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Peterson advocates for an unauthorised version of the Book of Mormon to be used at Church
Posted: Tue May 10, 2022 2:13 pm
by IHAQ
I’m pleased to mention here that tomorrow, 10 May 2022, is the date for which Yale University Press has scheduled the release of the second edition of The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text. Edited by my longtime friend and colleague Royal Skousen, the new book will appear as a trade paperback.
After five printings of the hardback edition (from 2009 up through 2020) — a record of success, by the way, that I’m told may have caught Yale somewhat by surprise (academic presses have relatively little experience with high sales figures) — YUP has decided to issue this durable softbound edition, which has a somewhat smaller format (6 × 9 × 1 inches) than the first hardbound edition’s 7½ × 9½ × 2 inches.
There are several features of this new version of The Earliest Text, most but by no means all of them continued from the landmark first edition, that I want to mention here:
For one thing, opaque paper has been specially selected to help the reader see a clean page of text, without interference from the printing on the reverse side of the page. And yet, remarkably, the physical thickness of the book has been reduced by one half. Its reduced dimensions will make it very handy for travel and for taking to church.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... 95035.html
Is the Church okay for its members to be replacing the official version of the Book of Mormon’s purchased from church sources, with this independent re-written version authored by Skousen? Should teachers use it to teach from? Can it be used for quotes within a Church talk? Will general authorities cite it during General Conference? Or is this a dangerous precedent? Does it undermine the official version?
Re: Peterson advocates for an unauthorised version of the Book of Mormon to be used at Church
Posted: Tue May 10, 2022 2:34 pm
by Philo Sofee
So long as they testify of the EMod in it and the Medieval spiritual help to Joseph Smith, everything should be A-OK....
I mean, Peterson has to find some way to justify over $300,000 sunk into this losing project, so tout it for all it's worth. After all, an actual
College academic press printing is vastly superior to a mere Church publication, right?
Re: Peterson advocates for an unauthorised version of the Book of Mormon to be used at Church
Posted: Tue May 10, 2022 3:28 pm
by Fence Sitter
Recently the church has cracked down on unauthorized publications of the scriptures by forbidding any church controlled publisher like Deseret Book or BYU from publishing them. So books like Grant Hardy's Book of Mormon or Thom Wayment's New Testament are no long available through a church outlet.
So no the church is not okay with this.
Re: Peterson advocates for an unauthorised version of the Book of Mormon to be used at Church
Posted: Tue May 10, 2022 9:12 pm
by drumdude
Id like to know what significant changes are in this version. It would probably be so few as to be able to fit into a Peterson blog entry.
Re: Peterson advocates for an unauthorised version of the Book of Mormon to be used at Church
Posted: Wed May 11, 2022 12:48 am
by Marcus
drumdude wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 9:12 pm
Id like to know what significant changes are in this version. It would probably be so few as to be able to fit into a Peterson blog entry.
I don’t know, Skousen seems to have changed quite a bit:
The Yale edition of the Book of Mormon takes advantage of all the important findings of the Critical Text Project, including the following:
615 readings that have never before appeared in any standard printed edition
251 readings that make a difference in meaning
19 corrected spellings of names
133 readings that make the text more consistent in phraseology or usage
38 readings that restore a unique phrase or word choice to the text
Re: Peterson advocates for an unauthorised version of the Book of Mormon to be used at Church
Posted: Wed May 11, 2022 12:59 am
by drumdude
The First Edition(2009) of this Yale version of the Book of Mormon is available in full for free here:
https://bookofmormoncentral.org/content ... liest-text
The list of changes is in the appendix at the end.
Re: Peterson advocates for an unauthorised version of the Book of Mormon to be used at Church
Posted: Wed May 11, 2022 8:53 am
by IHAQ
Marcus wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 12:48 am
drumdude wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 9:12 pm
Id like to know what significant changes are in this version. It would probably be so few as to be able to fit into a Peterson blog entry.
I don’t know, Skousen seems to have changed quite a bit:
The Yale edition of the Book of Mormon takes advantage of all the important findings of the Critical Text Project, including the following:
615 readings that have never before appeared in any standard printed edition
251 readings that make a difference in meaning
19 corrected spellings of names
133 readings that make the text more consistent in phraseology or usage
38 readings that restore a unique phrase or word choice to the text
Given the amount of changes, and the materiality of a large number of those changes (251 that make a difference in meaning) I’d suggest this is an apostate publication unless, or until the church sanctions it.
Re: Peterson advocates for an unauthorised version of the Book of Mormon to be used at Church
Posted: Wed May 11, 2022 3:53 pm
by huckelberry
I am not the foremost expert but I am pretty sure apostate would only apply if the church authorities condemned the book and forbade its use in ways that individuals refused to stop using it.
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Perhaps I could add that I am not interested in arguing this point or insisting anybody is wrong. I am actually curious about how narrow the church has become since the decade of 1960 which is the time for which I am most familiar with the church. I have heard that teaching expectations have become much narrower than they were then.I sometimes get the impression that some of the Mormon belief in seeking all truth is being replaced by seeking only one approved source.
Re: Peterson advocates for an unauthorised version of the Book of Mormon to be used at Church
Posted: Thu May 12, 2022 4:41 am
by drumdude
huckelberry wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 3:53 pm
I am not the foremost expert but I am pretty sure apostate would only apply if the church authorities condemned the book and forbade its use in ways that individuals refused to stop using it.
////
Perhaps I could add that I am not interested in arguing this point or insisting anybody is wrong. I am actually curious about how narrow the church has become since the decade of 1960 which is the time for which I am most familiar with the church. I have heard that teaching expectations have become much narrower than they were then.I sometimes get the impression that some of the Mormon belief in seeking all truth is being replaced by seeking only one approved source.
I think that’s the basic history of Correlation.
Re: Peterson advocates for an unauthorised version of the Book of Mormon to be used at Church
Posted: Thu May 12, 2022 8:00 am
by IHAQ
I wonder if there’s a log detailing what the 251 changes of meaning are?