KnoWhy #800 | July 8, 2025
How Did the Joseph Smith Translation Serve as a Springboard for Many Revelations?
Post contributed by
Scripture Central
“And, verily I say unto you, that it is my will that you should hasten to translate my scriptures . . . for the salvation of Zion. Amen.” Doctrine and Covenants 93:53
The Know
Between June 1830 and July 1833, the Prophet Joseph Smith spent much of his time working on a new translation of the Bible (commonly referred to as the Joseph Smith Translation, or JST, today). Significantly, Kent P. Jackson and other scholars have noted, “Over half of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants came between June 1830 and July 1833, the time during which Joseph Smith was working on his New Translation of the Bible.”1
Because of this, it should not be surprising to find repeated references, allusions, and other connections to the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible within the Doctrine and Covenants. Indeed, as Robert J. Matthews, one of the leading scholars on the JST, observed, “Many verses in the Doctrine and Covenants do not radiate their full meaning and are obscure to a modern reader until he learns that there is a connection to Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible.”2 The fact that so many revelations were received during the time when the work on the translation of the Bible was underway “is not a coincidence but a consequence. It was Joseph Smith’s study and translation of the Bible that set the stage for the reception of many revelations on the doctrines of the gospel.”3
Throughout Joseph’s revelations, readers will find “regulatory and instructional information about the Joseph Smith Translation, giving direction about when to begin, when to pause, who is to scribe, and what parts of the Bible to translate next, as well as exhortation to move more rapidly and make plans for publication.”4 From Joseph’s revelations, we learn that Sidney Rigdon, John Whitmer, and Frederick G. Williams had each been called at various points to scribe for Joseph Smith during the translation process.5 These scribes took their calls seriously and were of great aid to Joseph Smith during the translation process.
Other passages in the Doctrine and Covenants instruct Joseph when to pause or continue the translation given the needs of the Church.6 Once the translation had been completed, the Lord also gave the Saints instructions to print the new translation and secure its copyright, though neither of these could be accomplished in Joseph Smith’s lifetime.7 Other revelations stressed how important this work would be for the Saints. In one memorable passage, the Lord instructed Joseph, “I say unto you, that it is my will that you should hasten to translate my scriptures . . . for the salvation of Zion. Amen.”8
Many revelations came as Joseph and his scribes learned new and important doctrines while translating the Bible. As Matthews observed, “Often revelations of doctrinal significance first came to Joseph Smith during his labors with the translation [of the Bible].”9 Occasionally a revelation would come as questions were raised during the translation process. One of the most memorable and important revelations in this dispensation regarding the kingdoms of glory came precisely because Joseph’s revelatory translation of John 5:29 caused Joseph and Sidney to marvel and meditate on what they had just learned (see Doctrine and Covenants 76:18–19). Doctrine and Covenants 77 is a series of questions and answers about the book of Revelation that arose as a result of the translation process. Furthermore, portions of Doctrine and Covenants 132 regarding plural marriage were first revealed to Joseph as early as 1831 when he was translating the chapters in Genesis about Abraham and Sarah.10
Doctrine and Covenants 29:31–42 contains information about “the spiritual and temporal creations, agency, the rebellion of Lucifer, the fall of Adam and the introduction of the gospel to Adam and his posterity.”11 All these themes are found in JST, Genesis (located in Moses 1–4), which Joseph Smith had translated before receiving this revelation.12 Similarly, the law of consecration was only revealed after Joseph Smith had received Moses 6–7, relating to Enoch and the city of Zion, as well as many of the revelations referring to the location of Zion in this dispensation. In these cases, it would appear that the Joseph Smith Translation was a strong influence on the Saints’ understanding of building a Zion community preparatory for the Second Coming.13
