Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Kent P. Jackson on the JST Being Finished in 1833

 That the JST was never finished

 

has been a common idea among some Latter-day Saints since the late nineteenth century, but again the evidence tells us otherwise. A month after the First Presidency announced the completion of the translation, the Prophet received a revelation in which the Lord instructed Church members to build a printing facility in Kirtland “for the work of the printing of the translation of my scriptures” (D&C 94:10). They wrote to Church leaders in Missouri, “You will see by these revelation we have to print the new translation here at Kirtland,” rather than in Independence as previously planned, “for which we will prepare as soon as possible” (Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson County, Missouri, 6 April 1833,” p. [3]). Joseph Smith and his counselors considered the Bible revision finished, and from that time forward we have no record of the Prophet talking again of translating the Bible but several references to him expressing his desire to get it printed, which he wanted and intended to do “as soon as possible.” Historical sources show that from then on, his efforts were to have it published as a book (The Prophet had written earlier, “When it is published it will all go to the world together in a volume by itself.” “Letter to Church Leaders in Jackson County, Missouri, 21 April 1833,” p. 35. The sentence continues, “and the new Testament and the book of Mormon will be printed together,” likely meaning at the same time. The source of this letter is a retained copy in Letter Book 1, pages 32-36. I suspect that the intent here is “new Translation” rather than “new Testament,” because nowhere else do we have record of an intent to publish the New Testament of the JST separately.), and he and others repeatedly encouraged Church members to donate money for its publication (See “Prayer, 11 January 1834,” p. 46; “Recommendation for Samuel Bent and George W. Harris, between circa 18 and circa 28 July 1840,” p. 158; Doctrine and Covenants 124:89; “Books!!!,” Times and Seasons, July 1840, 140; “To the Saints Scattered Abroad,” Times and Seasons, October 1840, 179; March 1, 1842, 715; October 15, 1842, 958). Those pleas were not successful. Other priorities interfered with it being printed in the Prophet’s lifetime. Printing a Bible would be a large and expensive undertaking, and the Saints had to deal with realities that eventually took precedence, including dealing with persecutions, relocating from Ohio to Missouri to Illinois, and building temples to bless members of the Church.

 

In a revelation on April 23, 1834, the Lord instructed Church members to secure copyright for the New Translation (“This I say that others may not take the blessings away from you which I have conferred upon you.” “Revelation, 23 April 1834 [D&C 104], pp. [34-35]), and on a few occasions they may have come close to getting it printed. In a latter dating to June 15, 1835, the Prophet wrote to Church leaders, “We are not commencing to prepare and print the New Translation, together with all the revelations which God has been pleased to give us in these last days” (Letter to Church Brethren, 15 June 1835,” p. [1]). Of the two projects, the publication of the revelations went first, and it appears that within days of the letter, the Doctrine and Covenants went to press (Bruce A. Van Orden, We’ll Sing and We’ll Shout: The Life and Times of W. W. Phelps [Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2018], 158; Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church: Volume One, 1830-1847 [Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997], 54-56). The New Translation, mentioned first in the letter, was perhaps intended to go to press as soon as the type was available after the printing of the Doctrine and Covenants, or as soon as the services of an outside printer could be secured. Lack of financial resources was probably the reason why that did not happen then. In 1841, after the Saints’ migration from Ohio and expulsion from Missouri, the Lord instructed Joseph Smith’s counselor, William Law, to “publish the new translation of my holy word unto the inhabitants of the earth” (D&C 124:89). IT did not happen then either. In 1842 a new printing of the Book of Mormon came off the press, and in 1844, a new edition of the Doctrine and Covenants was published. There is no proof for Robert Matthews’s suggestion that “the SJT would probably have been next,” but it does not seem unlikely (Robert J. Matthews, “Joseph Smith’s Efforts to Publish His Bible Translation,” Ensign, January 1983, 64. A contemporary second-hand [and unfriendly] witness for the revision’s completion and the intent to publish it is E. D. Howe, who wrote in 1834 that the translation “is now said to be ready for the press, in its amended form, and will be forthcoming, as soon as the state of their finances will permit.” E. D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed [Painesville, OH: E. D. Howe, 1834, 131). . . . In his Nauvoo sermons, Joseph Smith sometimes restated biblical verses in ways that are different from how the words read in the Bible. It is interesting to note that he did not update the JST with those new insights, suggesting again that he viewed the writing on the New Translation manuscripts to be a completed text. (Kent P, Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible [Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022], 26-28, 29)