In the essay "What is the New Translation of the Bible?" in
Joseph Smith's Translation of the Bible: Electronic Library (Provo, Utah:
Religious Studies Center and Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious
Scholarship, 2010), we read the following about the question of whether the JST
was considered finished by Joseph Smith:
Was the translation finished?
Generally speaking, the answer is yes. The Bible, even in its purest and
fullest form, never contained the complete records of those who are mentioned
in it. The book of Genesis, for example, was a revelation to Moses that provided
mere summaries of important lives and events. Certainly there are other truths
that could have been revealed in the New Translation and other additions that
could have been inserted to make it more complete. But from July 1833 on,
Joseph Smith spoke no longer of translating the Bible but of publishing it,
which he wanted and intended to accomplish “as soon as possible.”18
He sought to find the means to print it as a book, and he repeatedly encouraged
Church members to donate money for the publication. But because of a lack of
funds and the other priorities of the Saints, it was not printed in his
lifetime.19 Excerpts were published in the Church’s newspapers and
elsewhere, so some sections of it were available for early Church members.20
Still, when Joseph Smith was martyred in 1844, he had not seen the realization
of his desire to have the entire New Translation appear in print.
In the decades after the Prophet’s
death, Latter-day Saints in Utah lacked access to the manuscripts of the New
Translation and had only limited knowledge about how it was produced. None of
the participants in the translation process were with the Church when the
Saints moved west in 1846.21 This, and related circumstances,
resulted in many misconceptions about it that eventually made their way into
Latter-day Saint culture. Among those misconceptions are the beliefs that the
Prophet did not finish the translation and that it was not intended to be
published in his lifetime. Careful research shows that these ideas are refuted
in Joseph Smith’s own words.22 But was the New Translation ready to
go to press the day Joseph Smith died? Robert J. Matthews has pointed out: “The
basic conclusion seems to be that the work
of translation was acceptable as far as the Lord required it of the Prophet at
that time, but the manuscript was not
fully prepared for the press.”23 Some work still needed to be done
to refine the verse divisions and to provide consistent spelling and
punctuation. And some of the individual changes had resulted in unevenness in
wording that had not yet been smoothed out. In short, although the inspired
work of translating had been completed by Joseph Smith as far as was intended,
the text was still in need of some editing when he died. The Prophet probably
thought that these refinements would be taken care of in the typesetting
process.
Notes for the Above
18 “You will see by these revelations
that we have to print the new translation here at kirtland for which we will
prepare as soon as possible.” Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G.
Williams to Edward Partridge, 6 August 1833, Letters Sent, Oversized (Ms. 155,
Box 6 folder 2), Joseph Smith Collection, Church History Library, the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
19 The evidence is collected in
Matthews, “Joseph Smith’s Efforts to Publish His Bible Translation,” Ensign, January 1983, 57–64.
20 The Evening and the Morning Star 1, no. 3 (August 1832): 2–3 (Moses
7); 1, no. 10 (March 1833): 1 (Moses 6:43–68); 1, no. 11 (April 1833): 1 (Moses
5:1–16); 1, no. 11 (April 1833): 1–2 (Moses 8:13–30); Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints
(Kirtland, Ohio: F. G. Williams and Co., 1835), “Lecture First,” 9 (Heb. 11:1);
“Lecture Second,” 13–18 (Moses 2:26–29; 3:15–17, 19–20; 4:14–19, 22–25; 5:1, 4–9,
19–23, 32–40); Times and Seasons 4,
no. 5 (16 January 1843): 71–73 (Moses 1); Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church, Volume One, 1830–1847
(Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997), 60–61
(Matthew 24).
21 Joseph Smith (died 1844), Oliver
Cowdery (excommunicated 1838, died in the Church 1850), John Whitmer
(excommunicated 1838), Emma Smith (did not go west), Sidney Rigdon
(excommunicated 1844), Jesse Gause (excommunicated 1832) , and Frederick G.
Williams (excommunicated 1839, died in the Church 1842).
22 See Matthews, “Joseph Smith’s
Efforts.”
23 Ibid., 64.
