Wednesday, July 23, 2014

King James English


Taken from The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, page 59.

(Both quotes from Hugh Nibley)

"The only alternative to Joseph Smith's explanation (of how the Book of Mormon came to be) is to assume . . . the existence of a forger who at one moment is so clever and (skillful) as to imitate the archaic poetry of the desert to perfection and supply us with genuine Egyptian names, and yet so incredibly stupid as to think that the best way to fool people and get money out of them is to write an exceedingly difficult historical epic of six hundred pages. Endowed with the brains, perseverance, and superhuman cunning necessary to produce this monumental forgery, the incredibly sly genius did not have the wit to know, after years of experience in the arts of deception, that there are ten thousand safer and easier ways of fooling people than by undertaking a work of infinite toil and danger which, as he could see from the first, only made him immensely unpopular. This is the forger who never existed."

(Next taken from, the Prophetic Book of Mormon, pages 216-218)

The Church News recently received (1957) a letter from an interested non-member of the Church making an inquiry.   Dr. Nibley's reply, published herewith, is worth the reading of every Latter-day Saint.

Why did Joseph Smith, a nineteenth century American farm boy, translate the Book of Mormon into seventeenth century King James English instead of into contemporary language?

"The first thing to note is that the "contemporary language" of the country-people of New England 130 years ago was not so far from King James English.

Even the New England writers of later generations, like Webster, Melville, and Emerson, lapse into its stately periods and "thees and thous" in their loftier passages.

For that matter, we still pray in that language and teach our small children to do the same; that is, we still recognize the validity of a special speech set apart for special occasions. My old Hebrew and Arabic teacher, Professor Popper, would throw a student out of the class who did not use 'thee' and 'thou' in constructing.

'This is the word of God!  he would cry indignantly. 'This is the Bible!  Let us show a little respect; let us have a little formal English here!'

Furthermore, the Book of Mormon is full of scripture, and for the world of Joseph Smith's day, the King James Version was the Scripture.  Large sections of the Book of Mormon, therefore, had to be in the language of the King James Version…

We must not forget that ancient scribes were consciously archaic in their writing, so that most of the scriptures were probably in old-fashioned language the day they were written down. To efface that solemn antique style by the latest up-to-date usage is to translate falsely…

The Book of Mormon avoids the necessity of having to be redone into "modern English" every thirty or forty years.  If the plates were being translated for the first time today, it would still be King James English!"

Friday, July 11, 2014


WHY DO WE NEED CONSTANT NOURISHMENT TO BODY & SPIRIT?

(Taken from A Bible, A Bible, pages 93-99, by Robert J. Matthews)

"The spirit craves knowledge as the body craves food, and he who seeks sincerely to satisfy those spiritual cravings will find a bounteous feast at the Lord's Table, all based on that person's willingness to receive.

We need to keep learning in order to maintain a spiritual uplift. What lifted us yesterday may not be sufficient tomorrow to help us retain the same level of spirituality; we will need more knowledge, new insights, new viewpoints, and new learning experiences.

This is illustrated with the Joseph Smith Translation (JST). Note, for example, that in the King James Version the account of the Creation is given in third person, with Moses telling the story of what the Lord accomplished: "In the beginning God created . . ." and so forth. On the other hand, the JST gives the account in first person, with the Lord telling the story himself: "I, God," did so and so. Many such changes occur throughout the Joseph Smith Translation which enhance the record and say something about the restorative nature of what Joseph Smith was doing.

We find in the Joseph Smith Translation an explanation of the creative process, showing that life as we now know it-mortality -is the culmination of a three-step process (see JST, Gen. 1-5; Moses 2-5). We learn that all things were created first as spirits, and that this was done in heaven. Then all things-men, animals, and plants-were created on earth as physical beings, with tangible bodies, but in a condition in which they were not yet subject to sin or death.

As the third step in the process, these physical beings underwent another essential change and became mortal, a change which occurred when Adam and Eve, while in the Garden of Eden, ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve were physical in their nature while they were in the garden, but they were not mortal until they partook of the forbidden fruit. This three-step process, outlined so well in the Joseph Smith Translation, is scarcely hinted at in any other version of the Bible.

Later, In Ex. 6:2-3 of the King James Version we read that the Lord revealed himself to Moses by the name of Jehovah, but that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not know the Lord by that name. This is corrected in the Joseph Smith Translation to convey the truth that not only Moses but also Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew the Lord by that name (see JST, Ex. 6:2-3).

As recorded in the King James Version of Ex. 33:20, the Lord said to Moses, "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." Thereupon the Lord said he would arrange for Moses to hide in the cleft of a rock as He passed by; Moses would be able to see the back parts, but the Lord's face would not be seen. Without further explanation, these scriptures seem to contradict an earlier passage that reads: "The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend" (Ex. 33:11).

The Joseph Smith Translation confirms that Moses was not privileged to see the face of the Lord, but adds the significant qualifying information that the restriction was temporary and applied only "at this time" (see JST, Ex. 33:20-23).

As many of the preceding examples illustrate, one of the main contributions of the Joseph Smith Translation is that it provides us with an opportunity to see a bigger picture, to gain a greater perspective. In the book of 1 Nephi we learn that when designing and mischievous persons took from the Bible many plain and precious things, their motive was to confuse the people and keep them in spiritual darkness (see 1 Ne. 13:27). This they did very effectively by removing certain things so as to destroy the perspective, the purpose, and the continuity of the biblical narrative. They left many of the what's, but removed many of the why's and the how's.

As members of the Church we are not merely invited to become acquainted with Joseph Smith's translation of the Bible; we are expected to do so, if for no other reason (and there are plenty of reasons) than the fact that it exists and is available for study. If any member of the Church does not already have a testimony by the Spirit of the worth of the Joseph Smith Translation, then there is waiting for that member-through committed, prayerful study of the Prophet's translation-one of the most fruitful experiences of his or her life."