Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Kent P. Jackson on JST John 8:11

The KJV of John 8:11 reads:

 

She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

 

The JST reads:

 

She said, “No man, Lord.” And Jesus said unto her, “Neither do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more.” And the woman glorified God from that hour and believed on his name.

 

The following comes from New Testament Manuscript 2, folio 4, p. 116:

 



 

Commenting on JST John 8:11, Kent P. Jackson wrote:

 

The change at John 8:11 raises some interesting questions about the New Translation. The story of the woman taken in adultery is not found in the earliest and best manuscripts of the Gospel of John. Early manuscripts that do include it place it in different locations, sometimes even in the Gospel of Luke. This suggests that though the story is authentic, it circulated separately for a while and may not have been written by John. The Joseph Smith Translation usually seems to pay little attention to such matters of textual history, either in the New Testament or in the Old Testament. The revisions usually respond to the text as it is in its current form. (Kent P, Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible [Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022], 76)