Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Changing World of Mormonism/Chapter 12

Chapter 11

A FAIR Analysis of: The Changing World of Mormonism A work by author: Jerald and Sandra Tanner

Chapter 13

Claim

• The Bible has secondary status in the Mormon Church.

Response

• Heber C. Snell, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Spring 1967, pp.56-57
• David Bitton, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Autumn 1966, p.113

Claim

• Joseph Smith taught that the Bible contains errors.

Author's source(s)

• Pearl of Great Price, p.59

Response

•  Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints
• Only the most extreme fundamentalist insists that there can be no errors in a document created by humans.
• Bible/Inerrancy

Claim

• Thomas Paine's book The Age of Reason influenced early Church leaders to criticize the Bible, and to question its translation.

Author's source(s)

• Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, p.189
• The Age of Reason, p.32

Response

•  Citation error: The authors cite the book, but this book proves nothing about its influence on the Church or its leaders. The authors are merely asserting their opinion instead of evidence.

Claim

• Orson Pratt attacked the accuracy of the Bible.

Author's source(s)

• Orson Pratt's Works, "The Bible Alone An Insufficient Guide," pp.44-47

Response

• Bible/Inerrancy
•  Misrepresentation of source: The authors fail to tell us that a speech of Brigham Young's (which they also quote, and also misrepresent) explains both Orson's purpose and the Saints' belief that the Bible is valuable as it stands. (See entry below for p. 385.)

Claim

• A phrase concerning baptism was later added to the Book of Mormon quotation of Isaiah 48:1, quoted in 1 Nephi 20:1.

Author's source(s)

• Book of Mormon, 1830 ed. p.52
• 1 Nephi 20:1"

Response

• Joseph Smith inserted an explanatory phrase to explain to modern readers what the words "the waters of Judah" meant.
• See Textual changes: "waters of baptism."
• This change was not a secret—Book of Mormon/Textual changes

Claim

• The Dead Sea Scrolls "present serious problems" for the Book of Mormon and the Joseph Smith "Inspired Version" of the Bible.

Author's source(s)

•  ^[ATTENTION!]

Response

•  Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints
• Bible/Joseph Smith Translation/Relationship to the Book of Mormon

Claim

• The "Isaiah scroll" is "proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 per cent of the text."

Author's source(s)

• Gleason D. Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, p.19

Response

•  Internal contradiction: p. 365: The authors have insisted that Joseph was wrong to say the Bible has errors. Now, they admit that at least 5% of the text is not the same between the Dead Sea Scrolls and other versions. One version must be less accurate than the other—so it seems Joseph was right after all about the text not being inerrant.
• Biblical inerrancy—Old Testament

Claim

• The "Isaiah scroll" should have caused "a great deal of joy" among Mormon scholars, but did not because it is not "filled with evidence to support the text of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon."

Author's source(s)

• Courage, vol. 1, no. 1, September 1970, p.20
• Sidney B. Sperry, Progress in Archaeology, pp.52-54"

Response

•  Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints
• LDS scholars are deeply involved in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. BYU professor Donald W. Parry is one of the scrolls' team of international editors.
• Bible/Joseph Smith Translation/As a restoration of the original Bible text

Claim

• LDS leaders claimed that "Catholics conspired to alter the Bible," but this is proven wrong by the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Author's source(s)

• 1 Nephi 13:26-29
• Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., Religious Truths Defined, p.175
• Mark E. Peterson, As Translated Correctly, p.4, 14
• The Evening and the Morning Star (vol. 1, No. 1, p.3)

Response

• Important source: Noel B. Reynolds (editor), Early Christians in Disarray: Contemporary LDS Perspectives on the Christian Apostasy (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2005), 1–. ISBN 0934893020. off-site See especially, Gee, "Corruption of Scripture in Early Christianity." direct off-site
• The textual alteration and suppression likely occurred before the Catholic church as such existed (the cited authors were influenced by earlier, Protestant scholarship that has since been superceded: see article in Reynolds by Dursteler, "Inheriting the "Great Apostasy": The Evolution of Latter-day Saint Views on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance." direct off-site.)

