Reason #84: The LDS “Inspired Version” of the Bible

The mainstream Latter-day Saint Church did not in the past officially recognize its own “Inspired Version” as doctrine, claiming that it was never completed by Joseph Smith, and that what was finished was later corrupted by uninspired persons. In recent years, the influence of the JST has grown in LDS scholarship and layman’s thinking alike. Both the Utah LDS Church and the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized LDS Church) print the JST, and a significant number of footnotes to the LDS printings of the KJV reference Smith’s “translation” as well. Nevertheless, the Bible that most Mormons have bound in their “Quad” or “Quadruple Combination” (along with the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants) is still a King James Version, cross-referenced to the other three books.

According to Joseph Smith’s own statement in the History of the Church, he did indeed complete his translation. Doctrine and Covenants 124:89, in fact, commands that the translation be printed. I knew several faithful Mormons at BYU who read the Inspired Version to the complete exclusion of the King James Version, reasoning that the Old and New Testaments had been corrupted for thousands of years, whereas the enemies of Joseph Smith had only a short time in which to do their damage.

Since at any rate the LDS Church is — by its own admission — left without a completely reliable, stand-alone Bible, surely one of the most pressing needs of the church would be to correct the errors in that Book. The job of course would ascribe itself to the present-day “prophet, seer, and revelator” of the church. Is there a need for true Scripture? Does the LDS prophet have the power to so correct and translate?[1] If he does, why have he and past presidents of the LDS Church deprived their people of truth?

For more information, see The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition:  A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today (Zondervan, 2009). Also available as an audiobook and as an expanded-text E-book for Nook, Kindle and other reading devices.