Sunday, July 14, 2013

Joseph Smith Translation

Today while I was sitting in church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, LDS, or Mormon Church) they were having a lesson on fasting. (It can be found here.) In the middle of the lesson the high priest group leader, who was also in the class, was discussing a sermon given by the Savior, but instead of quoting from Matthew chapter 6 he quoted from the Book of Mormon: 3 Nephi chapter 13. We were talking about the purpose of fasting and how people would make it known that they were fasting using ash or other methods, when in reality the purpose is very personal and should not be broadcasted. If your purpose of fasting is for people to know then that is what you will get out of it, but much more can be achieved if done in the right attitude in the appropriate manner.

Anyway, back to 3 Nephi chapter 13, I decided to open it up. As I was reading the chapter from the beginning I could understand what he was getting at. 3 Nephi 13:4 about sums it up "That thine alms may be in secret; and they Father who seethe in secret, himself shall reward thee openly." As I continued reading and turned the page I noticed I written in my footnotes where the Lord gives his prayer to the Nephites.

The above picture is my big Book of Mormon on page 434. I had written "Translation was hard work, he used the prayer from Matthew." Now this had to have been from a long time ago, I would guess anywhere between 2004 and 2008 when I had studied this and wrote this in my book (I was a tb member at the time). I guess it was probably on my mission this note was added, as I would do my personal study from these scriptures and make lessons from my small scriptures.

I then turned to Matthew to read how the prayer was written. I will write both scriptures so you can compare them side by side.

3 Nephi 13:12-13 "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen."
Matthew 6: 13 "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

The differences between the two scriptures I highlighted in red. These differences could have easily been changed in the Book of Mormon later, as it has had many corrections to grammar from the 1st edition. (You can read about these grammar changes in the Ensign here.)

Joseph Smith "translated" the Bible to what Mormons refer to as the Joseph Smith translation or the Inspired Version of the Bible, you can read more about that here. Translation is not really a correct word for what he did, but that is not really the point of what I am discussing here. One of the scriptures that Joseph translated was the Lord's prayer, which he has it written:

JST Matt. 6:14 "And suffer us not to be led into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen."

I italicized and highlighted the differences in green.

As I was sitting in class pondering my original note a lot of questions came to mind.

1st I realized how I had rationalized something that should have been a red flag.

In the introduction there is a section where Joseph Smith is being quoted, "I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book."

Why does Joseph Smith use the uninspired Bible to copy the Lord's Prayer and then later give an inspired version of the Lord's Prayer. The funny thing about that is he is essentially correcting the Book of Mormon also, which I find very ironic considering it is the "most correct of any book on earth..." I am sure that Joseph Smith used the Bible in making Christ's teaching to the Americas but he must have forgot just how much he used it when he went back and created the inspired version of the Bible.

This has got me really curious to know what other scriptures in the Book of Mormon have come from the Bible word for word and have been changed in the inspired version. If anyone has any knowledge concerning this topic please feel free to comment or email me.

(I am not sure if this is really appropriate for my family blog, but since this is somewhat of an open journal I think it will be fine and interesting to come back in the future and see my thoughts.)

3 comments:

  1. You might check out "Lord's Prayer" in the Bible dictionary. There is a thought there. Also, remember that the so called inspired version of the Bible did not come about until after the Book of Mormon was published. I don't know if Joseph Smith copied directly from the Bible. The Nephites had the brass plates which basically was most of our Old Testament. The Nephites included quotes from the Brass Plates in the Book of Mormon.

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  2. When you were on your mission, you gave basically the same message to all the people that you taught. It is reasonable to believe that the Savior did the same thing, he gave basically the same message to all he taught. However, the people in America who were gathered around the temple in Bountiful were the more righteous part of the people. The wicked people had been destroyed in the great destruction at the crucifixion. Therefore the Savior did not have to contend with opposition and he taught the people directly. He did not teach with parables when he taught the Nephites. They were the more righteous part of the people. That would lead me to think that Joseph did not copy the Bible but translated Jesus's teachings from the Gold Plates.

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