Claim

• The "Inspired Version" of the Bible has been a "source of much embarassment"  ^{[check spelling]} for leaders of the Church.

Author's source(s)

• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 3:116.

Response

•  Absurd claim: a year after the author's book was published, the Church published its new version of the KJV Bible, with extensive footnotes and appendix material from the JST. The Ensign published articles encouraging the use of the newly-available JST material.^[1]
• See here for Ensign articles published around this time praising the JST. Later uses can be seen via this search link.
• Bible/Joseph Smith Translation/As the Church's official Bible
•  Misrepresentation of source: The Brigham Young quote says nothing about the JST or being ashamed of it.
• See Quote mining—Journal of Discourses 3:116 to see how this quote was mined.
•  Internal contradiction: pp. 366-367 above: Brigham's quote contradicts the authors' previous efforts to make it appear as if the Latter-day Saints disparage or do not rely upon the Bible.

Claim

• The Church would never ""allow [the Inspired Version of the Bible] to be printed because it would tend to embarrass the church and to show that Joseph Smith was not a prophet of God."

Author's source(s)

•  ^[ATTENTION!]

Response

•  Absurd claim: Less than a year later, the Church did publish huge amounts of the JST in the KJV Bible version after years of work. (See above.)
• Bible/Joseph Smith Translation/As the Church's official Bible

Claim

• The contents of the "Inspired Version" of the Bible contradict doctrines taught by the Mormon church.

Author's source(s)

•  ^[ATTENTION!]

Response

•  Absurd claim: the leaders and members do not seem to have noticed. Less than a year later, the Church did publish huge amounts of the JST in the KJV Bible version after years of work. (See above.)
• See many Ensign articles encouraging the use of, and praising, the JST here.
• Bible/Joseph Smith Translation/As the Church's official Bible

Claim

• Joseph Field Smith said that the King James Bible is "the best version translated by the power of man" and that the "Inspired Version" was never completed, yet Joseph Smith stated that he completed the translation of the Bible.

Author's source(s)

• Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.191
• History of the Church 1:324
• History of the Church 1:368

Response

•  Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints
•  History unclear or in error: Joseph indicated that he had "completed" the translation in the sense that he had gone through the entire Bible.

• However, Joseph continued to make additional changes until his death, so he did not regard it as "completed" in the sense that no more could be done or added. Joseph did not believe that a single, perfect, inerrant translation of any scripture was possible (or, perhaps, even desirable).
  • Joseph had sought to publish the JST, but could never raise the funds.
  • Joseph Fielding Smith's son-in-law, Bruce R. McConkie, wrote an article discussing such issues.^[2]

•  Presentism or anachronism: Since the JST manuscripts were in possession of the RLDS Church, LDS leaders were not certain about their contents or the accuracy of the publications made by the RLDS. As scholarly cooperation allowed LDS scholars to see the originals, LDS confidence in the accuracy and value of the JST increased markedly. Joseph Fielding Smith's remarks must be viewed in this context.

Claim

• Joseph's "Inspired Version" of the Bible does not restore any of the "lost books" of the Bible.

Author's source(s)

• Joseph Smith's Revision of the Bible, p. 18

Response

•  Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints
•  Double standard: The claim is hypocritical, since the authors believe the Bible is inerrant and sufficient, and so they would not regard these "lost books" as part of scripture anyway. Indeed, if Joseph had included them, then the authors would probably complain he had been "adding" to the Bible.
• They also misunderstand the nature of the JST: see JST as textual restoration?

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Notes (click to expand)

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1. [note]  Lavina Fielding Anderson, "Church Publishes First LDS Edition of the Bible," Ensign (Oct 1979): 9.off-site
2. [note]  Bruce R. McConkie, "Come: Hear the Voice of the Lord," Ensign (December 1985): 54.off-site