This article discusses why Joseph Smith's version of the Bible can't be termed a translation, the changes he made, the publication of his translation, and the reliability of modern translations.



INTRODUCTION

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (known as the LDS) was founded on their prophet Joseph Smith's claim that the early Christian church had gone into total apostasy and that the Bible was unreliable due to incorrect translation. He also maintained that corrupt priests had removed important sections on salvation. This gave him the freedom to introduce a unique, unbiblical religion that fitted in with his own agenda. (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, Volume 1, page 245, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 327, c/f Book of Mormon 1 Nephi 13:21–28, 32; Pearl of Great Price, Moses 1:40–41.)

But Smith's claim has no substance. The Bible has been subjected to more thorough, ongoing investigation than any other book in the entire history of the world. Archeology, religious and secular ancient literature, and historical records have all provided overwhelming proof of both its accuracy and its reliability. Archeologists are still finding more and more proof in this regard, on a regular basis. Nothing has ever been discovered that disproves anything in the Bible or indicates that it is inaccurate in any way. Over and over again proof has surfaced regarding the existence of individuals, nations, cities and battles mentioned in the Bible, and so on. (There is a link provided at the end of this page to a comprehensive article on this subject, entitled Corruption of the Bible is an LDS Smokescreen.)

Amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls that were discovered in 1947, were portions of every book in the Old Testament except for Esther. They all agreed with our modern day translations. There was also a complete copy of the book of Isaiah, written in an early form of the square letter. This dates it as far back as the second century before Christ, which makes it the same rendering of Isaiah that was read and quoted by the Lord Jesus. He accepted and proclaimed it as the true Word of God. And this very ancient copy of Isaiah agrees with our modern English translations of today. Nevertheless, Joseph Smith has also made changes to Isaiah.

When it comes to the New Testament, we have thousands of documents in the original languages, some of them dating as far back as AD 70-807, that are in line with our modern translations. Furthermore, the apostles' teachings were quoted in numerous ancient sermons, letters and documents. And these all agree with our modern translations of the Bible. (The only sections of the New Testament that weren't quoted, were the introductions to the epistles.)



THE PRACTICE OF DECEPTION

Joseph Smith was a master at deception. He claimed to have translated the Book of Mormon from reformed Egyptian script engraved on gold plates. But his scribes who recorded this book as he dictated it (one of whom was his wife), all testified that he had never ever looked at the gold plates during his so-called translation. They were always carefully hidden away so that nobody could see them. (He maintained that if anyone looked at them, God would strike them dead.) His method of "translating" was to put his occultic seer stone into the base of his hat, place his face over it and dictate the words that he said were revealed to him by his occultic stone. So the Book of Mormon wasn't a translation from inscriptions on gold plates at all. (See The Book of Mormon Witnesses Who Never Saw the Gold Plates .)

Nor did he re-translate the Bible, in spite of claiming to have done so. At the time he began his so-called translation, he had no knowledge of Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic. He had no access to any of the ancient manuscripts, and merely used an 1828 King James Version as a base from which to work. This means that far from translating the Bible, in reality all he did was alter a King James translation, so that it fell in line with his own ideas. He had no scholarly reasons for doing this. And to give the reader some idea of how far short his so-called translation fell, the following verse from the JST is only one of his many inaccurate amendments:

And they bring him unto the place called Golgotha, which is, (being interpreted,) The place of a burial. (Mark 15:25, JST, which is Mark 15:22 in the KJV)

Golgotha is an Aramaic word, and as shown in the KJV version of this verse, its correct interpretation is "place of a skull." Easton's Bible Dictionary tells us that it was a little knoll or low, rounded, bare elevation somewhat in the form of a human skull. (It is identical in meaning to the latin word Calvaria.) So, far from being a burial ground as Smith had wrongly imagined, Golgotha derived its name from the fact that the actual site resembled the form of a human skull.



RE-TRANSLATING THE BIBLE

Joseph Smith claimed to have received visits from an angel named Moroni, who had quoted various scriptures that differed from the biblical record. He said this gave him an understanding of how these passages should be translated, in order to convey the correct meaning. (Joseph Smith History 1:36-41, Latter-day Saints Messenger and Advocate, Volume 1, No. 7, April, 1835, pages 109-112.) But the Bible warns us about deception by spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (see Ephesians 6:10-12).

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. (Galations 1:8, KJV) (Emphasis by editor.)

Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:6, KJV)

Although there is no record of the exact date that Smith commenced his translation work, it was probably somewhere round about the time that he claimed to have had his revelation of the visions of Moses in June, 1930 (see Pearl of Great Price, Moses 1). And The History of the Church, Volume 1, pages 368-369 records a letter from Joseph, confirming that his translation work had been completed on the 2nd July, 1833. This was countersigned by all three members of the then LDS Presidency (c/f Times and Seasons, Volume VI, page 802).

