Changed LDS Scripture/Part 32

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Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, and all of the LDS “Prophets” after him until 1945 were polygamists, and so were many other early LDS men. Smith married his first wife, Emma Hale, on January 18, 1827, and probably embraced the idea of polygamy in 1831 while writing the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) of the Old Testament where the stories of the polygamist patriarchs are found. In 1833, Smith finished “translating” his JST and married 16 year old Fanny Alger, his first polygamist wife. After that he married at least 33 wives, and possibly over 50.

Todd Compton, the Mormon author of In Sacred Loneliness, has information about most of Smith’s wives in his book. At least eleven women that Smith married were already married to other men, and they continued to live with those husbands after Smith married them. Those polyandrous wives were adulteresses according to Smith’s JST of Romans 7:2-3 which says, “For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband only as long as he liveth; for if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” Most of Smith’s polyandrous wives had husbands that outlived Smith, so Smith was living in adultery by being married to them according to his own JST!

Romans 7:1-4 reads the same as the King James Version (KJV) except for adding the word “only” before the phrase “as long as” in verses 1 and 2. For any who don’t know, the JST is based on the KJV, and the KJV is the official Bible of Mormonism. We refer to the KJV for that reason, not because we think it is the only good translation. People usually have access to a KJV Bible, so in this article we will quote primarily from the JST in order to save space. But we urge readers to compare our quotations from the JST with the KJV to see how Smith changed the text. Smith made major changes in the JST from Romans 7:5 to the end of the chapter so that some verses say the opposite of what the Bible says. For example, in Romans 7:5 Smith added the word “not” before “according to” which made it say the opposite of what the Bible says. We will now look at Romans 7:14-27, verse by verse.

The JST of Romans 7:14 says, “For we know that the commandment is spiritual; but when I was under the law, I was yet carnal, sold under sin.” The JST changed “law” to “commandment” and had Paul say “I was” carnal instead of “I am carnal.”

Verses 15-16 in the JST aren’t in the Bible, but they say, “But now I am spiritual; for that I am commanded to do, I do; and that which I am commanded not to allow, I allow not. For what I know is not right, I would not do; for that which is sin, I hate.” This seems to express Smith’s view of himself, but it contradicts the Biblical text.

Verse 17 in the JST is based on verse 16 in the KJV, but it reverses the meaning when it says, “If then I do not that which I would not allow, I consent unto the law that it is good; and I am not condemned.”

Verse 18 in the JST is based on verse 17 in the KJV, but it again reverses the meaning when it says, “Now then it is no more I that do sin; but I seek to subdue that sin that dwelleth in me.”

Verse 19 in the JST is the same as verse 18 in the KJV, except that Smith added “only in Christ” to the end of the verse.

Verses 20-21 in the JST is verse 19 in the KJV, but Smith again muddled the meaning when he wrote, “For the good that I would have done when under the law, I find not to be good; therefore I do it not. But the evil which I would not do under the law, I find to be good; that, I do.”

Verse 22 in the JST is based on verse 20 in the KJV, but again reverses the meaning when it says, “Now if I do that, through the assistance of Christ, I would not do under the law, I am not under the law; and it is no more that I seek to do wrong, but to subdue sin that dwelleth in me.”

Verse 23 in the JST is the same as verses 21-22 in the KJV, except that Smith changed “I find then a law” to “I find then that under the law.”

Verse 24 in the JST isn’t in the Bible, but it doesn’t contradict it when it says, “And now I see another law, even the commandment of Christ, and it is imprinted in my mind.”

Verse 25 in the JST is slightly different from verse 23 in the KJV but conveys about the same message.

Verse 26 in the JST adds a different message to the beginning of verse 24 in the KJV, and it says, “And if I subdue not the sin which is in me, but with the flesh serve the law of sin; O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Verse 27 in the JST is based on verse 25 in the KJV and says, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, then, that so with the mind I myself serve the law of God.” But Smith’s JST left off the ending of that verse which says, “but with the flesh, the law of sin.”

The changes in the JST of this part of Romans 7 shows that Smith wants the Bible to say one can serve God without sinning. By comparing the above verses with the KJV or any other good translation of this text, one can see that Smith’s JST corrupted it instead of correcting it like he claimed it did.

The Inspired Revision of the Bible by Merrill Van Wagoner is an LDS booklet that shows some of the changes in the JST. We will continue our discussion of the JST next time.

Read Part 33