lds perspectives podcast · 2017-08-24 · lds perspectives podcast ... one semester it would be...

LDS Perspectives Podcast

LDS Perspectives Podcast

Episode 54: The JST in the D&C with Kenneth Alford

(Released September 6, 2017)

This is not a verbatim transcript.

Some grammar and wording has been modified for clarity.

Taunalyn: Hello, this is Taunalyn Rutherford, and I’m here today with Dr. Ken

Alford to discuss his work on connections between the Doctrine and

Covenants and the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. Welcome, Ken.

Ken Alford: Great, thank you. I appreciate the invitation.

Taunalyn: Great to have you. Dr. Ken Alford is a professor of church history and

doctrine at Brigham Young University. He served a mission in Bristol,

England. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from

Brigham Young University and a Master of Arts in international relations

from the University of Southern California, a master of computer science

from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and a PhD in

computer science from George Mason University.

After serving almost thirty years on active duty in the United States Army,

he retired as a colonel in 2008. During his service, his assignments

included work in the Pentagon, teaching at the United States Military

Academy at West Point, and working as a professor and department chair

at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

He has published and presented on a wide variety of subjects during his

career. His current research focuses on Latter-day Saint military service

and the Hyrum Smith Papers project.

Ken and his wife, Sherilee, have four children and fourteen grandchildren.

Today we’ll be focusing on another of your research interests — the

connections between the Joseph Smith Translation and the Doctrine and

Covenants.


http://www.ldsperspectives.com/2017/09/20/jst-dc-kenneth-alford/ of 23

Can you tell us — this was from a presentation that you gave at ED week

— a little bit about your interest in these connections and some of the

background information about the Joseph Smith Translation?

Ken Alford: Well, my interest in the Joseph Smith Translation started actually before it

was even included in the LDS version of the Bible. Growing up, I kept

hearing about the “Inspired Version” and was always curious about what it

was.

As a student at Brigham Young University, I took a course from Dr.

Robert J. Matthews, and it’s to Brother Matthews we, as a church, really

owe a lot of our familiarity and relationship with the Joseph Smith

Translation today. It was Dr. Matthews who, with his master’s and PhD,

first really brought the Joseph Smith Translation back to the church.

I took his course. It was what was called an “R” course. It was a

repeatable course, and every semester he taught it a little bit differently.

One semester it would be the Old Testament, one semester it would be the

New Testament, etc. I took it, I think, four times.

Taunalyn: Wow.

Ken Alford: It was a one or two credit course. In fact, as I was seriously dating my

wife, we ended up taking it together and we went through a copy

published by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

Herald Publishing, and we marked all of the three thousand and four

hundred and something changes in that Bible. That was our Sunday

morning activity before church, and we actually marked every one of the

changes. It was kind of a fun activity.

I’ve just really enjoyed learning about the Joseph Smith Translation from

especially that time until the present.

Taunalyn: That’s been part of your marriage.

Ken Alford: It has.

Taunalyn: Fantastic. Before we look directly at connections between the Doctrine

and Covenants and the Joseph Smith Translation, can you explain for our

listeners why we call it a translation?



Ken Alford: It’s a King James Version of the Bible — and it’s English, of course —

and we end up with an English copy of the Bible. Dr. Matthews gave a

statement that I’d just like to share. This is in a book he wrote called

Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible, and here’s how he explained it.

He said, “This is apparently the sense in which he, Joseph, understood the

work he was doing with the Bible. Since the Bible did not originate in

English, his work, to some degree, would amount to an inspired, or

revelatory, translation into English of that which the ancient prophets and

apostles had written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and/or Greek.”

Now we should also note that Joseph referred to this effort, himself, as a

translation. The Lord also, in revelations that are now canonized in the

Doctrine and Covenants, refers to it as a translation. So [it’s a translation]

in the sense that it takes the English that’s there and puts it into the

English that gives a better sense of the original intent. I should note at this

point though, that Joseph never, at any point, says he is restoring, word for

word, the exact and original text as written by those original authors. What

Joseph is doing is restoring the sense of the text and restoring the doctrine,

and sometimes that involved adding parenthetical phrases that, almost

certainly, were not in the original text.

Other things happened in the translation; there are major additions, texts

that have been lost — for example, much of the Book of Moses. There are

other little pieces that have been lost. There are many hundreds of

changes, little revisions to the text. There are also a couple of deletions.

For example, Joseph said the entire book of Song of Solomon, he put a

“not” that says, “Not inspired.” When you read it, it’s basically Hebrew

love poetry.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: There’s also several entire books, most of them from the Old Testament,

in which no changes were made. For example, Malachi, Ruth, Esther,

Ecclesiastes, and so on have no changes at all. In the New Testament,

there’s only two books that don’t have changes though, and that’s 2 John

and 3 John.

