Joseph Smith maintained that the Bible had been corrupted and was full of errors and omissions, and that God had commanded him to re-translate it by divine inspiration. His letter confirming that this work had been completed on the 2nd July, 1833, was recorded in "The History of the Church", Vol. 1, page 368. Nevertheless his translation was never published and the LDS still uses the "corrupted" and "unreliable" King James version, albeit with a few selected portions of his inspired version as footnotes in various places. The following is the first of two completely different excuses they gave for not publishing it:

It was the intention of the Prophet to have this revised version of the Scriptures, which he had made with such laborious care, published in Zion, at the printing establishment of the Church in that place... but before the work could even be commenced persecution arose which made the undertaking impracticable. And such was the unsettled state of the Church throughout the remaining years of the Prophet's life that he found no opportunity to publish the revised Scriptures, and to this day there is no authoritative publication of his translation of the Old and New Testament given to the world.... (LDS Church Historian B. H. Roberts, footnote to "History of the Church" Vol. 1, page 324, 1902).

However, the persecution they mention didn't stop the them from publishing all their other scriptures and literature during that very same period. So this excuse has no validity. (I have a comprehensive list of their many publications during this period on my hard drive.)

The problem concerning the publishing of Smith's inspired translation had nothing whatever to do with persecution. The truth of the matter was that after he'd notified the LDS church that he'd completed it, he decided to change his theological stance. And the new theology he was formulating contradicted that given in his "inspired" translation.

When he had first started up the LDS church Smith's theology had been similar to that of biblical Christianity. And at the time that he wrote his inspired translation he had taught the LDS church that God the Father was a Spirit Being. Furthermore, he had defined deity in biblical trinitarian terms, and had led the early Mormons in the worship of the trinitarian deity for over twelve years. He was still actively propagating this same theological stance when he wrote his "inspired" translation of the bible. This fact will be confirmed by records of his teachings at that time, that are in the LDS archives. If you can get hold of a copy of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, you will be able to read his teachings on the trinitarian deity for yourself, where he taught that God was a spirit being, under the 5th Lecture of Faith, 5:1-2.

Some time after he'd notified the church that he had finished his "inspired" re-translation, Smith began to formulate a new, revolutionary and exclusively LDS theology, culminating in his doctrine of eternal progression. He proclaimed that God was not the spirit being they had previously imagined Him to be, but that He was in fact an ordinary, glorified man with a body of flesh and bone. And he accompanied this announcement with the teaching that Mormon men can become Gods too. But this landed him in hot water because His re-translation of the Bible that had supposedly been "inspired" by God, now contradicted his new theology, that had also supposedly been "revealed" to him by God.

Any thinking person has to question why God had not revealed to Joseph Smith from the start that he had been worshipping the wrong deity, considering that he was supposed to have been God's chosen prophet and had been called upon to restore His true church. It is not feasible that God would have constantly been giving him revelations, and yet would not once have mentioned anything to him during all those long years about the fact that He wasn't the deity whom Smith was worshipping. (When his new doctrines were eventually introduced into the church, many folk who had become Mormons under the original theological system, left.)

The position concerning Smith's inspired translation of the Bible was that if it had been published at that stage, it would have invalidated his new doctrine of eternal progression and all his other new teachings that were linked to it, including his new doctrine on God. However, it seems that the LDS eventually worked out a way to keep his translation permanently under wraps, and at the same time justify the fact that it didn't agree with his new doctrines. They announced that the reason for its non-publication was that he had never actually finished the translation:

"The revision of the Bible which was done by Joseph Smith at the command of the Lord was not a complete revision of the Bible. There are many parts of the Bible in which the Prophet did not change the meaning where it is incorrect. He revised as far as the Lord permitted him at the time, and it was his intention to do more, but because of persecution this was not accomplished." (LDS Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Volume 3, page 191.)

But this directly contradicts the statement contained in the History of the Church, mentioned earlier on in this article, wherein they recorded Smith's letter confirming that his inspired translation of the Bible had been completed. The "LDS Times and Seasons" also mentioned that it had been completed. Furthermore, all three members of the then LDS First Presidency also officially declared that Smith's translation had been completed in 1833:

"We this day finished the translating of the scriptures, for which we returned gratitude to our Heavenly Father... having finished the translation of the Bible a few hours since...." (LDS Prophet Joseph Smith, LDS President Sidney Rigdon, and LDS President F. G. Williams; History of the Church, Volume 1, pages 368-369, July 2, 1833).

Then too, after Smith had completed his translation, God had commanded that it be published and distributed to the inhabitants of the earth. He was apparently satisfied that Smith had satisfactorily completed it, and didn't feel that persecution would stand in their way. And by withholding the publication of Smith's inspired translation the LDS disobeyed his command.

"If he will do my will let him from henceforth hearken to the counsel of my servant Joseph, and with his interest support the cause of the poor and publish the new translation of my holy word unto the inhabitants of the earth." (Doctrine and Covenants 124:89) (Author's italics)

Apparently, some time ago the the transcript of the "divine" translation was released to the public, but this was long after the LDS membership had become accustomed to the excuse that it was an incomplete translation, due to difficulties arising from persecution. The passage of time has made this deception easy.


Copyright 2007 by Mormonism and Biblical Truth. All rights reserved.