Has the book of Mormon been changed since it was first written?

Question

The reason I am asking is I have a copy from the 40 and i heard of changes being made. I wanted to make sure i am reading the same as everyone else.

KirstyCristy i was reading that web page when I got the notification of your answer.

Answer 1

The best way to find out would be to go to http://www.mormon.org where you can order a free copy of the Book of Mormon, or read it online, and as you're reading your copy from the 40s, compare it to the modern copy.

Answer 2

Critics of the Church often claim that there have been significant doctrinal changes to the Book of Mormon since the first printing. They make these false claims to discredit our assertion that the Book of Mormon was translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith through the gift and power of God.

First, while we claim that the Book of Mormon is true scripture, we do not claim that the entire process for bringing the translation to the world was free from error. It is important to remember that the Church claims that only Jesus Christ was perfect and did not make mistakes.

Some minor errors, mainly spelling and grammatical, in the text have been perpetuated in past editions of the Book of Mormon. The current edition contains corrections that seem appropriate to bring the material in conformity with pre-production manuscripts and early editions edited by the Prophet Joseph Smith.

At first, the 3,913 changes you cite sound rather significant. But if you recheck your source you will find that even the anti-Mormons Jerald and Sandra Tanner admit that the 3,913 changes were not really significant at all:

"As we stated earlier, most of the 3,913 changes which we found were related to the correction of grammatical and spelling errors and do not really change the basic meaning of the text." (Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Changing World of Mormonism, Chicago: Moody Pres., 1980, p 131, emphasis added)

When the Prophet Joseph dictated the translation from the plates, a scribe copied down his words. Since only Jesus Christ was perfect, it is not surprising that the scribes made some minor errors. In addition, the non-Mormon typesetter that the Church hired to take the handwritten manuscript to book form was forced to decipher the scribe’s handwriting to set the type. Also, consider that the printing process in 1830 was much more manual and cumbersome than the ones we use today. With all the intervention by fallible mortals required to bring forth the printing of the Book of Mormon, it is surprising that more grammatical and spelling errors were not made. It is important to note that the changes in the Book of Mormon text are actually insignificant to the number of changes that have been made in the Bible throughout the centuries.

Answer 3

Not the actual text. Only punctuation and grammer mistakes were corrected. Also chapter headings were added giving a synopsis of each chapter. An index and footnotes for cross referencing the bible and other sections in the Book of Mormon were also included. There hasn't been any changes to the original text.
Cindy- your comment is totally fictional. Pylogomy isn't even mentioned in the Book of Mormon. If you would actully read it you would have known that. Also there is no mention of white men being unfair to blacks. Again if you would have read it you would have found that there was not a white or black race mentioned in the book whatsoever they were jewish and of native origin. Maybe you should do some research before you ignorrantly try to answer something you have no idea about.

Answer 4

When the Book of Mormon was first written it was not divided into chapter and verse. Neither was the Bible divided into chapter and verse when it was first written. Some typographical errors were in the first copy of the Book of Mormon. Typographical errors were in the first translations of the Bible.

Read any version of the Book of Mormon that you like. You won't go wrong doing that, if you can overlook a few misspellings. Don't rely on what some anti-Mormon site says, read the book yourself.

Answer 5

Text changes made to the Book of Mormon since 1830:
http://www.josephlied.com/changes.html

The 3,913 changes in the Book of Mormon don't include even a single punctuation error. Virtually none of Joseph Smith's mistakes were simple misspellings.

Answer 6

Most definately.

The most recent is the change from polygamy to monagomy, but expect a new one soon, they are getting ready to take out the parts about black men and women being inferior to whites.

But mostly the book does not change in between leaders, for instance, when Smith was killed, Young took over , and then the book was rewritten to accomodate his personal humanistic beliefs.

Answer 7

Why bother, it is a fabulous couterfeit of a Holy Book that will stand the test of time.(like the Quran).

Answer 8

I dont think so. it pretty much stayed like Joseph Smith wrote it

Answer 9

lmao, very much so....