The New Testament, proportionately, has a much higher percentage of

changes that Joseph made.



Taunalyn: Right, okay. Great distinction to make. Thank you.

What kind of a Bible did Joseph Smith use to do his translation?

Ken Alford: Well, here’s where I wish we were in audio or visual.

Taunalyn: Video, right.

Ken Alford: A video at the time, because I could show that what we’ve got on the table

here is a copy. This is an 1834 addition of what’s called a Cooperstown

Bible. It was produced by two brothers whose last name was Finney.

Many times in publications it’s called a Finney Bible or a Finney–

Cooperstown Bible. It was published in Cooperstown, New York, prior to

the Baseball Hall of Fame going in there. What the Finneys did is they

made stereo plate. Stereotype is what it’s called. It’s a metal plate of the

page, so once they had produced an edition, they could rerun it. That’s

what we have here.

I have an 1834 edition, but on October 8th, 1828, there’s a note in the

original that Joseph and Oliver Cowdery used that says that they

purchased it from the Grandin Bookstore. That’s the same Grandin that

published the Book of Mormon. They went into that bookstore on the 8th

of October, 1829, and purchased a copy of this Finney–Cooperstown

Bible.

It’s a very large Bible. It’s eleven inches tall and nine inches wide. It has a

beautiful leather binding.

Taunalyn: Very beautiful.

Ken Alford: The pages are huge. It’s three inches thick. It’s a very, very large Bible,

and this is what they began and used throughout the Joseph Smith

Translation.

Taunalyn: Wonderful.

Ken Alford: I should mention the original is housed today in the archives of the

Community of Christ, which was formerly the Reorganized Church.

Taunalyn: Great, thank you so much for sharing that.



Could you help us understand a little about the history, the timeline, of the

Joseph Smith Translation? For example, who served as scribes as he was

receiving this translation?

Ken Alford: Well, what we have is a series of events that occur. They buy the Bible but

apparently don’t start on the Joseph Smith Translation right away, or if

they do, there’s not much recorded. The earliest date that we have

recorded for a translation effort is June 1830, and you can actually find

that by going to the Pearl of Great Price and looking at Moses 1.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: Earlier editions of the Doctrine and Covenants dated that differently.

Through the research of Dr. Matthews and others, they were able to

correctly date it as June of 1830.

Just two months after the church is organized, there they are. They have

this brand new church, lot of things going on, and Joseph is given this

charge. He calls it a “branch of his calling,” and it’s kind of the way that

the Lord uses to teach Joseph more of the gospel. They go from June 1830

until March of 1831 in the Old Testament.

They start, basically, with Genesis 1:1 in the Old Testament. Joseph

receives that vision that Moses had received. Moses 1 is really kind of

Genesis 0, if you like.

Taunalyn: Right, I like what Richard Bushman calls it — an expansion. We get

expansions.

Ken Alford: It is absolutely an expansion.

Taunalyn: Yeah.

Ken Alford: They work on that for nine months. They don’t even finish the book of

Genesis, and there’s a whole series of scribes. We have people scribing at

different times in Genesis. Oliver Cowdery starts because he’s the guy that

buys the book with Joseph. He does the first five chapters or so of Moses.

Then John Whitmer takes over, but not for very long. Emma, interestingly,

not only gets to scribe for a short time on the Book of Mormon text early

in Mosiah, but she also scribes for Joseph in the book of Moses. She does



chapter 6, verses 19 through 52. Then John Whitmer picks up again, and

we can see this in the transcriptions because the handwriting changes.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: After they reach Moses 7, then Sidney Rigdon takes over, and that occurs,

in large measure, because of section 35. What we have canonized in the

Doctrine and Covenants as section 35. Sidney Rigdon is charged with

being Joseph’s scribe. The Lord assigns that responsibility to him because

at this time Oliver Cowdery is gone. He’s on a mission to the Lamanites

heading out toward Missouri, and Sidney basically takes over at that point,

and while there may be a few verses here and there, Sidney is the primary

scribe for the rest of the Joseph Smith Translation.

Taunalyn: I see, okay. So, what percentage would you say is really Sidney?

Ken Alford: Well, percentage is a funny thing here because there are about 3400+

changes in the Joseph Smith Translation, but that number includes

punctuation. Sometimes it includes verses being switched, like some of the

chapters in the book of Revelation. Joseph reorders the list of the verses,

so it reads better.

