament, but they made just 1200 changes in the Old Testament compared to 2100 changes in the New.