Welcome again. My name is Danny, and I was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 60 years.
When Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon in 1829, he included a passage in 1 Nephi 13:28-29, in which Nephi was shown a vision. In this vision dated 600 BC., Nephi was told that “many plain and precious things” would be lost from the future Bible that would be intentionally removed by “the great and abominable church,” meaning the Catholic Church, before it would go forth to the world.
After publishing the Book of Mormon in 1830, Smith placed it in a position of superiority over the Bible. He stated in the 8th Article of Faith, “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.”
Following the publishing of the Book of Mormon, Smith decided he needed a new project and immediately started revising the King James Bible. It began in June 1830 and ended in July 1833. It was called – the Joseph Smith Translation or JST. Some people claim he never finished that project. But, from his own personal journal on July 2, 1833, Smith wrote, “We are exceedingly fatigued, owing to a great press of business. We this day finished the translating of the Scriptures.”
Smith loved to refer to himself as a translator. However, he never consulted any ancient Hebrew or Greek manuscript copies of the Old and New Testaments as source material, so he was hardly a translator. Really, he was no more than an editor. Rather than restoring any original texts, many LDS scholars now view JST as simply an inspired commentary by Smith.
Of the 3,400 plus verses that were changed in the JST, one-third of them were in the Old Testament and two-thirds in the New Testament. These differences included changes to words, new phrases, deletions, textual arrangements, and entire passages added.
He even made changes to the books of Deuteronomy and Revelation. Why is that such a big deal? Because God issues a strong warning in both books. First in Deuteronomy 4:2 “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” Then Revelation 22:18-19 “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of Life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Those two separate passages are very clear – do not add or subtract from these words. Joseph Smith knew very well he was violating the word of God when he made intentional changes to both books of Deuteronomy and Revelation.
After Smith’s death in 1844, the JST manuscripts remained in the possession of his widowed wife, Emma, as she and her children stayed behind in Nauvoo during the Mormon migration West. As the years continued, Emma and her oldest son, Joseph III, accepted leadership roles in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or RLDS (today, called the Community of Christ), with Joseph Smith III serving as president of that organization for fifty-four years.
The RLDS Church first published the JST, in 1867, twelve years before Emma passed away. The Community of Christ has mostly now rejected the JST as valid scripture. They sold it to the Mormon Church in June 2024, and the LDS Church now owns both the original manuscripts, and the original Bible used in Joseph Smith's translation project.
Since the time of Joseph Smith - ancient biblical manuscripts have been -discovered, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 through 1956. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls disappointed the LDS Church leaders because they were hoping the scrolls would prove the Book of Mormon claim that “plain and precious things” were removed from the Bible. Instead, the Scrolls were 99.5% accurate to the later transmitted manuscripts, which became the basis for the authorized King James Bible.
In 1979, The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints published a new edition of the LDS Scriptures containing footnotes from the JST and an appendix to about one-third of the JST verses. (Hold up my LDS Bible)
In this video, I’m going to first compare a passage from the New Testament in the LDS King James edition to the Joseph Smith Translation. And then I will discuss another comparison from the Old Testament that I think you’ll find both interesting and quite ridiculous.
The opening verse in the Gospel of John is a prime example of Smith changing the meaning of the intended message. When we read John 1:1 in the King James Version it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This is meant to be a powerful testimony to who Jesus is. “In the beginning was the Word (capitalized), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We can be quite sure this is what the Greek sentence means. Virtually every major translation over the entire four-hundred-year history of modern English translations has written it this way, word-for-word.
Now let’s see how Joseph Smith did with this powerful clear and precise verse? Here’s how it reads in the JST John 1:1 “In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word (lower case), and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.” Smith not only added numerous words that are not in the Greek, but he completely altered the meaning of the verse – proving that it cannot be a literal translation. It is not even close to what John 1:1 says and means in the Bible.
Now, a typical LDS apologist’s response would be - to say that Joseph Smith was the one who was right, and all the thousands of Greek texts back to the 2nd Century AD were changed and corrupted. Thus, they claim Smith was restoring those lost words of what John really said. Yet, when we look at the evidence, such a conspiracy theory turns out to be totally impossible. That’s because there are over 24,000 partial and complete copies of the Old Testament and New Testament manuscripts from all over the ancient world that have been preserved in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin among other languages. After extensive studies and comparisons of these manuscripts, there are no doctrinal changes to the core principle, teachings. Nothing has been lost. Proving that John 1:1 in the Bible is correct and Smith’s version is wrong.