In the New Testament, some of them are complete additions, so the text is

completely new, and others are simply one word changes. In that way, it’s

a little bit hard to give you a percentage answer because when Oliver

actually starts with what becomes Moses 1:1, they’re writing the entire

text of the Bible over again. It is very laborious. That’s why it takes so

long to do.

The first twenty-something chapters of Genesis, they are writing out

everything, whether it changes or not. You can just imagine how slow that

would be. Later they come up with a system. I’ve actually had a chance to

hold the original Bible that’s in Independence. Curators there in the

Community of Christ Archives let us go through it, and you can see where

it changes.

What they came up with was, actually, a little kind of a symbology, I

guess, for lack of a better word, where they would put dots in verses or Xs

in verses. Then there is a supplemental page that matches that verse where

the changes are written out in longhand, but only the changes are written

out.



Then, to further complicate it, they went back to the original manuscript

and revised it again, making additional changes to the text. So, it’s what’s

called Old Testament One manuscript, Old Testament Two manuscript.

This is really an involved effort that takes multiple years on Joseph’s part.

Taunalyn: Right, and did he ever finish this translation?

Ken Alford: Well, Joseph writes in a letter. … Let’s see if I can come up with a copy of

that letter here. He writes in 1833 that “we have today finished with the

translation.”

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: Finished, though, is kind of a fungible word. It’s that they’re finished in

the sense that they have gone through the entire biblical text once, but the

translation is in no way finished, meaning that Joseph doesn’t make any

more changes the rest of his life.

From 1833, when Joseph writes that they have finished the translation

“this day” until Joseph’s death in June of 1844, Joseph continues to make

changes to the manuscript. As he receives further light, knowledge, and

understanding, and is reading in the scriptures, he identifies things where

the sense and the scriptures can be better communicated, and he

continues to modify and to wordsmith some of the text.

We also have no reason to doubt that if the book had actually come to

publication in Joseph’s life, that in a final going-through prior to

publication even additional changes might not have been made.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: Brigham Young makes this statement. This has just come out this year

because the Joseph Smith Papers project published the Council of Fifty

minutes that scholars and historians and members have been waiting for,

for well over a century.

In there, there’s a report of an April 18th, 1844 meeting, and the notes

from the Council of Fifty record this statement by Brigham Young. It says,

“He, Brigham Young, supposed that there had not yet been a perfect

revelation given because we cannot understand it. Yet, we receive a little

here and a little there.”



And then this important statement that Brigham made — and by the way,

Joseph Smith is present when this statement is made —

Taunalyn: Okay.

Ken Alford: This is a Council of Fifty minutes with Joseph there.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: The minutes say, “He, Brigham, should not be stumbled.” Kind of a fun

19th century was of saying, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the prophet should

translate the Bible 40,000 times over, and yet it should be different in

some places every time.”

Taunalyn: Wow.

Ken Alford: “Because when God speaks,” Brigham continued, “He always speaks

according to the capacity of the people.”

Joseph is learning a great deal about the gospel. We have wonderful

revelations received that are now part of the Doctrine and Covenants that

come because of this translation effort. But I love that insight from

Brigham; that if Joseph did this every time he looked at it, he would have

additional understanding and be able to better convey the original intent of

the writers of those biblical texts.

That’s just a wonderful statement that sheds more light on the Joseph

Smith Translation from a publication just this year by the Joseph Smith

Papers project.

Taunalyn: Okay, and it really expands our idea of what translation is and what that

branch of his calling was.

Ken Alford: It really does.

Taunalyn: And perhaps our own, which we’ll talk about later, okay?

What is the place of the Joseph Smith Translation in our own LDS Bible

today? And perhaps a little background on that history.



Ken Alford: Well, the church was actually commanded to publish what was then called

the New Translation. Maybe I should take just a little detour and give

some terms first.

The translation effort Joseph did was never, ever called the Joseph Smith

Translation in his day.

Taunalyn: Important to know.

Ken Alford: It’s called, in Joseph’s day — and actually the wording in the Doctrine and

Covenants when the Lord refers to it is simply “The Translation,” or “The

New Translation.”

In Joseph’s lifetime, it’s known as the “New Translation.” The book is

commanded to be published, actually twice, in the Doctrine and

Covenants. The first time in section 104:48, where it says, “Print my

words. The fullness of my scriptures.”

And then, second, a command is given to William Law, who is second

counselor in the First Presidency in section 124, and this happens to be

verse 89, in which William Law receives this direct commandment from

the Lord: “Publish the New Translation of my Holy Word unto the

inhabitants of the earth.”

Couldn’t be clearer. The Lord wants this published.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: Well, for various reason, including the fact that William Law apostatizes

and is instrumental in Joseph’s martyrdom, the New Translation is never

published in Joseph’s lifetime. Following the death of the Prophet,

Brigham Young then is sustained by the church as president.

