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

Chapter 11

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: Jerald and Sandra Tanner

Chapter 13

Claims made in Chapter 12: Mormon Scriptures and the Bible

Page	Claim	Response	Author's sources
365	The Bible has secondary status in the Mormon Church.	The author's claim is false: Bible basics—The Holy Bible	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
365	Joseph Smith taught that the Bible contains errors.	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. Biblical inerrancy	Pearl of Great Price, p.59
365	Thomas Paine's book The Age of Reason influenced early Church leaders to criticize the Bible, and to question its translation.	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.	Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, p.189 The Age of Reason, p.32
366-367	Orson Pratt attacked the accuracy of the Bible.	Biblical inerrancy  Misrepresentation of source: The Tanners 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.)	Orson Pratt's Works, "The Bible Alone An Insufficient Guide," pp.44-47
368	A phrase concerning baptism was later added to the Book of Mormon quotation of Isaiah 48:1, quoted in 1 Nephi 20:1.	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	Book of Mormon, 1830 ed. p.52 1 Nephi 20:1"
371	The Dead Sea Scrolls "present serious problems" for the Book of Mormon and the Joseph Smith "Inspired Version" of the Bible.	Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints Joseph Smith Translation and the Book of Mormon	[ATTENTION!]
371	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."	Internal contradiction: p. 365: The Tanners 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. Biblical inerrancy—Old Testament	Gleason D. Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, p.19
372-373	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) 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. Joseph Smith Translation as a restoration of the original Bible text	Courage, vol. 1, no. 1, September 1970, p.20 Sidney B. Sperry, Progress in Archaeology, pp.52-54"
378-379	LDS leaders claimed that "Catholics conspired to alter the Bible," but this is proven wrong by the Dead Sea Scrolls.	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." [http://mi.byu.edu/publications/books/? bookid=42&chapid=202 direct off-site].)	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)
383	The "Inspired Version" of the Bible has been a "source of much embarassment"  [check spelling] for leaders of the Church.	Absurd claim: a year after the Tanner'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 [http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp? vgnextoid=84010fd41d93b010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&hideNav=1&pageNumber=3&maxResults=20&NARROW_BY=null&query=% 22JOseph+smith+translation% 22&bucket=ChurchMagazines&dateFrom=&dateTo=&AUTHOR_CATEGORY=&AUTHOR_NAME=&FORMAT=&dateFromDisplay=&dateToDisplay=&findByAuthor= search link]. 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. Instead, Brigham Young says: I will remark that brother Orson has clearly shown how the Bible has come into our hands, in order to convince the people of the necessity of positive proof for the validity of the Book of Mormon, the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God, and to prove that our testimony, witnesses, evidence and knowledge of these facts are ten thousand times more than can be produced in favor of the Bible, unless a man has the power of God to testify to it, for there can be no proof in its favor short of revelation. This we have known all the time, we have understood it from the beginning. That made us very anxious, in the days of Joseph, to get the new translation [recall that Emma and the RLDS had the JST manuscripts at this point, so Brigham had no access to them]; but the Bible is good enough just as it is, it will answer it very well when I was preaching in the world....The Bible is good enough as it is, to point out the way we should walk, and to teach us how to come to the Lord of whom we can receive for ourselves.  Internal contradiction: pp. 366-367 above: Brigham's quote contradicts the Tanners' previous efforts to make it appear as if the Latter-day Saints disparage or do not rely upon the Bible.	Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 3:116
383	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."	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.) Joseph Smith Translation as the Church's official Bible	[ATTENTION!]
385	The contents of the "Inspired Version" of the Bible contradict doctrines taught by the Mormon church.	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 [[Joseph Smith Translation as the Church's official Bible/JST an embarrassment to leaders|here]]. Joseph Smith Translation as the Church's official Bible	[ATTENTION!]
385-386	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) 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 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] 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.	Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.191 History of the Church 1:324 History of the Church 1:368
393	Joseph's "Inspired Version" of the Bible does not restore any of the "lost books" of the Bible.	Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints The claim is hypocritical, since the Tanners believe the Bible is inerrant and sufficient, and so they would not regard these "lost books" as part of scripture. They also misunderstand the nature of the JST: see JST as textual restoration?	Joseph Smith's Revision of the Bible, p. 18