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Filled in section "Changes in the Book of Mormon"
<blockquote>Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord . . . Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife, and [[concubine]]s he shall have none (Jacob 2:24, 27).</blockquote>
<blockquote>Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord . . . Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife, and [[concubine]]s he shall have none (Jacob 2:24, 27).</blockquote>
By their advocacy of the doctrine that the Book of Mormon is inspired by God and hence authoritative, the LDS Church is under the divine command to recognize anyone who practices polygamy must be labeled an apostate from the true faith. Polygamy, which is so degrading to women, is “abominable before me, saith the Lord.” The plain meaning of these verses was accepted without question in 1835 (the Book of Mormon was published in 1830), as shown by this entry in the first edition of the ''Doctrine and Covenants'': <blockquote>Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.<ref>''Doctrine and Covenants'', section 101, verse 4.</ref></blockquote>
By their advocacy of the doctrine that the Book of Mormon is inspired by God and hence authoritative, the LDS Church is under the divine command to recognize anyone who practices polygamy must be labeled an apostate from the true faith. Polygamy, which is so degrading to women, is “abominable before me, saith the Lord.” The plain meaning of these verses was accepted without question in 1835 (the Book of Mormon was published in 1830), as shown by this entry in the first edition of the ''Doctrine and Covenants'': <blockquote>Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.<ref>''Doctrine and Covenants'', section 101, verse 4.</ref></blockquote>
This condemnation of polygamy was printed in every edition of the ''Doctrine and Covenants'' until 1876, at which time polygamy was authorized and the section condemning it was completely removed. There was, however, no attempt to change the text in the Book of Mormon, because too many copies had already been circulated.
This condemnation of polygamy was printed in every edition of the ''Doctrine and Covenants'' until 1876, at which time polygamy was authorized and the section condemning it was removed. There was, however, no attempt to change the text in the Book of Mormon, because too many copies had already been circulated.
How the change in doctrine to the acceptance of polygamy came about is explained by a letter written by Oliver Cowdery and dated January 21, 1838. Cowdery, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, wrote the following about an conversation he had with Joseph Smith sometime in the early or mid-1830s:<blockquote>When he [Joseph Smith] was there we had some conversation in which in every instance I did not fail to affirm that what I had said was strictly true. A dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger’s was talked over in which I strictly declared that I had never deviated from the truth in the matter, and as I supposed was admitted by himself.<ref>Letter written by Oliver Cowdery and recorded by his brother Warren Cowdery; see photograph in Jerald and Sandra Tanner, ''The Mormon Kingdom'' (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1968), vol. 1 p. 27.</ref></blockquote>
How the change in doctrine to the acceptance of polygamy came about is explained by a letter written by Oliver Cowdery and dated January 21, 1838. Cowdery, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, wrote the following about an conversation he had with Joseph Smith sometime in the early or mid-1830s:<blockquote>When he [Joseph Smith] was there we had some conversation in which in every instance I did not fail to affirm that what I had said was strictly true. A dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger’s was talked over in which I strictly declared that I had never deviated from the truth in the matter, and as I supposed was admitted by himself.<ref>Letter written by Oliver Cowdery and recorded by his brother Warren Cowdery; see photograph in Jerald and Sandra Tanner, ''The Mormon Kingdom'' (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1968), vol. 1 p. 27.</ref></blockquote>
==Changes in the Book of Mormon==
==Changes in the Book of Mormon==
''To be supplied''
Any discussion of changes that have been made in the Book of Mormon since its original edition in 1830 needs to take into consideration several statements made by the individuals involved in that original publication. These include 1) Joseph Smith; 2) The Three Witnesses: David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris who financed the printing; 3) The professional printer who produced the book from the handwritten manuscripts.
===Testimony of Joseph Smith===
Joseph Smith claimed that when he and the witnesses went out to pray concerning the printing that had been done, a voice spoke from heaven telling them that the translation was correct:
<blockquote>. . . we heard a voice from out of the bright light above us, saying, “These plates have been revealed by the power of God, and they have been translated by the power of God. The translation of them which you have seen is correct, and I command you to bear record of what you now see and hear.<ref>Joseph Smith, Jr., ''History of the Church'' (Salt Lake City: Deseret) Vol. 4, p. 54–55.</ref> . . . I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth.<ref><Ibid., Vol. 4, p. 461.</ref></blockquote>
===Testimonies of Martin Harris, David Whitmer, and Oliver Cowdery===
Martin Harris claimed that Joseph Smith received the translation directly from God and that the translation was perfect. George Reynolds, a member of the First Council of the Seventy, quotes the following from a letter to the Deseret News by Edward Stevenson:
<blockquote>Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say, “Written,” and if correctly written, that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used.<ref>George Reynolds, ''The Myth of the “Manuscript Found,” Or, the Absurdities of the “Spaulding Story”'' (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1883), p. 71.</ref></blockquote>
David Whitmer also described the translation process in such a way that it would be expected that the translation was such that every word that was written down was exactly as revealed by divine or angelic supervision:
<blockquote>I will now give you a description of the manner in which the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.<ref>[http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/address1.htm ''An Address to All Believers in Christ''] by David Whitmer (Richmond, Missouri: 1887), p. 12.</ref></blockquote>
===Testimony of the Printer===
John Gilbert of Palmyra, New York, was the printer who worked from the manuscripts that were brought to him, doing the typesetting, printing, and binding to produce the book. Gilbert had the following to say about the restrictions that were placed on him regarding any changes as the book went to press:
<blockquote>Hyrum Smith brought the first installment of the manuscript . . . On the second day—Harris and Smith being in the office—I called their attention to a grammatical error, and asked whether I should correct it? Harris consulted with Smith a short time, and turned to me and said: “The Old Testament is ungrammatical, set it as it is written.” . . . Cowdery held and looked over the manuscript when most of the proofs were read. Martin Harris once or twice, and Hyrum Smith once . . . if there are any discrepancies between the Palmyra edition [i.e. the book as published] and the manuscript these men should be held responsible.<ref>Memorandum made by John H. Gilbert, September 8, 1829, Palmyra N.Y.; printed in ''Joseph Smith Begins His Works'', Vol. 1, Introduction.</ref></blockquote>
George Reynolds quotes the following from an interview with Gilbert:
<blockquote>Gilbert: “Hyrum Smith always brought the manuscript to the office; he would have it under his coat, and all buttoned up as carefully as though it was so much gold. He said at the time that it was translated from plates by the power of God, and they were very particular about it. We had a great deal of trouble with it. It was not punctuated at all. They did not know anything about punctuation, and we had to do that ourselves.”