They seek to obtain the manuscript for the Joseph Smith Translation, or

the New Translation, from Emma because it’s in her possession.

Taunalyn: I see.

Ken Alford: And by the way, we owe Emma a great deal. We owe a great debt to her,

because it’s Emma that preserves the document, the manuscript of the

New Translation, and brings it out of Missouri and into Illinois.



If it wasn’t for Emma Smith, that manuscript could very well have been

destroyed or lost, because Joseph was in Carthage. Hyrum was in

Carthage and the entire First Presidency, with Sidney there for a time, was

in Carthage Jail. As Emma leaves and travels to the Quincy area in

Illinois, she takes with her that manuscript. She’s also served as one of the

scribes, so when emissaries of Brigham come to her and ask for the

manuscripts, from her perspective — if I understand Emma right — she

sees this as, “Well, you know, the Lord commanded you to publish it. You

didn’t do it. I’m the one that saved it, so no.” She does not give up the

manuscript.

The reason we have portions of the Joseph Smith Translation prior to 1979

in our scriptures is because they were published in the Times and Seasons

in Nauvoo. What we call Joseph Smith Matthew and the Book of Moses

were published in the Times and Seasons. As far as we have them in the

Pearl of Great Price, they were published in the Times and Seasons as well

in a serial fashion.

Taunalyn: I see, okay.

Ken Alford: It looks like they had intended to publish more. That’s why, when you

read the Book of Moses, you get along to the very end and it just ends,

right in the middle of the story. That’s because that’s where it ended when

it was published in the Times and Seasons.

Taunalyn: That’s really helpful.

Ken Alford: And so, Franklin D. Richards, fast forwarding into the early 1850s,

Franklin D. Richards, a member of the Twelve, is over in England. He has

copies of the Times and Seasons. Church members in England don’t have

all the resources, materials, and access to church leadership, so he puts

together a little pamphlet that he calls “A Pearl of Great Price.”

He has republished those portions of the Book of Moses and Joseph Smith

Matthew, and then the Pearl of Great Price travels back across the Atlantic

in 1878. It’s canonized as a standard work. They make some adjustments

to the things that are in it, but the portions of the Joseph Smith Translation

stay in the Pearl of Great Price.

That’s all we had as a church until 1979.



Taunalyn: Okay, that narrative, that really adds to the Pearl of Great Price.

Ken Alford: And so, the Pearl of Great Price, it was wonderful that Franklin D.

Richards did that, or the church would have been completely without any

Joseph Smith Translation until 1979.

Taunalyn: Some of the most beautiful language that we have is from Joseph —

Ken Alford: It’s really wonderful text.

Taunalyn: Really, yeah.

Ken Alford: What happens is then, in the 1970s, there’s a scripture committee formed.

Brother Matthews, who brings the Joseph Smith Translation forward,

works under the direction of Elder McConkie, and I believe Elder Packer,

and others on this scripture committee, and they reach the decision that

they want to add text from what’s then called the Inspired Version.

It was published by the Reorganized Church in 1867 as the Inspired

Version translation.

Taunalyn: Let’s look at some of these comparisons that you made in your

presentation. For instance, Doctrine and Covenants section 29 has a very

interesting connection with the Joseph Smith Translation. Can you talk

about that?

Ken Alford: Section 29 is a section that is kind of the Cliff Notes, if you like, to the

Plan of Salvation. You can look at section 29 and find things in there; it’s

verse per verse. It has probably more information about the Plan of

Salvation than anywhere else in the scriptures, and it is almost like the

Cliff Notes.

What you have to recognize is that it’s not done chronologically as we

would order it.

Taunalyn: Okay.

Ken Alford: But you can very quickly rearrange the verses into an order that we would

consider, but that’s what it is. I see it as the Cliff Notes to the Plan of

Salvation.



The question is, what’s the connection to the JST? Well, before we answer

that, we have to explain that at the time these revelations were being

recorded, John Whitmer was the church historian. That’s a whole other

fun story. He doesn’t want to be historian, and Joseph gets the revelation

and he says, “I recognize this as from the Lord,” and he does it.

John Whitmer keeps a book called the Book of Commandments and

Revelations. The Joseph Smith Papers project has given that a second

designation for clarity. They call it Revelation Book I.

Taunalyn: Okay.

Ken Alford: This book has been kept, beginning in 1831, by John Whitmer, and it’s, in

many cases, the earliest copy we have of the revelations in the Doctrine

and Covenants.

