How the Book of Mormon Has Changed Since 1830

Discussion of changes to the Book of Mormon often settles into two opposing claims: either the book has remained essentially unchanged since 1830, or later editors rewrote it beyond recognition. The reality is that both positions carry a bit of truth.

Although the main narrative remains recognizable, the book has changed in several distinct ways. Its wording and grammar were revised in the early editions.⁶,⁷ The chapter and verse system was reorganized in 1879, while chapter summaries were added in 1920.¹⁹ Those summaries and other study aids were revised again in 2013 and 2025.²⁰,²¹

Following these changes in chronological order makes their differences easier to see. The history begins with dictation in 1829 and continues through the original and printer’s manuscripts, the 1830 printing, Joseph Smith’s revisions, and the later editorial committees that produced the modern edition. Tracing that sequence also makes it possible to distinguish changes to the scriptural wording from changes to the material surrounding it.

1829: The Text Began as Dictation

The English Book of Mormon began as spoken text, with almost all of the present book dictated by Joseph Smith between April and June 1829, with Oliver Cowdery serving as the scribe. The surviving original manuscript contains hearing-type errors, indicating that the scribes were recording spoken words rather than copying a prepared English text.¹

Later accounts from participants and observers describe Joseph Smith speaking the wording aloud while using the interpreters (spectacles) or a seer stone, often placed in a hat to exclude light. Because most descriptions of the mechanics were recorded after the translation, they are best treated as later recollections rather than a contemporary procedural record.¹ Once the dictation was complete, Cowdery and other scribes prepared a second copy, now known as the printer’s manuscript, for use in typesetting.²

By the time the book reached readers, its English text had passed through dictation, a handwritten original manuscript, a copied printer’s manuscript, and the typesetting process. That sequence helps explain why its publication history includes both deliberate revisions and accidental differences, including punctuation choices, copying variants, and omitted wording.²,³

1830: The Printer Shaped the First Edition

When the manuscripts arrived at Egbert B. Grandin’s shop, they contained little punctuation, leaving much of the printed structure to the typesetter. Recalling the work in 1892, more than six decades after the printing, John H. Gilbert wrote:

“Every Chapter, if I remember correctly, was one solid paragraph, without a punctuation mark, from beginning to end. … I punctuated it to make it read as I supposed the Author intended.”³

Gilbert supplied most of the punctuation and divided the prose into paragraphs, while the first edition appeared without numbered verses and with 114 long chapters.³,⁴ The familiar visual structure of the modern Book of Mormon was therefore absent from both the dictated manuscript and the Palmyra printing.

The same copying and typesetting process also introduced mistakes. In Alma 32:30, the printer appears to have moved from one repeated phrase to another, dropping thirty-five words that were present in the manuscripts.⁵ The 1830 publication stated:

“But behold, as the seed swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, then you must needs say t hat the seed is good; for behold it swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow.”⁵

While the verse in the original manuscript was much longer:

“But behold, as the seed swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, then you must needs say that the seed is good; for behold it swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow. And now, behold, will not this strengthen your faith, Yea, it will strengthen your faith: for ye will say I know that this is a good seed; for behold it sprouteth and beginneth to grow.⁵

Because the omitted passage was not restored in standard editions until the twentieth century, readers encountered the shortened version for more than a hundred years.⁵

1837: Grammar, Theology, and Narrative Details

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery prepared the second edition in Kirtland, with its preface acknowledging “the numerous typographical errors which always occur in manuscript editions” and stating that the text had been “carefully re-examined and compared with the original manuscripts.”⁶ Their work introduced more than a thousand corrections.⁷

Many of those revisions standardized grammar, as First Nephi 5:11 shows:

1830: “Adam and Eve, which was our first parents.”⁸

1837: “Adam and Eve, who were our first parents.”⁹

Other revisions altered how the book described Jesus:

1 Nephi 11:18

1830: “the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh”¹⁰

1837: “the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh”¹¹

1 Nephi 11:21

1830: “the Lamb of God, yea, even the Eternal Father”¹⁰

1837: “the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father”¹¹

1 Nephi 13:40

1830: “the Lamb of God is the Eternal Father and the Saviour of the world”¹²

1837: “the Lamb of God is the Son of the eternal Father, and the Savior of the world”¹³

An official Church history topic calls these revisions “important clarifications,” but their direction is also visible in the wording itself: each inserts “the Son of” where the 1830 text directly identified the Lamb as God or the Eternal Father.⁷

The edition also corrected a royal name in Mosiah 21:28:

1830: “king Benjamin had a gift from God, whereby he could interpret such engravings.”¹⁴

1837: “king Mosiah had a gift from God, whereby he could interpret such engravings.”¹⁵

Because the narrative had already reported Benjamin’s death in Mosiah 6:5, changing the name to Mosiah brought the later passage into line with the chronology.²²

1840: Joseph Smith Added and Reconsidered Wording

The Cincinnati edition of 1840, the last supervised by Joseph Smith, incorporated revisions that he had marked in a copy of the 1837 edition.⁷

Among those revisions was an addition to 1 Nephi 20:1:

1830: “come forth out of the waters of Judah”¹⁶

1840: “come forth out of the waters of Judah, or out of the waters of baptism”¹⁷

The phrase “or out of the waters of baptism” does not appear in the 1830 edition but enters the verse in 1840.¹⁶,¹⁷ Since the added words are not a restoration visible in the earlier printed text, they function as an interpretive gloss placed within the verse.

