Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Grant Underwood on JST Romans 4

  

In LDS theology, salvation in an eschatological sense requires that works of Christian discipleship not be separated from Christian faith, and Smith emended the New Testament accordingly where this seemed to be in question. Thus Romans 4:16—“Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace”—is modified to read: “Therefore ye are justified of faith and works, through grace.” (NTOB, 483, emphasis added) Earlier in Romans 4, Smith believed Paul had Jewish law (halakhah) rather than Christian discipleship in mind when he wrote of “works” and their salvific insufficiency. He replaced each instance of “works” or its cognates in verses 2-6 with “the law of works.” (NTOB, 483) This coincides with the soteriological contrast between the ”law of Moses” and faith in Christ set forth in Romans 3:28 where Paul avers that “a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law,” or, as the NRSV renders it, “apart from works prescribed by the law.” On the other hand, Smith made quite clear his view that Christ-prescribed works, as fruits of the Spirit, were inextricable from saving faith. He even intensified this affirmation in the book of James. To the famous line “faith without works is dead,” Smith added “and cannot save you.” Then, he reinforced the idea by an additional sentence addressed to James’s imagined, interlocutor who considered belief sufficient for salvation: “Thou hast made thyself like unto them [the devils], not being justified.” (NTOB, 549) These changes suggest that Joseph Smith believed that an unadulterated Bible would have taught justification by faith, but not by faith alone. (Grant Underwood, “Joseph Smith’s ‘New Translation’ of the Bible,” in The Bible and the Latter-day Saint Tradition, ed. Taylor G. Petrey, Cory Crawford, and Eric A. Eliason [Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2023], 57-58)

 

Further Reading:

 

Kevin L. Barney, “Faith Alone” in Romans 3:28 JST