Posted on 07/01/2013 6:16:37 AM PDT by Colofornian
Although Joseph Smith said God had pronounced the completed translation of the plates as published in 1830 correct, many changes were made in later editions. There are at least 3,913 changes, and not all of them minor or merely grammatical. The LDS Church suggests that the changes are unimportant, but actual examination does not bear this out, especially when one considers that the Golden Plates were supposedly translated letter-by-letter by the power of God (H. of C. 1, pp. 54-55). Spelling or grammatical errors are one thing, but changes in doctrine and errors in consistency and common sense are quite another.
Doctrine
1) Title page: 1830: "by Joseph Smith, Jr., author and proprietor."
Today: "translated by Joseph Smith, Jr."
2) First Book of Nephi, p. 25, 1830: "Behold, the virgin which thou seest, is the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh."
Today: 1 Nephi 11: 18: "is the mother of the Son of God."
3) First Book of Nephi, p. 25, 1830: "behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Eternal Father!"
Today: 1 Nephi 11:21: "yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father!"
4) Second Book of Nephi, p. 117, 1830: "and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and delightsome people."
Today: 2 Nephi 30:6: "and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a pure and delightsome people."
5) Book of Alma, p. 303, 1830: "yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable according to their wills."
1950: Alma 29:4: "yea, I know that he allotteth unto men according to their wills."
Today: Alma 29:4: "yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable according to their wills."
6) Book of Alma p. 315, 1830: "But behold, as the seed swelleth and sprouteth and beginneth to grow, and then ye must needs say, That seed is good; for behold, it swelleth and sprouteth and beginneth to grow."
Today: Alma 32:30: "But behold, as the seed swelleth and sprouteth and beginneth to grow, and then ye must needs say, That seed is good; for behold, it swelleth and sprouteth and beginneth to grow. And now behold, will not this strengthen your faith? Yea, it will strengthen your faith: for ye will say that I know that this is a good seed; for behold, it sprouteth and beginneth to grow."
Consistency
1) Book of Mosiah, p. 200, 1830: "on learning from the mouth of Ammon that king Benjamin had a gift from God."
Today: Mosiah 21:28: "on learning from the mouth of Ammon that king Mosiah had a gift from God."
2) Book of Mosiah, p. 214, 1830: "My soul was wrecked with eternal torment."
Today: Mosiah 27:29: "My soul was racked with eternal torment."
3) Book of Alma, p. 278, 1830: "the multitude beheld that the man had fell dead." (Also p. 310)
Today: Alma 19:24: "the multitude beheld that the man had fallen dead."
4) Book of Alma, p. 388; 1830: "For behold, Ammon had sent to their support."
Today: Alma 57:17: "For behold, Ammoron had sent to their support."
Now, was it the Lord or Joseph Smith who could not spell, keep doctrine and characters straight. And who was it that even had serious problems with grammar and logic? There are even more strange things such as the following:
1) Jacob 7:27: "and to the reader I bid farewell, hoping that many of my brethren may read my words. Brethren, adieu." (What is a French word doing in a document supposedly written by a Hebrew in Egyptian living in America around 421 B.C.?)
2) Helaman 9:6: "when the judge had been murdered, he being stabbed by his brother by a garb of secrecy" (How can one be stabbed by a garb (garment)?)
3) Alma 13: 1: "my brethren, I would cite your minds forward to the time when the Lord God gave these commandments unto his children." (How can you ‘cite’ someone’s mind ‘forward’ to something that happened in the past?)
4) Alma 24:19: "they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war for peace." (What is a ‘weapon of peace’, and can it be the same as a weapon of war?)
5) Alma 43:38: "they being shielded from the more vital parts of the body." (How does one shield oneself from the vital parts of one’s own body?)
6) Ether 15:31: "And it came to pass that after he had smitten off the head of Shiz, that Shiz raised up on his hands and fell; and after that he struggled for breath, he died." (Impossible)
The sad thing is even after so many revisions it’s still chock full of inconsistencies and anachronisms.
And then an ugly dwarf jumped at him and said...
PLUGH!
I didn’t have to go past number one.
