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| - The Eighth Article of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints states, "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly." In June 1830, Joseph Smith began creating a new "translation" of the King James Version of the Bible. However, this was not a literal translation from one language to another. It was a revelatory experience using the English text. Joseph Smith had learned from 1 Nephi 13:20-39 and Moses 1:40-41 that important pieces of the Bible manuscript had been removed or altered over time. Moses 1:40-41 states, And now, Moses, my son, I will speak unto thee concerning this earth upon which thou standest; and thou shalt write the things which I shall speak. And in a day when the children of men shall esteem my words as naught and take many of them from the book which thou shalt write, behold, I will raise up another like unto thee; and they shall be had again among the children of menâamong as many as shall believe. The work of translation proceeded from June 1830 until July 1833. Joseph originally translated chapters 1 - 17 of Genesis. He had been working for months on the early chapters of Genesis, when he received a revelation from the Lord (March 7, 1831) instructing him to begin a new transmission of the New Testament (Doctrine and Covenants 45:60-61). Joseph worked through the entire New Testament and then returned to the Old Testament. As work progressed in fits and starts, due to persecutions, Joseph was instructed to hasten his work. Joseph was preparing the translation for printing at the time of his death in 1844. His translation included 477 pages of manuscript and a King James Bible with notations. The manuscript was mostly written by scribes including Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer, and Sidney Rigdon. Sidney Rigdon appears to have been the principal scribe. The Joseph Smith translation differs from the King James Version in "at least 3,410 verses, and consists of additions, deletions, rearrangements, and other alterations that cause it to vary not only from the King James Version, but from other biblical texts" (Matthews, EoM, p. 764). In fact, The Church has never published the entire translation. Portions of the translation of the Book of Genesis became the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price, and Joseph Smith-Matthew became a separate section in the Pearl of Great Price. Other translated scriptural verses and small changes appear as annotations to the King James Version of the Bible and in the appendix of the volume. Joseph Smith explained, "I believe the Bible as it read when it came from the pen of the original writers. Ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests have committed many errors....From sundry revelations which had been received, it was apparent that many points touching the salvation of men, had been taken from the Bible, or lost before it was compiled" (TPJS, pp. 9, 10, 327).
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