Item Detail
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25067
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7
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0
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English
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Significant Textual Changes in The Book of Mormon : The first printed edition compared to the manuscripts and to the subsequent major LDS English printed editions
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Salt Lake City, UT
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The Smith-Pettit Foundation
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454
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The Book of Mormon is the scripture embraced by followers of Joseph Smith in his 1830s Latter-day Saint movement. Despite the faith of believers that the Book of Mormon is “the most correct of any book,” ever since Smith dictated the text to scribes in 1827, there have been significant modifications with each printing.
Here, presented for the first time, is an easy-to-use, single volume correlating all the major changes to English language editions of the Book of Mormon. It includes the original manuscript, printer’s manuscript, and fifteen editions from 1830, 1837, 1840, 1841, 1849, 1852, 1879, 1888, 1902, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1911, 1920, and 1981. The presentation is simple and reader friendly. The base text is from an original 1830 edition, and bold lettering signals the altered text. Footnotes track changes over time, with details from the variant texts. Often these changes simply clarify minor issues of spelling, adding or deleting conjunctions or completing fragmented sentences. But at several important points, the changes transform the meaning of Joseph Smith’s canon. A major character in the book describes the symbolism of a dream he has and refers to “the Lamb of God” (Jesus) as “the Eternal Father,” a generic Trinitarian belief that Mormons now reject. The text was subsequently changed to read “the Lamb of the Son of the Eternal Father,” which reflecting the shift in belief among Mormons at the time, as they came to regard Deity as three separate beings with exalted human bodies. Other changes affect basic understandings of theology, race, and identity, which morph through printings and are tracked here in a clean, straightforward approach.
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Americanist Approaches to the Book of Mormon
Books of Mormon: Latter-day Saints, Latter Day Saints, and the Book of Mormon
God(s) as Character(s) in Joseph's Bible Stories : March 1830 to September 1830
Mormons and the Grand Jury in Hancock County, 1839-1845
Open Canon: Scriptures of the Latter Day Saint Tradition
Returning to the Sources : Integrating Textual Criticism in the Study of Early Mormon Texts and History
The Ghost and the Machine : Plates and Paratext in The Book of Mormon