However, the seeds of a radical change in theology had already begun germinating in his mind. And he realized that if he published his translation, it would invalidate his new and as yet undisclosed doctrines, or vice verse. So he held back the printing of his translation. And in spite of having previously maintained that this had been completed, he added further amendments to it, and continued to do so until until his life was cut short.

Because of space constraints this article will not deal with the all the alterations, additions and deletions that are featured in the JST translation. But in order to give the reader some idea of Smith's motivations behind it, we will deal with his amendments to John 1, verses 1 to 5. Bear in mind that this is only the tip of the iceberg.



SMITH'S CHANGES CONCERNING CHRIST, THE WORD OF GOD

The Bible teaches that Christ was the Word, i.e. the revelation/ explanation of God, in the flesh.

John 1:1-5, 5:39, 10:28 and 17:2 says that Christ was the Word of God, that He was God, that in Him was life, that His life was the light of men, and that He was the giver of eternal life. These and many other New Testament verses are supported by Isaiah 9:6:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6, KJV) (Emphasis by editor.)

However, Christ being both the Word of God and God Himself, didn't fit in with Joseph Smith's new theology. He claimed that Christ, Satan, the angelic beings and the whole of mankind, were sired by God (who has a body of flesh and bone and lives a married life), in a prior existence known as our first estate. In other words, far from being eternal deity, Christ was only our brother in eternal progression. Consequently the gospel of John was one of the scriptural casualties that resulted from his so-called "translation." The radical changes that he made will easily be seen by comparing the King James version of John 1:1-5 that follows, with the Joseph Smith translation, that is quoted directly beneath it:

KING JAMES VERSION
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (John 1:1-5, KJV) (Editor's note: Christ was the Word of God, and He was God. In Him was life and His life was the light of men. [He is the giver of eternal life c/f, John 5:39, 10:28, 17:2.])

THE JOSEPH SMITH TRANSLATION
In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made which was made. In him was the gospel, and the gospel was the life, and the life was the light of men; And the light shineth in the world, and the world perceiveth it not. (Joseph Smith Translation, John 1:1-5) (Editor's note: Christ's deity is done away with, and instead of the life of Christ being the light of men, the [LDS] gospel is the life and the light of men. Christ is deprecated and the LDS gospel is elevated.)

JOSEPH SMITH'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHRIST

In order to understand where Joseph Smith was coming from regarding his attitude towards Christ, we will take a look at a derogatory statement he made, that speaks for itself. As you read it, bear in mind his previously mentioned teaching that Christ is our brother in eternal progression, as well as the above alterations to John 1:

"I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter nor Jesus ever did. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him, but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet." (The History of the Church Volume 6, pages 408-409). (Italics inserted by author.)

Joseph Smith was an egotist, and the enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not by accident that the Christ he taught bears no resemblance to the true Saviour (see The LDS Jesus Christ is Not the Saviour of the Bible .) Mormonism has been designed to ensure that its followers will never find the true path of salvation. They have a different God, a different Christ and a different gospel to that of the Bible.

We would do well to heed the warnings of Paul:

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. (2 Corinthians 11:3-4, KJV)

PUBLICATION OF THE JOSEPH SMITH TRANSLATION

After Joseph Smith's death in 1844, there was a split in the LDS church. His widow, Emma, had possession of the KJV he had marked to indicate the sections or verses that would be changed, as well as his 477 paged manuscript detailing the actual wording of the amendments. And in 1866 she handed these over to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They then published a copyrighted edition in 1867, followed by subsequent printings. Later editions included corrections. And in 1970 a parallel column edition was released, of what they called Smith's "Inspired" Version and the King James Version.

In 1979 the Utah based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS) published a new edition of the King James Version of the Bible, incorporating many passages from Smith's translation as footnotes. Lengthier passages were included in an appendix. Their 1981 publication of Doctrine and Covenants also contains references from the Joseph Smith Translation in the headnotes, footnotes, and content summaries of many sections.

The Joseph Smith Translation has not gained any acceptance at all apart from in Latter-day Saint circles, for obvious reasons. It is not a translation, but an alteration.



CONCLUSION

To sum up, Joseph Smith had no scholastic reasons for his alterations to the Bible. His so-called translation was nothing more than an attempt to line the Bible up with his own teachings. Furthermore, our modern translations of the Bible have been proved over and over again to be reliable.

The following are links to articles that have some bearing on what has been discussed above:

Corruption of the Bible is an LDS Smokescreen

The Apostasy is a Mormon Fallacy

Joseph Smith, the Latter-day False Prophet

The Bible and its Reliability as a Spiritual Weapon

Copyright 2009 by Mormonism and Biblical Truth. All rights reserved.