Lucifer's Lantern

     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 script...

Smith’s description of the Book of Mormon is one of the most familiar statements in Latter-day Saint history. In November 1841, Wilford Woodruff recorded Joseph calling it “the most correct of any book on earth” and saying that a person would “get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” He also called it the “keystone” of the religion. [1] Modern Church life reflects those claims. Missionaries place the Book of Mormon at the center of conversion. Members are encouraged to read it every day. General Conference speakers quote it constantly, and Church lessons often treat a testimony of the book as the surest path toward accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet. Ezra Taft Benson reinforced that emphasis when he called the Book of Mormon the keystone of the Church’s witness of Christ, its doctrine, and individual testimony. [17] That makes a historical question hard to avoid: did Joseph Smith himself use the Book of Mormon the way the modern Church does? The surviving...