Descriptions:
Thousands of changes have been made to the text of the Book of Mormon over time. Skeptics may use this fact in an effort to cast doubt on the truth claims of the Book of Mormon. After all, if the translation of the book is from a divine source, why so many changes? In this episode, Dave explores this very question and takes a closer look at what these changes actually are.
Transcript: https://bit.ly/3wexH3T
Want to look at each and every change made over the year to the Book of Mormon text? Our friends at Book of Mormon Central have published digital versions of Royal Skousen’s 6-part series, “Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon,” which you can read here: https://bit.ly/3tFT7pj
“Changes in the Book of Mormon,” by Royal Skousen (Interpreter Journal): https://bit.ly/33EhMAj
“Changing Critics’ Criticisms of Book of Mormon Changes,” by Brian Hales (Interpreter Journal): https://bit.ly/3uKRqIx
“Do We Need to Make Changes to the Book of Mormon Text?” by Royal Skousen (2012 FAIR Conference): https://bit.ly/3eHmiEn
“Editing Out the ‘Bad Grammar’ in the Book of Mormon,” by Royal Skousen with Stanford Carmack (Interpreter Journal): https://bit.ly/3tKgj5Z
“‘White’ or ‘Pure’: Five Vignettes,” by Douglas Cambell (Dialogue Journal): https://bit.ly/2RRckqW
“Benjamin or Mosiah? Resolving an Anomaly in Mosiah 21:28,” by L. Ara Norwood (2001 FAIR Conference): https://bit.ly/3uLll3s
What did Joseph Smith mean when he claimed the Book of Mormon was “the most correct of any book on earth”?: https://bit.ly/33JY0mV
“‘The Most Correct Book’: Joseph Smith’s Appraisal,” by Robert L. Millet: https://bit.ly/3ficqQq
Some additional reading material from Jeff Lindsay: https://bit.ly/3y4v9rv
Some additional material from Fair Latter-day Saints: https://bit.ly/3tEKZ8I
More from Royal Skousen: https://bit.ly/33Ihc4y
More from Stanford Carmack on the grammar of the Book of Mormon: https://bit.ly/3y7YEIM
See also, Hugh Nibley’s book, “Since Cumorah” (the first several pages mention changes in the text of the Book of Mormon) and Royal Skousen’s book, “The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text.”
Notes
-There are likely even errors in the Book of Mormon text that have persisted into our current 1981 edition. For example, currently, Alma 39:13 says, “acknowledge your faults and that wrong which ye have done.” But in the Original Manuscript it says, “acknowledge your faults and repair that wrong which ye have done.” What happened to the word, “repair”? Well it looks like Oliver Cowdery dropped a few splotches of ink on the word “repair,” causing him to misread it as “retain” as he prepared the Printer’s Manuscript. Since “retain” doesn’t make much sense here, for clarity the word was dropped for the 1920 edition of the Book of Mormon, and “repair” hasn’t been put back in yet.
-Concerning the Benjamin vs. Mosiah question: If indeed Ammon was simply unaware that Benjamin had died, that would indeed explain the Mosiah 21:28 reference to Benjamin, but what about the Ether 4 reference? It could be that the mention of Benjamin here by Moroni was based off of the Mosiah 21 reading. So hypothetically the scenario would be this: Ammon mentions Benjamin as someone who can read the Jaredite record, unaware that Benjamin had died by that time. Then, as Moroni is later recording the Jaredite record, he recognizes the Benjamin reference in Mosiah 21 (without connecting that Ammon may not have been aware that Benjamin was dead) and reproduced the name again in Ether 4. That said, I’m personally more of the opinion that neither reference to Benjamin is necessarily an error on anyone’s part in the first place.
-Concerning the Benjamin vs. Mosiah changes: Joseph Smith likely made the Mosiah 21 edit for the 1837 edition, and Orson Pratt made the Ether 4 edit for the 1849 edition.
-Joseph Smith once claimed that “the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” Some people wonder, if there have been so many errors and corrections made, how can this possibly be the most correct book on earth? It seems clear that when Joseph said “correct” he was not referring to punctuation and spelling. He was referring to the principles and precepts taught within the Book. This becomes more clear within the context of the last half of the sentence in question: “a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book” (Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 4:461). With or without the changes that have been made to the text, the principles and precepts are still the same.
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