Reynolds: “Well; did you change any part of it when you were setting the type?”
Gilbert: “No, sir, we never changed it at all.”
Reynolds: “Why did you not change it and correct it?”
Gilbert: “Because they would not allow us to; they were very particular about that. We never changed it in the least. Oh, well; there might have been one or two words that I changed the spelling of; I believe I did change the spelling of one, and perhaps two, but no more.”<ref>Reynolds, ''Myth of the “Manuscript Found'',” p. 59.</ref></blockquote> Gilbert’s statement that he was not responsible for the grammatical and spelling mistakes in the first edition is verified by a photograph of a page from the hand-written original manuscript of the Book of Mormon.<ref>Published in Francis W. Kirkham, ''A New Witness for Christ in America: the Book of Mormon'' (Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University, 1959–1967), Vol. 1, p. 218.</ref> In the photograph, the manuscript agrees with the printed 1830 copy in four places, places that were changed in subsequent printed editions.
Despite all the attestations from persons involved in the translation process that the wording of the original Book of Mormon was divinely supervised, a comparison of the present editions of the Book of Mormon with the original 1830 edition shows almost 4,000 changes.<ref>Tanners, ''3,913 Changes''.</ref> Most of these changes are matters of spelling or grammar, which itself is inconsistent with the supposed supernatural supervision over all details of the translation process that was just described. Some changes, however, are more significant. An example of a change dealing with an error in the essential narrative is the change that was made in Mosiah 21:28, where the name of the king was changed from Benjamin (1830 edition) to Mosiah. The reason for the change was that, according to the Book of Mormon’s chronology, King Benjamin would have been dead at the time of Mosiah 21:28, and so this was corrected to give the then-current king, Benjamin. Modern LDS interpreters acknowledge the mistake, saying the error was in the original “Reformed Egyptian” from which the English translation was made. This raises the question: Why did not the divine agent who was supervising the translation process make the correction? Also, it is somewhat difficult to understand how Mosiah, the supposed writer of the original, would have been confused about who was a king in his time. A more logical explanation is that the nineteenth-century AD writer of this complicated narrative got temporarily confused in his cast of characters.
More serious are the changes that were thought necessary to some statements in the original 1830 version about the essential nature of God. Although the Book of Mormon sometimes presents the traditional Christian understanding of God’s Trinitarian nature, with three divine Persons who are one in their divinity but distinct in their personalities, the original edition of the Book of Mormon contradicts this doctrine (and itself) in other places.<ref>Examples are 1 Nephi 13:40 in the 1830 edition, “the Lamb of God is the Eternal Father and the Savior” that has been changed to “the Lamb of God is '''the Son of''' the Eternal Father, and the Savior” in current editions. First Nephi 11:21 originally read “Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Eternal Father!” This has been changed to “Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even '''the Son of''' the Eternal Father!” Contrast this confusion of the Divine Persons with the correct understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity in 2 Nephi 31:21: “And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end.”</ref> If the Book of Mormon was so important to mankind that God supervised its original writing in a miraculous way, and then after many centuries had it revealed in a miraculous way to Joseph Smith, and in a further miracle supervised its translation into English, then we would not expect that God would do all these signs and wonders in order to reveal his truth to mankind if the “revelation” that was the object of the mulitple miracles was misleading and self-contradictory in a topic as important as the very nature of God. Such confusion is more compatible with the theory that the Book of Mormon is the product of a nineteenth-century AD author or authors who had general knowledge of biblical themes but whoever supplied its doctrinal tenets was deficient in their understanding of the most basic tenets of the historic Christian (and biblical) faith.
==Who Wrote the Book of Mormon?==
==Who Wrote the Book of Mormon?==
''To be supplied''
''To be supplied''
==Resources==
Jerald and Sandra Tanner, ''3,913 Changes in the Book of Mormon'' (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, ND).
==Notes and references==
==Notes and references==