Where did I say that The Holy Bible was flawed? I said that there are different wordings depending on what version of the Bible you use (including ine if I ever get the time to write it). The differences in the King James version and the New International Version are very apparent to even the casual reader. Some of the differences can lead to different interpretations because they reflect social change since the time when the KJV was written. Such changes due to retranslations over time would also account for differences of the Book of Mormon.
I have to disagree. Social acceptability of language changes over time and this is reflected in new translations. This is quite obvious in some phrases in the Book of Mormon.
You got my point. With each new translation, it was an opportunity for small changes to creep in either to correct grammatical errors or to reflect social changes in language.
You’re missing my point by overthinking this. Language changes over time and when that happens, there is an opportunity for men to retranslate what was written in the past. Clearly this has taken place in the both the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible. I believe the NIV is an inaccurate translation of the KJV, but that is just my opinion. If you want to use the modern language of the NIV, be my guest.
Have fun with this Bible...
http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
...or he is pursuing...
...I wist not...
True...
Yet you did.
If we accept you conclusion; THEN the question becomes:
"If GOD directed these editing modifications; due to language change, in approximately 100 years; why on earth didn't GOD do that to begin with?"
'language' had VASTLY changed from the stilted KJV speech of 1611 to the vernacular of the early 1800's."
I bid you adieu to ponder this.
I agree with you.
But what we are discussing is whether the FACTS, showing how the BoM was created to begin with, illustrate that 'changes' needed to be made to it.
After all; Mormonism still uses the KJV with IT's 'old language'.
Hundreds - THOUSNADS - of people in Christianity today find the KJV perfectly readable.
THEREFORE, there should be no REASON to change ANYTHING about the original language found in the BoM.
MAny have made an idol of the KJV; stating, "If it was good enough for St. Paul; it's good enough for me."
So?
EVERY 'translation' is inaccurate to SOME degree.
But, the KJV was not USED to create the NIV.
You didn’t answer the question. Can you trust the Book of Mormon in Spanish?
You are a Mormon I guess. Why can’t you be honest and just answer a simple question? Why the deflection? In Mormonism this is a lie by omission? Have you ever wondered why you have to lie and omit in order to support Mormonism?
I finally did. I got honest with myself over lying for the lord (of Mormonism) and I left. I pray that you will finally become honest with yourself.
bttt
No nor did he bring the book of Mormon. It is interesting the Bible wasn't given to us by Angel's, but directly by God. II Peter 1:21" 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."
Many times the Bible tells us to have discernment because "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." II Corinthians 11:13-15. I cannot think of a passage in the Bible where an angel brings us scripture. They bring messages, but usually the Bible will say that the word of the Lord came unto whoever God is using the write the scripture. Search included for study purposes:
http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=the%20word%20of%20the%20lord&version1=KJV&searchtype=all&limit=none&wholewordsonly=no
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." I get my scripture from Jesus who loved me enough to personally send and be the Word; not from an angel.
If one is serious about biblical text issues, discussing those from anything approaching neutral scholarly standpoint, a polemically "anti-bible" oriented web site like THAT one, is not the place to go.
There is nothing much covered there, that cannot be found elsewhere, minus the biased opinions the ones behind those web pages, whom love to think themselves "rational" and everyone else not, taints all that they touch, particularly on issues like "bible".
In the end, it's worth about as much as the next link you offered, which is a lol-cats mash-up of bible.
The so-called rational folks will fully ignore whatever refutes them, or goes against the conclusions they work backwards from, offering up their own smokescreen discussion of "bible" dressed up in phony appearance of actual scholarship in order to better sell their own unstated or understated opinions. Which are of course --- along lines of; any who "believe in Jesus" are mouth-breather, stupid hick idiots, who believe in a phony "sky-god" of man-made origin.
Jesus Christ either was who he presented himself to be, or he was not. The question begs to this day, "who do you say that I am?"
The rest is eye witness testimonies to fill in the details and tell us about the story we were born into.
Sure looks that way from here. "By their fruit, ye shall know them."
Everything I've seen, heard or read tells me that Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie had it right with the title of his book.
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