It should also be noted that the changes Smith made to John 1:1 contradicts the changes he made elsewhere in the very same chapter. In Verse 1, He said “the word” is “the gospel” which was preached by the Son. So, the word is not the Son, and the word is not God. In fact, the word is not a person at all. According to Smith, the word is just a message proclaimed by Jesus.
Yet, only a few verses later in the JST - Smith contradicts himself. In John 1:14-16, it reads “And the same Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This is he of whom I spake; He who commeth after me is preferred before me; for he was before me. For in the beginning was the Word (capitalized), even the Son, who is made flesh, and sent unto us by the will of the Father.”
It is obvious that even Joseph Smith’s own changes and additions here speak of the “Word” as personally being Jesus, the Son, rather than being the gospel. Therefore, Smith proves that he got John 1:1 completely wrong by contradicting himself only a few verses later. He was sloppy in his editing and not consistent which demonstrates that Smith did not possess any power or special gift from God to translate, let alone edit scripture.
Okay that was just one simple example from the New Testament. And now I will show a comparison from the Old Testament.
In the story of, Joseph the son of Jacob, who was sold into Egypt by his brothers - Moses wraps up the entire book of Genesis in chapter 50, by telling how Jacob finally dies and then eventually his son Joseph dies - leaving the brothers and their families to dwell in Egypt as slaves to the Pharoah’s for the next 400 years. In the King James Bible, that last chapter of Genesis ends at verse 26.
However, in Smith’s edited Bible, chapter 50 is extended by 12 more verses - to end at verse 38. That’s because Smith wanted to write himself into the Bible and to make a connection with the Book of Mormon, where he also wrote himself into.
In these added verses, Smith uses the phrase “latter days” to refer to the time that Joseph Smith lived in.
He writes that God is going to raise up a “choice seer” which of course is referring to Joseph Smith.
This “choice seer” is going to bring forth God’s word – meaning the Book of Mormon in those “last days.”
This “choice seer” will be a direct descendant of another Joseph who was sold into Egypt mentioned in the Old Testament. Of course, we know Smith did not descend from Hebrew or Jewish ancestry.
These added verses state that the Bible and Book of Mormon will grow together as one witness.
Then we come to the money verse. Listen as I read verse 33 in the JST, where Smith makes a direct reference to himself. “And that seer will I bless, and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise I give unto you; for I will remember you from generation to generation; and his name shall be called Joseph, and it shall be after the name of his father; and he shall be like unto you; for the thing which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand shall bring my people unto salvation.”
To summarize these added verses in the JST – he writes that a “choice seer” in the “last days” will be called “Joseph” (meaning Joseph Smith, Jr.) who “shall be after the name of his father,” (meaning Joseph Smith, Sr.) And “the thing which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand” is the Book of Mormon. Smith had to have had quite an ego to write himself into holy scripture!
This verse 33 in the JST is almost verbatim in the Book of Mormon found in 1 Nephi 3:15, if you want to look it up. Joseph Smith was trying to be cleaver in attempting to tie the Bible to the Book of Mormon and all of it to himself.
So, what are these “plain and precious” things the LDS Church claims has been lost? Only those “things” Joseph Smith made up. Through the Joseph Smith Mistranslation, it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Joseph Smith was not a true prophet of God. His efforts were solely to corrupt the holy word of God.
Joseph Smith did not possess any spiritual power or special gift from God to translate scripture. The JST is a counterfeit and must not be regarded as the word of God. It states in Proverbs 30:5-6 “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Joseph Smith has incriminated himself as “a liar” by adding to the word of God.
And if his fraudulent work in “mistranslating” the Bible is this obvious - how could anyone trust his claim to translate other ancient scripture. The LDS Church has already admitted the Book of Abraham was not a direct translation from ancient papyri scrolls as Smith claimed it was. Go to the LDS Church website and see Gospel Topic Essays on the Book of Abraham. In fact, how could anyone believe that Joseph Smith “translated” the Book of Mormon from a peep stone he placed in a hat? Do any of these truth claims about additional Mormon scripture sound logical? Not to me!
In closing, I want to remind us, what is says in Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Yeshua Himself confirmed the inspiration of the Old Testament and the future New Testament when He said in Matthew 5:18 “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Yeshua is reinforcing the accuracy of the Scriptures down to the smallest detail and the slightest punctuation mark, because it is the word of God. Yeshua states later in Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” That was God’s promise to us about how His written and spoken words would be preserved for all time.
Something to consider! I hope this helps.
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Until next time, God Bless!