Old Testament Revision 1
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Source Note
Old Testament Revision 1, June 1830–ca. 7 Mar. 1831; handwriting of , , , and ; 60 pages; CCLA. Includes redactions, wrapper, and archival markings.The possibility that the first pages inscribed by , especially the first two-and-a-half pages following the original heading, were copied from an earlier dictation text cannot be ruled out. At least by October 1830, when replaced Cowdery as scribe, this manuscript is the dictation copy.The Bible revision manuscripts remained in JS’s possession throughout his life—except during a brief period in 1838 and another in 1839. Upon the death of JS, the manuscript was in possession of his wife for over twenty years, until 1867 when she gave it to her son in order for the RLDS Church to publish The Holy Scriptures.Note: The transcript of Old Testament Revision 1 presented here is used with generous permission of the Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center. It was published earlier, with some differences in style, in Scott H. Faulring, Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, eds., Joseph Smith's New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004), 75–152.
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Historical Introduction
In June 1830, only weeks after the Book of Mormon was published (in March) and the Church of Christ organized (in April), JS began dictating to a revelation dealing with several key Old Testament figures. The revelation opens with “the words of God which he spake unto Moses,” a visionary experience in which Moses receives a knowledge of God and his Only Begotten and learns the purpose of creation. He sees the spirit creation of all things, the appointment of Christ during a premortal council, the effects of the Fall, and the introduction of the gospel to fallen mankind. Moses understands the place of man in the divine plan and foresees his own future role. The manuscript continues with the story of Adam and Eve and several generations of their descendants. A detailed exposition of the experiences of Enoch is included, even though the biblical account contains only a brief mention of that ancient prophet. The manuscript records Enoch’s prophecies of the coming of the Son of Man and recounts the ministry of Noah and the life of Abraham.Like many other revelations, this manuscript bears a simple heading. Written in the hand of scribe , the heading reads, “A Revelation given to Joseph the Revelator June 1830.” What prompted this revelation when JS first began dictating in June 1830 is unknown, but the resulting lengthy manuscript opened an ambitious project of biblical expansion and revision. After the vision of Moses, which recounts a conversation with Deity unrelated to known biblical texts, on the third page and under a new heading (“A Revelation given to the Elders of the Church of Christ On the First Book of Moses”) the manuscript begins an account of the Creation that resembles Genesis 1. The lengthy opening vision and some portions later in the manuscript record prophetic experience at best hinted at in biblical texts, but as the transcript unfolded over the next several months, it became a commentary on and often an expansion of the King James Version of Genesis.At some point during the creation of this manuscript, JS came to see such “restoration” of lost biblical texts as part of his prophetic mission. Book of Mormon passages he dictated to in 1829 spoke of “plain and precious things” missing from “the Book, which is the Book of the Lamb of God” and promised that these “plain and most precious parts of the Gospel of the Lamb” would be restored. (Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 30–31 [1 Nephi 13:28, 32].) On the third page of this manuscript, just before the beginning of the creation account, this revelation similarly declares that lost scriptural passages “shall be had again among the Children of men.” An early December 1830 revelation was explicit. After affirming that JS had been given keys to unlock ancient knowledge, the revelation addressed , commanding “that thou shalt write for [JS] and the scriptures shall be given even as they are in mine own bosom.” (Revelation, 7 Dec. 1830, in Doctrine and Covenants 11:5, 1835 ed. [D&C 35:20].)This manuscript was begun at a time when JS and his religious associates in the Susquehanna valley of northern (JS resided in ) and southern (a number of followers lived in nearby ) faced intense opposition from both neighbors and civil authorities. Despite such pressures, JS and may have begun this manuscript in Harmony, but in part to escape harassment later in June they moved north to , New York, a more hospitable environment. When Cowdery departed Fayette in early fall 1830 for a mission to the West, he had written nine manuscript pages from JS’s dictation. His replacement as scribe, , inscribed seventeen lines under the date of 21 October 1830, and then another page and a half under the date of 30 November 1830. The next day began writing and inscribed two pages under the date of 1 December 1830. After his early December arrival, , an educated new convert from , became the main scribe (as commanded in the revelation already noted). Most of the remainder of the sixty-page manuscript is in his hand.A January 1831 move to interrupted progress on what was now clearly a work of biblical revision, but JS and resumed work in February and finished this manuscript in March. Before his move to Ohio in early January 1831, made a copy of the first 19 pages and first five lines of page 20 of the manuscript, possibly indicating that JS and Rigdon had finished through Genesis chapter 5 when they moved to Ohio. It is unknown why Whitmer made this copy. When both the Old Testament Revision manuscript and Whitmer were in Ohio, Whitmer made a second copy of the completed manuscript (known as Old Testament Revision 2). He documented his work by inserting a final date at the end of this copy: “April 5th 1831 transcribed thus far.” This original manuscript (Old Testament Revision 1) was then retired and JS and Rigdon continued the ambitious Bible revision using Whitmer’s second copy. The project remained an important concern of JS into 1833.Note: The transcript of Old Testament Revision 1 presented here is used with generous permission of the Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center. It was published earlier, with some differences in style, in Scott H. Faulring, Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, eds., Joseph Smith's New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004), 75–152.
knowledge of good & evil thou shalt not eat of it nevertheless thou mayest chose for thyself for it is given unto thee but remember that I forbid it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die And I the Lord God said unto mine only begotten that it was not good that the man should be alone Wherefore I will make a help meet for him & out of the ground I the Lord God formed every beast of the field & every fowl of the air & commanded that they should be brought unto Adam to see what he would call them & they were also living souls & it was breathed into them the breath of life & whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof & Adam gave names to all cattle & to the fowl of the air & to every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him & I the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam & he slept & I took one of his ribs & closed up the flesh in the stead thereof & the rib which I the Lord God had taken from man made I a woman & brought her unto the man & Adam said this I know now is bone of my bones & flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man therefore shall a man leave his father & his mother & shall cleave unto his wife & they shall be one flesh & they were both naked the man & his wife & were not ashamed.
And I the Lord God spake unto Moses saying That Satan whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine only begotten is the same which was from the beginning & he came before me saying Behold I send me I will be thy Son & I will redeem all mankind that one soul shall not be lost & surely I will do it Wherefore give me thine honour But behold my beloved Son which was my beloved & chosen from the beginning saith unto me Father thy will be done & the glory be thine forever Wherefore because that Satan rebelled against me & sought to destroy the agency of man which I the Lord God had given him & also that I should give unto him mine own power by the power of mine only begotten I caused that he should be cast down & he became Satan yea even the Devil the father of all lies to deceive & to blind men & to lead them captive at his will even as many as would not hearken unto my voice & now the serpant was more subtle than any beast of the field which I the Lord God had made & Satan put it into the heart of the serpant for he had drew away many after him & he sought also to beguile Eve for he knew not the mind of God Wherefore he thought to destroy the world yea & he said unto the woman yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden & he spake by the mouth of the Serpant but of the fruit of the tree which thou beholdest in the midst of the garden God hath said Ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it lest ye die for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened & ye shall be as Gods knowing good & evil & when the woman saw that the tree was good for food & that it became pleasant to the eyes & a tree to be desired to make her wise she took of the fruit thereof [p. 6]
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