Scripture Difficultiesjstbibletranslationmoses

The Joseph Smith Translation

What is the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible, and does it claim that the King James text is worthless?

Bible

The Bible answers

Bible · Acts 8:30–31

KJV + NRSVUE

How can I, except some man should guide me?

King James Version
And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

NRSVUE
So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.

Bible · 2 Peter 1:20–21

KJV + NRSVUE

Prophecy came not by the will of man.

King James Version
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

NRSVUE
First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Book of Mormon

Also restored

Articles of Faith 1:8
As far as it is translated correctly. That sentence is the JST’s warrant.
We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

Moses 1:40–41
When they esteem my words as naught, I will raise up another like unto you.
And now, Moses, my son, I will speak unto thee concerning this earth upon which thou standest; and thou shalt write the things which I shall speak. And in a day when the children of men shall esteem my words as naught and take many of them from the book which thou shalt write, behold, I will raise up another like unto thee; and they shall be had again among the children of men—among as many as shall believe.

Ancient witnesses

Dead Sea Scrolls and related extra-biblical texts that illuminate the same pattern the Restoration restores.

Dead Sea Scrolls biblical manuscripts

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

Qumran proved what the eighth article of faith assumes: biblical texts circulated in more than one form. The Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, and the Scrolls are not a vote against inspiration. They are a vote against the fantasy of a single frozen English line from Sinai to 1611. An inspired revision in the last days is not stranger than the fact that Jeremiah’s scroll was rewritten with ‘many like words’ after it was burned.

Faithful answers

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Joseph Smith Translation

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Joseph’s Bible revision produced the Book of Moses, a longer Genesis, a restored Matthew 24 (Joseph Smith—Matthew), and thousands of smaller clarifications. The Church uses the King James text as its English Bible and includes JST excerpts in the apparatus. That is not embarrassment. It is a pastoral choice for a people whose memory is KJV, plus a witness that revelation did not stop at Erasmus’s printer.

The Joseph Smith Translation is a revision of the Bible undertaken by the Prophet Joseph Smith; it restored lost doctrine and clarified existing text.

‘Translation’ here includes inspired revision, not only linguistic transfer.
Moses 1 is a restoration of material ‘taken from the book,’ not a midrash Joseph found boring to leave out.
Using the KJV in church does not repeal the JST; it locates it.

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Religious Studies Center

The JST as scripture and as process

BYU Religious Studies Center

The JST was not finished in the sense of a typeset canon Joseph locked. It was a revelatory labor that also taught him. That unfinishedness is not a gotcha. Jeremiah, the Psalter, and the Gospel tradition all show growth. What matters is that the Lord spoke, Moses 1 stands, and the Bible is still believed.

An unfinished inspired revision is still a gift. A finished contempt for the Bible is not scholarship.

Philip’s question in Acts 8 is the JST’s biblical warrant: scripture needs an authorized guide.
Textual plurality in the Scrolls undercuts the claim that only one wording can be ‘the Bible.’

Read the original

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