That book was placed for safekeeping in the First Presidency’s safe by a

young apostle by the name of Joseph Fielding Smith, who was also church

historian, and he placed it in there to keep it safe because it’s an

irreplaceable book. Well, what happened is that over the years, other

things got piled on top of it.

President Hinckley once described the First Presidency safe as something

akin to a teenager’s closet, and they forgot. The church forgot, quite

honestly forgot, that that’s where the Book of Commandments and

Revelations was, as I understand it, and it basically was lost for decades

— over half a century.

Taunalyn: That image of a teenager’s closet …

Ken Alford: As part of the Joseph Smith Papers project, they asked for permission —

from then President Hinckley — to inventory the contents of the First

Presidency safe, looking for items that might be connected to Joseph.

President Hinckley, as I understand it, not only gave them his blessing, but

said, “Feel free to straighten it up while you’re in there.” And they found,

much to their happiness, the original Book of Commandments and

Revelations kept by John Whitmer.

Now I say all of that because in section 29 there’s a paragraph, before

section 29 begins, and listeners can actually go to the Joseph Smith Papers



website and see what I’m about to share with you, because you can see the

original pages. That entire book, as well as Revelation Book II (which is

known as the Kirtland Revelation Book), the entire books are on the

Joseph Smith Papers website. That website is josephsmithpapers.org.

Taunalyn: And very searchable.

Ken Alford: And very searchable.

There’s a paragraph that John Whitmer added to section 29 that does not

appear in the Doctrine and Covenants today. It’s because it’s not part of

the revelation. It was just an explanation that John Whitmer added, and

here’s what it says: “A revelation to six elders of the church and three

members.” Now that’s very similar to the way the section heading reads.

Here’s where it becomes interesting: “They understood from holy writ,

that the time had come that the people of God should see eye to eye, and

they, seeing somewhat different upon the death of Adam, that is, his

transgression. Therefore, they made it a subject of prayer and inquired of

the Lord, and thus came the word of the Lord through Joseph, the Seer.”

Okay, so section 29 comes about because early members of the church are

having, it doesn’t say argument, but friendly discussion, shall we say,

regarding Adam and his transgression. If you look at Christendom today,

we have not resolved this. Adam is viewed in any number of ways by the

Christian world.

And so it’s only natural that section 29 was received so early in church

history. These people are still learning the gospel — much of the gospel

hasn’t even been restored yet. It’s not surprising that they disagree about

Adam and his transgression.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: Section 29 is then received. If your listeners will open up a copy of section

29 and look at the footnotes on any page, something that they may not

have noticed before will just jump out at you, and that is, that the majority

of footnotes, or the most common source in the footnotes I should say, are

references to the Book of Moses.

Taunalyn: Okay.



Ken Alford: Basically, not only is it Cliff Notes to the Plan of Salvation, but section 29

becomes a commentary from the Lord on the Book of Moses.

Taunalyn: Which had been received.

Ken Alford: Well, then the question that arises is, why are they talking in the church

about Adam at this point in church history? If you look at the Book of

Moses, beginning with chapter one, it’s received in June of 1830. Section

29 follows not very long after that.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: This information is starting to be shared with the Church, which is causing

them to have discussions, which is causing them to ask the prophet for

additional light and knowledge.

Section 29 — as I read the history and read what John Whitmer gave us —

comes about, at least partially, because the Saints have had this brought to

their attention, because of Joseph’s efforts in the Bible. There’s some

wonderful, wonderful insights into the Plan of Salvation in section 29. It’s

fun just to go through and look at it again.

Taunalyn: Oh, thank you. In Doctrine and Covenants section 37, Joseph Smith is

commanded to stop the translation. What was going on there?

Ken Alford: Yeah. What happens is the missionaries to the Lamanites — Oliver

Cowdery, Ziba Peterson, Parley P. Pratt, and Peter Whitmer Jr. — they

have traveled through Kirtland, and their main mission is to share the

gospel in Kirtland.

They think it’s to teach to the Native Americans out on the border of the

Lamanites, as the Lord calls it in section 28, but it’s really Kirtland. And

just almost overnight, the center of gravity of the church becomes this

little backwater place called Kirtland. The Lord in section 20 commands

Joseph and the Church to “Go to the Ohio.” They all know that means

Kirtland.

Taunalyn: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Ken Alford: In there, though, to show how important this is, Joseph is told to stop

translating. Now if this is a main branch of his calling and the Lord says,



“I’m suspending the main branch of your calling until you do something,”

it immediately gets Joseph’s and the church members’ attention.

Joseph fulfills the commandment. He travels to Kirtland very quickly.

That’s a wonderful separate story for another time, but once he arrives in

Kirtland, he and Sidney take up again the translation. And then what

follows is section 45, which is a real major event in Joseph Smith’s

translation.

