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)