Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Kent P. Jackson on the JST Removing Sexually Suggestive Language in the KJV


THE INSTINCT TO REMOVE SEXUALLY SUGGESTIVE LANGUAGE

 

In several places, edits the Prophet made in the New Testament remove language that can be regarded as sexually suggestive. Verses with the explicit phrase “go in not” especially caught his attention and were revised, often with the insertion of euphemisms.

 

Genesis 29:21

 

Give me my wife, . . .that I may go in unto her.

“Give unto me my wife that I may go and take her”

 

Genesis 29:30

 

And he went in also unto Rachel

And he went in also and slept with Rachel.

 

Genesis 30:16

 

Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me.

Leah went out to meet him and said, “Thou must come in and lie with me”

 

In the following instance, a clause containing the verb know, itself a euphemism for intimate relations, is removed altogether:

 

LUKE 1:34

 

Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

Then said Mary unto the angel, “How can this be?”

 

(Kent P, Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible [Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2022], 122)