Customer Reviews

The Complete Joseph Smith Translation of the New Testament: A Side-By-Side Comparison with the King James Version

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off I should say that I am not a Church of Later Day Saints(LDS) member, so I should be able to provide an objective opinion on this book. It is set up in the form of a parallel translation showing the KJV version of the Bible in one Column and JST changes to that text in the other column . The Work was done by using access to Joseph Smith's diaries which were allowed to be viewed by two LDS scholars. This diary is in the hands of the Joseph's Smiths widow, and was passed on to their son Joseph Smith III when he became the leader of the Reorganized LDS church. That group has subsequently changed their name to Community of Christ, and is no longer lead by a direct descendant of Joseph Smith. This could be one of the reasons that the Community of Christ allowed the LDS scholars to have access to the work. These two scholars comprehensive work was summarized in this work. It is only the changes to the New Testament, and not the Old testament. In addition it is not the Full text of the new testament, only the verses that have been modified. Due to this and it not being the full Bible are the only reasons that I'm giving the work 4 stars. Since the lack of context makes it a bit irritating to change back to the full KJV and then back to the book. If you are not a member of the Church of Later Day Saints, or one of the other Mormon based church, this volume needs to be viewed differently then the multitude of other Bible Translations that are available. Joseph Smith believed that God or his Angels told him that the KJV was correct as far as it was properly translated. By using the same translation techniques that he used for the Book of Mormon, he updated the bible via revelation and prophecy in order to bring it back to what the original New and Old testament scriptures said. Because of this normal Bible scholarship comparing the most various texts with the earliest available sources do not apply in the same way to the Joseph Smith Translation. If that is not kept in mind, then people very familiar with one translation of the bible will find the changes a challenge to get through. However if the book is taken for its intended use, it is an excellent resource into the history of the LDS church and its founder.
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This book might interest others besides members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is easy to use. The Joseph Smith translation is on one side, and the King James Version on the other. It's always interesting to note the things that have been lost in translations over the centuries. This is a great, inspired book.

I like the parallel column format and the layout of the book. The text is easy to read, the markup format is clear, and the volume is a comfortable size for my hands.

It only includes the verses which changed from the King James Version, not the entire text of the New Testament. I had hoped to use it as a single volume study source, without having to continually cross reference to my own copy of the New Testament. That would have worked better for me than flipping back and forth between my copy of the New Testament and this side by side comparison of the changed verses.

It would also have been nice to have the "difference markup" somehow show the differences between NT1 and NT2 in those sections of the Matthew where there were differences. It takes some detailed reading to discover the differences. I've started circling the differences in my copy so they are more apparent the next time I read them.