Another important doctrine that was first revealed to the Saints through Joseph’s translation of the Bible was the age of accountability. In JST, Genesis 17:11, the Lord tells Abraham, “Children are not accountable before me until they are eight years old.”14 This portion of the Bible was translated sometime in the spring of 1831 and was undoubtedly shared with the Church when it was received. Later, in November 1831, the same doctrine would be reiterated in Doctrine and Covenants 68:25–27. Thus, this important point of clarification, which was not mentioned by Mormon in his letter found in Moroni 8, was revealed “six to nine months earlier than it appears in the Doctrine and Covenants.”15
Doctrine and Covenants 84:25–27 also contains material regarding the Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthoods that parallel JST, Exodus 34. While it is not clear which revelation came first, both were received close together: Section 84 was received September 22 or 23, 1832, and JST, Exodus 34 was translated sometime in August or September 1832.16
Another revelation, found in Doctrine and Covenants 86 and containing an explicit and expansive explanation of the parable of the wheat and the tares, was received in connection with the Joseph Smith Translation of Matthew 13.17
The Why
Because the Joseph Smith Translation was so prominent in the revelatory process, it provides important context for modern readers who want to better understand Joseph Smith’s revelations. Robert J. Matthews explained, “As we become better acquainted with the books of holy scripture, we more fully recognize that it is important to our understanding to look into the background whence the revelations came. . . . Until we have become familiar with the background, our comprehension of any book is liable to be superficial.”18
The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible provides much of that context. Kerry Muhlestein observed,
In the infancy of the Church, Joseph’s revelatory work on translating the Bible and his other concurrent revelations laid, stone by stone, a doctrinal foundation upon which the Church would firmly stand. The revelations resulting in the Joseph Smith Translation, which he called the New Translation, and those in the Doctrine and Covenants are not two separate sides of this foundation but are instead many individual stones that overlay and interlock.19
As such, the JST is, according to Matthews, “a preliminary source for many of the theological statements in the Doctrine and Covenants.”20
Furthermore, the Joseph Smith Translation “was the means and the process by which many of the doctrines of the gospel were revealed in the very early days of this dispensation.”21 It also served to aid Joseph Smith in his own understanding of the gospel and the Bible as well. As the Lord Himself later described, He always speaks to His prophets “after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:24). In this way, the Joseph Smith Translation helped Joseph become more familiar with the Bible while also providing the means whereby plain and precious truths of the gospel could be restored.22 In many ways, his faithful and diligent work on the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible helped Joseph to magnify and fulfill the calling that he had received from God to become the Prophet of the Restoration in this culminating dispensation of the fullness of times.
Kent P. Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2022), 157–71.
Kerry Muhlestein, “One Continuous Flow: Revelations Surrounding the ‘New Translation,’” in The Doctrine and Covenants: Revelations in Context, ed. Andrew H. Hedges, J. Spencer Fluhman, and Alonzo L. Gaskill (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2008), 40–65.
Robert J. Matthews, “Doctrinal Connections with the Joseph Smith Translation,” in The Doctrine and Covenants: A Book of Answers, ed. Leon R. Hartshorn, Dennis A. Wright, and Craig J. Ostler (Deseret Book, 1996), 27–42.
Robert J. Matthews, “A Plainer Translation”: Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible, a History and Commentary (Brigham Young University Press, 1985), 255–66.
Robert J. Matthews, “The Joseph Smith Translation: A Primary Source for the Doctrine and Covenants,” in Hearken, O Ye People: Discourses on the Doctrine and Covenants (Randall Book, 1984), 79–92.
- 1. Kent P. Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2022), 157. See also Robert L. Millet, “Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible and the Doctrine and Covenants,” in Studies in Scripture, vol. 1, The Doctrine and Covenants, ed. Robert L. Millet and Kent P. Jackson (Deseret Book, 1989), 138, who notes that approximately 56 percent of the Doctrine and Covenants was revealed during this time period.
- 2. Robert J. Matthews, “Doctrinal Connections with the Joseph Smith Translation,” in The Doctrine and Covenants: A Book of Answers, ed. Leon R. Hartshorn, Dennis A. Wright, and Craig J. Ostler (Deseret Book, 1996), 29.
