Because there are no explicitly stated purposes of Joseph Smith’s Bible translation project—either by him or in any of his revelations—all explanations offered about or criticisms leveled at his Bible translation are based on assumptions and best guesses at best.
But then, there’s nothing wrong with educated best guesses so long as we are not overly dogmatic and we humbly recognize the tentativeness of our position. The current best evidence from the best scholarship on the topic proposes that the Joseph Smith Translations of the Bible was intended to be and to do several things, rather than just one thing.
On this episode of Church History Matters we’ll review these potential purposes and offer another possibility about what we believe may be the PRIMARY purpose behind Joseph’s Bible translation—what we call the revelatory springboard effect.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/