Taunalyn: Well, let’s talk about section 45 for just a minute.

Ken Alford: Well, section 45 is unique in John Whitmer’s Revelation Book One, or the

Book of Commandments and Revelations. Other revelations are identified

as a commandment, but section 45 is labeled as a prophecy. I believe it’s

the only revelation in the entire revelation book that is so labeled.

Taunalyn: Really, prophecy? Okay.

Ken Alford: The question is, “What’s going on there?” Joseph is promised by the Lord

in section 38, primarily in 38, that if they will travel with the Saints to the

Ohio, He has great things in store for them.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: He says he’ll endow them with power. He’ll teach them additional things.

They don’t fully understand what all that means, but one of the things that

happens is, when the church moves to Kirtland, there is more revelation

that has been canonized that was received there in a shorter period than in

any other time in church history. The Lord just pours down knowledge on

the heads of the Latter-day Saints.

Taunalyn: Yes.

Ken Alford: One of the things that happens is section 45 is that Joseph asks questions.

Joseph is very curious, apparently, about the Second Coming, as many of

us are and, at various times, he asks the Lord for information. There’s a

fun piece that your listeners can go to in section 130, where the Lord

basically says, “Joseph, I’m not going to tell you when it is, and don’t ask

anymore. I love you, but just ...” That’s paraphrasing of course.

Taunalyn: Of course.



Ken Alford: But this is a time when Joseph has asked for information. The Lord gives

Joseph kind of a commentary on what’s called the Olivet Discourse. It’s

the last verse or two of Matthew 23 and then Matthew 24 in the King

James Bible. And then the Lord goes in and takes that information and

applies it to our dispensation.

Section 45 is kind of the Olivet Discourse with a “how-to guide” from the

Lord on how to survive and thrive, and prepare for the second coming.

Taunalyn: I like that.

Ken Alford: He gives counsel that is not in the Olivet Discourse, because from their

perspective, that’s thousands of years in the future. For us, it’s coming and

it’s getting closer. And so, in there, the Lord is teaching Joseph and the

Saints how to prepare for the Second Coming, but then when you reach

verses 60 - 62, the Lord tells Joseph, basically, stop translating the Old

Testament. Switch and start doing the New Testament.

Now knowing Joseph Smith, the very next time they sit down to translate,

which I believe is almost the next day — if it isn’t, then it’s the next day

after that — they stop where they’re at in the Old Testament and they

begin with Matthew 1:1. It’s not very long until Joseph reaches the end of

Matthew 23 and 24, and then receives the Joseph Smith Translation

version of the Olivet Discourse, which we know today in the Pearl of

Great Price as Joseph Smith Matthew.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: It has additional insights. And so whenever you read Joseph Smith

Matthew and the Pearl of Great Price, or whenever you read section 45,

you should pair it with the other one.

Taunalyn: Okay.

Ken Alford: Because they are bookends and they go together.

Taunalyn: Can you give us some insights into what we’ll find, perhaps different, in

the Joseph Smith Translation? Can you give us and an idea of how those

compare?



Ken Alford: Well, the emphasis in section 45 is that the Lord gives Joseph a Reader’s

Digest condensed version, if you like, of the Olivet Discourse. And then

he tells him how to prepare, because scattered throughout section 45, is

that advice, as I mentioned. For example, He says in verse 3, “Listen to

me. The best thing you can do to prepare for the Second Coming is to

simply listen to me.” In verses 9 and 10, He says, “Make and keep

covenants.” In verse 32, He says, “As members of the Church, stand in

holy places.” In Verse 35, He says. “Look, things are going to get

challenged in the last days, but don’t be troubled.” He says in verses 37

and 39, “I want you to actively look for the signs. I have sprinkled lots of

signs in the narrative approaching the Second Coming. I’ve told you what

they are. When you see these signs, recognize the Second Coming is

approaching.”

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: He says in verse 44, “I want you to watch for me; anxiously watch for

me.” In verse 57, after in the verses before that, talking about the ten

virgins, He very explicitly says, “Here’s what you do. You receive the

truth and then you have to take the Holy Spirit for your guide so that you

will not be deceived.”

When you add them all up together, these are insights that He does not

give His apostles, who He gives the Olivet Sermon to, (or His disciples, as

He says) but He does give it to us because this is imminent in our

dispensation.

It’s wonderful to read both of them together and see how they fit together.

Taunalyn: Section 76 is one that we are all very familiar with. That vision of the

three degrees of glory. That comes as a direct result of the Joseph Smith

Translation. Can you give us the background there; some of the insights

there?

