Item Detail
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28070
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0
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0
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English
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The Corruption of Scripture in Early Christianity
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Early Christians in Disarray : Contemporary LDS Perspectives on the Christian Apostasy
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Provo, UT
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Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies ; Brigham Young University
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163-204
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Latter-day Saints are familiar with the concept of the corruption of scripture coming from a passage in the Book of Mormon that discusses the removal “from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious” (1 Nephi 13:26). Latter-day Saint discussions of the removal of plain and precious things from scripture can benefit from clarity of the processes of removal and their historical setting. One early discussion by W. W. Phelps in 1832, for example, claims that “It will be seen . . . that the most plain parts of the New Testament, have been taken from it by the Mother of Harlots . . . from the year AD 460 to 1400.” While the image of medieval monks making changes to the text of scripture might be true in certain isolated instances, the changes came long before. We neither need to nor should look later than the second century for these changes. [From the text]