Difference between revisions of "Book of Mormon textual changes/white or pure?"

(Created subpage)
 
Line 40: Line 40:
 
{{BoMCriticalText}}
 
{{BoMCriticalText}}
 
{{BoMPrint}}
 
{{BoMPrint}}
 +
 +
[[fr:Book of Mormon textual changes/white or pure?]]

Revision as of 19:34, 1 May 2010

This article is a draft. FairMormon editors are currently editing it. We welcome your suggestions on improving the content.

Answers portal
Book of Mormon
GoldPlates1.jpg
Resources.icon.tiny.1.png    RESOURCES

General information:


Book of Mormon & Bible:


Criticisms:

Perspectives.icon.tiny.1.png    PERSPECTIVES
Media.icon.tiny.1.png    MEDIA
Resources.icon.tiny.1.png    OTHER PORTALS

Criticism

Source(s) of the criticism

Response

This change was a deliberate editorial change by Joseph Smith to clarify the meaning of the term "white" in the original:

  • 2 Nephi 30꞉6 (1830 edition, italics added): "...they shall be a white and a delightsome people."
  • 2 Nephi 30꞉6 (1837 edition, italics added): "...they shall be a pure and a delightsome people."

In this edition numerous corrections were made to the text of the 1830 (first) edition to bring it back to the reading in the original and printer's manuscripts. Joseph Smith also made a number of editorial changes to the text, as was his right as the translator of the text.

Joseph probably made this change because he realized that readers were seeing this as a literal issue (i.e., skin color), rather than symbolic (i.e., righteous). The change removed the ambiguity.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, this change went unnoticed in subsequent editions, until the preparation of the 1981 edition. So, the 1981 edition restored a reading that went back to 1837; the change is not (as the critics want to portray it) a "recent" change designed to remove a "racist" original.

Endnotes

None

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

Template:BoMWiki

FAIR web site

  • FairMormon Topical Guide: Changes in the Book of Mormon FairMormon link
  • Royal Skousen, "Changes In the Book of Mormon," 2002 FAIR Conference proceedings. FAIR link

External links

Template:BoMLinks

Printed material

Template:BoMCriticalText Template:BoMPrint