Ken Alford: You bet. Most of the Doctrine and Covenants does not include information

about the receipt of the revelation. They’re not self-documented. You have

to learn the history separately, and that’s where the section headings and

other things come in handy.

Section 76, though, is different. Section 76 is one of the few self-

documenting sections in the Doctrine and Covenants. We know from



those opening verses where they are, what they’re doing, when they’re

doing it, and which specific verse they are at in the Joseph Smith

Translation process.

As they have the Bible opened up — and again, it’s kind of fun to go on

the Joseph Smith Papers website and read through these early copies of

things — but what they’re doing is translating. They reach John 5:29, and

in John 5:29 it talks about a binary situation. There’s a resurrection for the

damned, and there’s a resurrection, basically, for the saved. And Joseph

inquires of the Lord — and the verse doesn’t get changed that much word-

wise, but the verse gets changed — and it tells us in section 76, “And shall

come forth; they who have done good, in the resurrection of the just.” And

“just” there, it’s kind of shorthand for those who are “justified”; those who

have had their sins cleansed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

They’ve been justified through the Atonement of Christ.

“And they who have done evil, in the resurrection of the unjust.” “Unjust”

there is a good kind of shorthand for “unjustified”; those who have chosen

to not accept the Atonement of Christ fully and have to pay at least in part

for their sins.

As we apply that into section 76, those who are justified — who have had

their sins atoned for by Christ — are those in the celestial and terrestrial

kingdoms. Those who are unjustified are those in the telestial kingdom

and what we often call “outer darkness” or refer to as “the Sons of

Perdition.”

We call section 76 “The Vision,” but Elder Ballard and others have taught

— and as you read section 76, you can see — that it’s really the [plural].

It’s a series of six separate visions that occur over a period of it looks like

about 90 minutes, and Joseph and Sidney see the same thing. We

sometimes have a view that they were alone when this was happening, but

that’s not the case.

Philo Dibble and others tell us that “we” were there watching.

Taunalyn: Right. We have their accounts, right?

Ken Alford: What we do have is accounts that they’re there, but they do not share

information from what is shared in the vision. But apparently Joseph and

Sidney are discussing while the vision is going on, communicating with



each other and pointing things out. Joseph makes a statement one time that

if you could peer into heaven for five minutes, you would know more than

has ever been written — and these visions go for an hour and a half.

Joseph later makes the point, and it notes toward the end of the revelation,

that what we’re receiving is just the smallest part of what Joseph received.

He makes a statement about the “hundredth part.”

If you think that what we have in section 76, as wonderful as it is, is about

1% of what Sidney and Joseph received. But oh, what wonderful,

wonderful, revelations, and they’re a direct connection to the Joseph Smith

Translation.

Taunalyn: Wonderful.

Ken Alford: And I should just add the reason this is received at the John Johnson farm.

It’s in an upstairs room. It’s a beautiful coral kind of orange–pink color in

the trim, and the reason they’re at the John Johnson farm is because they

just were not able to get as much translation done in Kirtland as they

wanted.

It’s a new church. We just don’t have church leadership. Joseph is pretty

much everything at this point, but everybody wants a piece of Joseph.

John Johnson offers his farm and they go to Hiram, Ohio, so that Joseph

can get more translation done.

Sidney follows him to Hiram and rents a home across the street from the

John Johnson farm so they can work on the translation. That’s where the

bulk of the Joseph Smith Translation is done: Hiram, Ohio.

Taunalyn: It’s a powerful place to be, that room; it’s powerful to sit there today.

Ken Alford: It really is.

Taunalyn: So much more to say about section 76, but let’s move on in terms of these

connections. What about section 91, for instance? There is also a direct

relationship there.

Ken Alford: Joseph and Sidney continue after receiving section 132. They continue

through the New Testament. Significant changes are made throughout the



Gospels. Oh my goodness; percentage wise, I think it’s the highest amount

of changes — and what it’s doing is, it’s restoring the divinity of Christ.

If you look at what the Joseph Smith Translation does, it does a couple of

things. It restores knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. It restores

knowledge of the divinity of Christ. It restores knowledge of covenants. It

restores knowledge of gospel truths that had just been lost; just taken out

of the Bible, as it says in the Book of Mormon. Plain and precious truths

have been taken, and Joseph puts many of them back. They work all the

way through the ending of the book of Revelation and along the way, we

get section 77, which contains questions and answers about their

translation work in the book of Revelation, and some other things.

