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| | (The [text in brackets] in the original manuscript are missing from the physical manuscript. The <strike>strikeouts</strike> and <'''insertions'''> in the printer's manuscript are in Joseph's hand.) | | (The [text in brackets] in the original manuscript are missing from the physical manuscript. The <strike>strikeouts</strike> and <'''insertions'''> in the printer's manuscript are in Joseph's hand.) |
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| | ===Why was this change made?=== | | ===Why was this change made?=== |
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| − | ====Clarification, not doctrinal modification====
| + | It is thought that this simply recommends a prophetic commentary on Joseph Smith's part describing the proper interpretation of the phrase "waters of Judah." It is not regarded as an error, or likely part of the original Book of Mormon plates' text. |
| − | These changes are clarifications that the passages are speaking of Jesus, not God the Father.
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| − | The terms "God," "Everlasting God," and "Eternal Father" are ambiguous since they could properly refer to either the Father or the Son. For example, "Eternal Father" refers to God the Father in {{scripture||Moroni|4|3}}, {{scripture||Moroni|5|2}}, and {{scripture||Moroni|10|4}}, but to God the Son in {{scripture||Mosiah|16|15}} and {{scripture||Alma|11|38-39}}.
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| − | The addition of "the Son of" to four passages in 1 Nephi does not change the Book of Mormon's teaching that Jesus Christ is the God of Old Testament Israel. This concept is taught in more than a dozen other passages whose readings remain unchanged from the original manuscripts. For example:
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| − | *"And ''the God of our fathers'', who were led out of Egypt, out of bondage, and also were preserved in the wilderness by him, yea, ''the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'', yieldeth himself...as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up...and to be crucified...and to be buried in a sepulchre...." ({{scripture|1|Nephi|19|10}})
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| − | *"...he said unto them that ''Christ was the God, the Father of all things'', and said that he should take upon him the image of man, and it should be the image after which man was created in the beginning; or in other words, he said that man was created after the image of God, and that ''God should come down'' among the children of men, and take upon him flesh and blood, and go forth upon the face of the earth." ({{scripture||Mosiah|7|27}})
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| − | *"Teach them that redemption cometh through Christ the Lord, ''who is the very Eternal Father''." ({{scripture||Mosiah|16|15}})
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| − | *"Now Zeezrom saith again unto him: ''Is the Son of God the very Eternal Father?'' And Amulek said unto him: Yea, ''he is the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth'', and all things which in them are; he is the beginning and the end, the first and the last." ({{scripture||Alma|11|38-39}})
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| − | (See also {{scripture|2|Nephi|25|12}}; {{scripture||Mosiah|3|8}}; {{scripture||Mosiah|13|28,33-34}}; {{scripture||Mosiah|15|1}}; {{scripture||Helaman|8|22-23}}; {{scripture||Helaman|14|12}}; {{scripture||Helaman|16|18}}; {{scripture|3|Nephi|11|10,14}}; {{scripture||Mormon|9|12}}; {{scripture||Ether|3|14}}; {{scripture||Ether|4|7}}; {{scripture||Ether|4|12}}.)
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| − | It is simply illogical to conclude that Joseph Smith changed the four passages in 1 Nephi to conform to his supposed changing theological beliefs, but somehow forgot to change all the others.{{ref|skousen1}}
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| − | ====Reaction to sectarian criticism?====
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| − | Another reason "the Son of" was introduced into 1 Nephi 11:18 could have been to eliminate the Catholic-sounding phrase "the mother of God" that had been objected to by early critics of the Book of Mormon. Oliver Cowdery, responding to an article by Alexander Campbell in the Baptist newspaper ''The Pioneer'', wrote in 1835:
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| − | :Again, this writer [Campbell] says: "The name of Jesus Christ, was declared to Nephi, 545 years before it was announced to Mary, and she, in true Roman phraseology, is called 'the mother of God.'"
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| − | {{parabreak}}
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| − | :This "friend of truth" says that Mary was "called the mother of God."—The reader will please turn to the 25th page of the book of Mormon, and read: "And he [the angel] said unto me, behold, the virgin which thou seest is the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh."
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| − | :Now, every man knows, who has read the New Testament, that Mary was called the Lord's mother; and beside we remember to have read a word or two of Paul's writings, where he says: "But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother. Now, the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not."—See Gal. 1. Here we have it—the Lord Jesus was born of a woman, had a brother, and yet had no mother according to the flesh!!{{ref|cowdery1}}
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| − | Since this criticism of the Book of Mormon was fresh on Oliver's mind, and he was involved in the editing of the 1837 edition of the Book of Mormon, it is possible that the change in 1 Nephi 11:18 was inserted at his prompting.
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| − | ==Conclusion==
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| − | Although some have claimed that the meaning of the text was altered by these additions, a more plausible explanation is that the editorial insertions clarified to whom the verses referred.
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| | ==Endnotes== | | ==Endnotes== |
| − | #{{note|skousen1}}Because of the significant number of Book of Mormon passages that speak of Jesus as God, the original readings in 1 Nephi are perfectly acceptable in their original form. Royal Skousen, editor of the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, has recommended that they be restored to their original readings (''Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon'' 4/1: 233).<!--NOTE: DO NOT CHANGE THIS TO THE CRITICAL TEXT TEMPLATE; THE FULL REFERENCE IS TOO LONG FOR THE FOOTNOTE!
| + | ''None'' |
| − | #{{note|cowdery1}}{{MA1|author=Oliver Cowdery|article=Trouble in the West|vol=1|start=105|date=April 1835|num=1}}{{link1|url=http://www.centerplace.org/history/ma/v1n07.htm}}
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| | ==Further reading== | | ==Further reading== |
(The [text in brackets] in the original manuscript are missing from the physical manuscript. The strikeouts and <insertions> in the printer's manuscript are in Joseph's hand.)
It is thought that this simply recommends a prophetic commentary on Joseph Smith's part describing the proper interpretation of the phrase "waters of Judah." It is not regarded as an error, or likely part of the original Book of Mormon plates' text.
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