Smith also revised 2 Nephi 30:6:

Earlier editions: “a white and a delightsome people”⁷

1840: “a pure and a delightsome people”⁷

Because later publishers often relied on the 1837 edition as their base text, “white” returned and remained in many editions until the 1981 committee restored Smith’s 1840 reading.⁷

1849: A Second King Benjamin Reference Was Changed

After Joseph Smith’s death, the 1849 edition made a similar name correction in Ether 4:1, changing “king Benjamin” to “king Mosiah.”⁷

1879: Orson Pratt Redivided the Chapters

Orson Pratt’s 1879 edition replaced the long chapter system with shorter chapters and numbered verses that remain standard.⁷,¹⁹ Where the 1830 edition contained 114 chapters, Pratt’s arrangement produced the present 239.⁴ First Nephi expanded from seven chapters to twenty-two, Second Nephi from fifteen to thirty-three, Mosiah from thirteen to twenty-nine, Alma from thirty to sixty-three, and Third Nephi from fourteen to thirty.¹⁸

Although this restructuring did not alter the narrative wording, it changed how readers encountered the text, since a sermon or historical sequence that had once appeared as a single unit could now be divided across several chapters with new opening and closing points.

1920: Editors Added Chapter Summaries

Prepared by a committee of five apostles and printed in 1921, the 1920 edition standardized book titles, arranged the text in two columns, revised the footnotes and index, added a pronunciation guide, and supplied a summary for every chapter.¹⁹

Those summaries were editorial study aids rather than translated scripture. As a later Church explanation states, chapter headings “are not original to the text but are study helps included for convenience in reading.”²⁰ By placing an institutional summary before every chapter, the edition gave readers an interpretive frame before they reached the verses.

1981: Manuscripts and Earlier Editions Were Reconsulted

During the 1970s, the Scripture Publication Committee compared the original manuscript, the printer’s manuscript, and earlier printed editions, producing a 1981 edition with a new layout, expanded cross-references and study materials, and revised chapter headings.⁷

The same review restored readings that had been lost or overlooked, including the 1840 phrase “pure and delightsome” in 2 Nephi 30:6 and the thirty-five words omitted from Alma 32:30 in 1830.⁵,⁷ In those cases, the modern text moved closer to earlier documentary sources rather than merely adopting newer language.

2013: Text and Chapter Summaries Were Standardized

When deteriorating printing masters had to be replaced, the Church issued a new English edition in 2013, making a small number of scriptural corrections involving spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and earlier readings. Among the examples were “first-born” becoming “firstborn,” “becoming as Gods” becoming “becoming as gods,” and “the peoples’” becoming “the people’s.”⁷

Most of the work, however, affected the material surrounding the scriptural text. More than 99 percent of the adjustments were made in study aids, with chapter summaries standardized, dates moved into headings, pronouns referring to deity capitalized, and incomplete or inaccurate summaries revised.²⁰

The published correction list shows how those changes altered the framing of individual chapters:

2 Nephi 7

1981: “Isaiah speaks messianically.”²⁰

2013: “Jacob continues reading from Isaiah: Isaiah speaks messianically.”²⁰

2 Nephi 8

1981: “In the last days, the Lord will comfort Zion and gather Israel.”²⁰

2013: “Jacob continues reading from Isaiah: In the last days, the Lord will comfort Zion and gather Israel.”²⁰

Jacob 2

1981: “Jacob condemns the unauthorized practice of plural marriage.”²⁰

2013: “The Lord commands that no man among the Nephites may have more than one wife.”²⁰

The 2013 edition also used typography to distinguish translated material from editorial material, placing book introductions taken from the plates in roman type while leaving chapter summaries italicized as study helps.²⁰

2025: Two More Summaries Changed

In 2025, the Church revised two more Book of Mormon study summaries:

Preceding 3 Nephi 11

Earlier: “Comprising chapters 11 through 26.”²¹

Revised: “Beginning with chapter 11.”²¹

The accompanying explanation states that the earlier wording did not account for Jesus continuing to minister after 3 Nephi 26.²¹

3 Nephi 27

Earlier: “Jesus commands them to call the Church in His name.”²¹

Revised: “Jesus commands that the Church be called in His name.”²¹

According to the Church’s explanation, the revised wording broadens the command beyond the people directly addressed in the narrative.²¹

What the Chronology Shows

Taken together, the editions show several different forms of intervention rather than one continuous kind of editing. The 1830 printer supplied punctuation and paragraphing.³ Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery supervised extensive revisions in 1837, and Smith oversaw additional revisions in 1840.⁶,⁷ Orson Pratt introduced a new chapter and verse system in 1879.¹⁹ The 1981 edition restored readings from earlier manuscripts and editions.⁵,⁷ Chapter summaries and other study aids were revised in 2013 and again in 2025.²⁰,²¹

The modern Book of Mormon remains recognizably the work printed in 1830, but it is not a word-for-word or page-for-page reproduction of that edition. It is a layered editorial product, shaped both by changes to the translated text and by the interpretive material that surrounds it.