Then when they finish the New Testament, they realize, ‘“Oh, we left the

Old Testament midstream. We just stopped when the Lord said in section

45 ‘move’ and we moved.” So they go back and pick up the Old

Testament. The percentage of changes in the Old Testament is much,

much, smaller. There are some significant changes, but percentage-wise

it’s much, much less. And as I said, there are many verses — many books

actually; I’ll do a quick count: two, four, six, twelve books in the Old

Testament — that don’t have any changes.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: But then they go through and finish the Old Testament.

Taunalyn: Okay. Before we leave the connections, can we talk about section 132?

Are there connections there?

Ken Alford: There are connections there. Section 132 has a very unique history as well.

Portions of it, as the section heading mentions, were probably received as

early as 1831, but it’s not until Joseph is in Nauvoo that the section is

actually committed to paper and shared with some members of the Church

at that point.

It’s not actually added into the Doctrine and Covenants until after the

Church is out west.

Section 132, as the opening verses tell us, comes about because Joseph has

questions about the ancient patriarchs and prophets because he knows they



have more than one wife. He asks the Lord, “How can this be? How could

Abraham, Isaac, Moses, and others be justified in this process?”

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: Joseph has translated the Book of Mormon, and in Jacob it tells us that the

Lord’s program, unless he commands otherwise, is monogamy. Joseph

asks the Lord and he receives the answer: “When I turn the key, plural

marriages can be authorized — but only when I turn the key.”

It comes because the general assumption is that Joseph’s questions are

raised because he’s translating in the Old Testament in 1831, and then

moves into the New Testament — but it’s raising these questions as he

sees these men who are clearly approved and favored of God who have

more than one wife.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: And then it causes that great revelation, which for us today is about eternal

marriage, and Joseph learns those principles as a result of his work with

the Joseph Smith Translation, at least partially.

Taunalyn: Right, and when we’re trying to confront that issue of polygamy, I think

it’s helpful to see its outgrowth from this Joseph Smith Translation to a

degree; the thought that Joseph was questioning at that point.

Ken Alford: Because it’s a legitimate question, and how wonderful that Joseph is able

to ask the Lord and receive an answer.

Taunalyn: Right.

Ken Alford: Similar, on a smaller scale to what, I guess, we can do.

Taunalyn: We joked about my research on India, being part of everything; somehow

tying that in.

Ken Alford: Everything Taunalyn does somehow ties back to India. If any of the

listeners ever meet her, be prepared to speak about India.

Taunalyn: Well, there is a parallel. I have found that in interviewing Latter-day

Saints in India who participated in the translation process themselves, in

translating the scriptures into those native Indian languages, there’s this



parallel. There’s this ongoing restoration that involves translation, and

even in our own daily lives, as we each seek to encounter the words of

Christ in the scriptures.

Can you talk about that parallel, perhaps?

Ken Alford: Well, each of us, as we approach the scriptures, has to figure out how that

scriptural text is meaningful in our life. It’s wonderful to understand

what’s called the exegesis, where the scripture came from. What’s the

background? What’s the context? What’s going on in the church? What’s

going on in the nation or the world at the time the scriptures are given?

That’s wonderful information. It can really help open up the meaning of

the scriptures, but, ultimately, when you read the scriptures, it’s the

principles and doctrines found there that you incorporate into your life that

make a difference.

You’re not helped that much by understanding the background. Your life

is blessed by living those principles and teachings that the Lord has shared

through his prophets, which we can have the Holy Ghost confirmed to us.

And so, in that sense it’s almost a translation, if you like, for us personally

as we try to determine what the Lord would have us do with this

wonderful information that He’s shared with prophets and apostles.

Taunalyn: Anything else?

Ken Alford: Well, I guess I would just note that the Doctrine and Covenants, our book

of scriptures for our dispensation, is significantly influenced by Joseph’s

work in the Joseph Smith Translation. We highlighted a couple of those

sections today, but depending on how you count it, there are several dozen

sections that are influenced in various ways because of what Joseph is

doing.

How wonderful that Joseph’s efforts in learning the gospel and looking at

the biblical text has provided all of this additional scripture, insight,

principles, and doctrines for us to benefit from. I just think it’s important

that listeners recognize the Joseph Smith Translation is one of the major

influences on that wonderful book we call the Doctrine and Covenants.

Taunalyn: Thank you, Ken.



Ken Alford: Thank you.

Disclaimer: LDS Perspectives Podcast is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints. The opinions expressed on this episode represent the

views of the guests and the podcaster alone, and LDS Perspectives Podcast

and its parent organization may or may not agree with them. While the

ideas presented may vary from traditional understandings or teachings,

they in no way reflect criticism of LDS Church leaders, policies, or

practices.

lds perspectives podcast · 2017-08-24 · lds perspectives podcast ... one semester it would be...

Documents