New Testament Revision 2
-
Source Note
New Testament Revision 2, ca. 4 Apr. 1831–24 Mar. 1832 and 20–31 July 1832; handwriting of , , , and an unidentified scribe; 206 pages; CCLA.The Bible revision manuscripts remained in JS’s possession throughout his life—except during a brief period in 1838 and another in 1839. Upon the death of JS, the manuscript was in possession of his wife for over twenty years, until 1867 when she gave it to her son in order for the RLDS Church to publish The Holy Scriptures.Note: The transcript of New Testament Revision 2 presented here is used with generous permission of the Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center. It was published earlier, with some differences in style, in Scott H. Faulring, Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, eds., Joseph Smith's New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004), 229–581.
-
Historical Introduction
As noted in the introduction to Old Testament Revision 1, in June 1830, JS and began recording a revelation related to Moses and other prominent Old Testament figures. (See Visions of Moses, June 1830 [Moses 1].) Eventually this work expanded into what is now designated as the Book of Moses and a complete revelatory re-reading, reviewing, and revising of the Bible, an endeavor that came to be known as JS’s “New Translation,” or Bible revision. By March 1831, JS and his scribes created a sixty-one-page manuscript containing a narrative account of the visions of Moses and a revised version of the Old Testament book of Genesis, from the beginning to chapter 24, verse 41. (See Old Testament Revision 1.)JS set that work aside when instructed in a March 1831 revelation to instead begin work on the New Testament. (Revelation, ca. 7 Mar. 1831 [D&C 45:60–61].) He and began the new document on 8 March 1831, titling it “A Translation of the New Testament translated by the power of God.” It is currently designated as New Testament Revision 1. , who had been directed by revelation to “write & keep a regulal [regular] history & assist my servant Joseph in Transcribing all things which shall be given him,” (Revelation, ca. 8 Mar. 1831–B [D&C 47:1]) began in early April 1831 to copy New Testament Revision 1 through Matthew 26:1, stopping a little short of where JS and Sidney Rigdon left off before they traveled to in June 1831. (JS History, vol. A-1, 126.)When JS resumed the revision of the New Testament, he did so using ’s copy, currently designated New Testament Revision 2. He began with Matthew 26:1, though he had previously translated through Matthew 26:71 in New Testament Revision 1. Work continued on the rest of the New Testament through late July 1832. In addition to , JS was assisted by John Whitmer, , and .New Testament Revision 2, presented here, consists of 203 pages. Work on this manuscript was completed in and , Ohio. During the revision project, JS adopted an abbreviated format for annotating the changes to be made to the New Testament. Previously, JS dictated the entire Bible text to his scribe, revising verses as he read from the Bible. But beginning after John 5, JS marked his copy of the Bible as he read in it, indicating where a change should be made. In the manuscript, the scribes wrote the scripture reference and the specifics of the revisions. Thus, the Bible and manuscript together now constituted the text of the revision project.In total, JS made changes to about 2,100 New Testament verses (Faulring et al., Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible, 5). He introduced a number of significant changes to the King James New Testament text in New Testament Revision 2. Among the more prominent clarifications and corrections were those in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 related to Jesus’s discourse on the Mount of Olives, as well as those in the beginning verses of the Gospel of John. (See, Faulring et al., Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible, 234, 303, and 424–425.)Note: The transcript of New Testament Revision 2 presented here is used with generous permission of the Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center. It was published earlier, with some differences in style, in Scott H. Faulring, Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, eds., Joseph Smith's New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004), 229–581.
pay tithe of mint, & annese, & cummim; & have omitted the waighter things of the law, & of Judgement, mercy & faith; these ought ye to have done, & not to leave the other undone. You blind guides, who strain at a gnat, & swallow a Camel; who make yourselves appear unto men that you would not commit the least sin, & yet you yourselves transg8 ress the whole Law. 8/ Wo! unto you, Scribes & Pharisees, hypocrites! For you make clean the out side of the cup, & of the Platter; but within they are full of extortion, & excess. You blind Pharisees, cleanse first the cup & platter within, that the outside of them may be clean also. 9/ Wo! unto you, Scribes & Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like unto whited Sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but are within, full of the bones of the dead & of all uncleanness; even so, you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of 10/ hypocracy & iniquity. 10/ Wo! unto you, scribes & pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the Prophets, & garnish the Sepulchres of the righteous, & say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets. Wherefore, you are witnesses unto yourselves, of your own wickedness; & you are the children of them who killed the prophets; & will fill up the measure then of your fathers; for you yourselves kill the Prophets like unto your fathers. 11/ You serpents, & generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of Hell? Wherefore behold, I send unto you Prophets, & wise men, & Scribes; & of them you shall kill & crusify; & of them you shall scourge in your Synegouges & persecute from City to City, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the Earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharius, Son of Borachius, whom 12/ ye slew between the Temple & the Altar. 12/ Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. You bear testimony against your fathers, when you yourselves are partakers of the same wickedness. Behold your fathers done it through ignerance, but you do not; where 13/ fore their sins shall be upon your heads. 13/ Then Jesus began to weep over Jerusalem, saying, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! You who will kill the Prophets, & will stone them who are sent unto you; how often would I have gethered your children together, even as a hen gatheres her chickeens under her wings, & you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, that you shall not see me hence forth, & kow that I am he of whom it is written by the Prophets, until you shall say, Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord, in the clouds of Heaven, & all the Holy Angels with him. [p. 44 (first numbering)]
View entire transcript |
Cite this page
Cite this page
