Question
Gramps,
Hi, I am a member of the church. I am just trying to understand how to use the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible and combine it with the King James version.
Dennis
Answer
Dear Dennis,
In June of 1830, Joseph Smith was commanded to provide an inspired translation of the Bible. He read through his copy of the Bible and wrote notes on portions that needed correcting. He printed lengthy portions of it (such as our present-day book of Moses) and completed an initial version of it in 1833. In fairness, it could be considered complete in the sense that he made it through all the books from Genesis to Revelation, but some of the sermons given before his martyrdom indicate that there were additional changes yet to be made.
The LDS printing of the Bible includes Joseph Smith’s changes in the footnotes, with lengthier excerpts found in the appendix. Two large chunks are also found in The Pearl of Great Price as Moses and Joseph Smith-Matthew. If you want to read the Bible with the Prophet’s changes seamlessly included, you can purchase the Inspired Version of the Bible.
I usually include these inspired annotations in my scripture study. I use the paradigm that these are the words all Christians would have if the ancient apostles and prophets (like Paul or Isaiah) wrote their epistles today.
Gramps