Bible
From MormonWiki.org
According to the Mormon religion, the Bible is the inspired Word of God in so far as it is translated correctly (8th Article of Faith). LDS view it more as a human document than a divine document, and thus reject the Christian doctrine of inerrancy, believing the Bible to have errors in various places within it's text.
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It is a foundational Mormon belief that the Bible has been corrupted in its transmission and translation. In Mormonism's 13 Articles of Faith, the eighth says that "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly..." This is an ambiguous statement in that it leaves the door open for the question, "How do you know when it has been translated correctly?" The Book of Mormon goes even further saying, "Wherefore, thou seest that after the book hath gone forth through the hands of the great and abominable church, that there are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God," (1 Nephi 13:28). The "abominable church" has traditionally been interpreted as the Christian church that went in to apostacy, and the "book" is known as the Bible.
According to contemporary Mormon Robert Millet:
- "To be sure, we believe the Bible is the word of God, that it is in fact God-breathed and is an inspired statement of actual historical events, fundamental doctrines, and life-expanding principles of truth. We love the Bible. We read it, we memorize it, and we cite it regularly in our sermons and writings. But we do not believe that one must subscribe to a notion of either scriptural inerrancy or biblical sufficiency in order to retain the kind of reverence and respect and commitment to the scriptures so necessary to a solid faith. While we are convinced that the hand of God was involved in the overall preservation of the Bible, we are realistic about the fact that scribal errors in the form of deletions, additions, and changes took place through the centuries of textural transmission" [1]
This is a very subtle way of stating that the Bible has not been preserved. Thus, as the Book of Mormon says, many "plain and precious things [have] been taken away".
King James Version only
The only Bible translation that Mormons officially use and read is the King James Version (KJV). Thus, they find other translations such as the NASB, NIV, or other similar translations to be of poor quality. They trust that those who translated the KJV in 1611 were faithful to the text and preserved the most accurate translation we possess today. It is not uncommon to hear LDS pray and use words that sound as though they are from the KJV (e.g. thy, thou...).
Quotes
- "If it be admitted that the apostles and evangelists did write the books of the New Testament, that does not prove of itself that they were divinely inspired at the time they wrote... Add all this imperfection to the uncertainty of the translation, and who, in his right mind could for one moment suppose the Bible in its present form to be a perfect guide? Who knows that even one verse of the Bible has escaped pollution, so as to convey the same sense now that it did in the original?" - LDS Apostle Orson Pratt, Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon, pp. 45-47
- “There are many things in the Bible which do not, as they now stand, accord with the revelations of the Holy Ghost to me” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 310).
See also
External links
- We Believe the Bible?, by Sharon Lindbloom
- The Bible: Restored and Revised, by Sharon Lindbloom - "Joseph Smith's revision of the Bible"