- 3. Robert J. Matthews, “A Plainer Translation”: Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible, a History and Commentary (Brigham Young University Press, 1985), 256. Mattews continues on this page: “There is an inseparable connection between the New Translation of the Bible and many of the revelations that constitute the book of Doctrine and Covenants.”
- 4. Matthews, “Doctrinal Connections,” 28.
- 5. See Doctrine and Covenants 35:20 for Sidney Rigdon’s call; Doctrine and Covenants 47:1 for John Whitmer’s call; and an uncanonized revelation dated January 5, 1833, for Frederick G. Williams’s call. For a discussion on the context of this uncanonized revelation as well as the text of the revelation itself, see Stephen O. Smoot and Brian C. Passantino, eds., Joseph Smith’s Uncanonized Revelations (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2024), 57–58.
- 6. See Doctrine and Covenants 37:1, 41:7, and 73:3–4. Elsewhere, the Lord instructed Joseph to pause the translation of the Old Testament to focus on the New Testament (Doctrine and Covenants 45:60–61), to not translate the Apocrypha (Doctrine and Covenants 91), and to pause the translation efforts for a time (in an uncanonized revelation dated March 20, 1832). For a discussion on the context of this uncanonized revelation and the text of the revelation itself, see Smoot and Passantino, Joseph Smith’s Uncanonized Revelations, 55–56.
- 7. See Doctrine and Covenants 94:10–12; 104:58; and 124:89–90. A portion of section 104 dealing with securing the copyright of the new translation has not been canonized but can be found in Smoot and Passantino, Joseph Smith’s Uncanonized Revelations, 59–61. In the case of Doctrine and Covenants 124:89–90, William Marks was instructed to print the new translation, but he did not obey this counsel; see Matthews, “Doctrinal Connections,” 40.
- 8. Doctrine and Covenants 93:53. Doctrine and Covenants 42:12–15 also suggested that the JST would be used to teach the fullness of the gospel when it would be completed. Other passages related to the coming forth of the JST include Doctrine and Covenants 42:56; 43:13; and 90:13.
- 9. Matthews, “Doctrinal Connections,” 28. See also Matthews, “Plainer Translation,” 257.
- 10. It is likely that this came as a direct result of Joseph reading about the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob having multiple wives while he was translating the Old Testament. For discussions on this topic, see Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation, 169–70, Casey Paul Griffiths, Scripture Central Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, 4 vols. (Scripture Central; Cedar Fort, 2024), 4:235–36.
- 11. Robert J. Matthews, “The Joseph Smith Translation: A Primary Source for the Doctrine and Covenants,” in Hearken, O Ye People: Discourses on the Doctrine and Covenants (Randall Book, 1984), 82–83. Matthews also notes, “The doctrinal emphasis of these topics is clear and prominent in the JST but is almost totally lacking in any other Bible.” See also Matthews, “Doctrinal Connections,” 32; see also Matthews, “Some Relationships,” 4–5.
- 12. For a discussion on how this revelation and the JST fit together alongside the Book of Mormon’s teachings on the Creation and Fall, see Kerry Muhlestein, “One Continuous Flow: Revelations Surrounding the ‘New Translation,’” in The Doctrine and Covenants: Revelations in Context, ed. Andrew H. Hedges, J. Spencer Fluhman, and Alonzo L. Gaskill (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2008), 51–52. Also see Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation, 158–59, for a comparison between the wording of the Joseph Smith Translation and Doctrine and Covenants 29 to highlight how this revelation was influenced by the JST.
- 13. See Doctrine and Covenants 38:4; 42:1, 2, 30–55, 59; 45:11–12. For discussions on how these sections were influenced by the JST, see Matthews, “Doctrinal Connections,” 34–36; Matthews, “Primary Source for the Doctrine and Covenants,” 83–86; Matthews, “Some Relationships,” 6; Muhlestein, “One Continuous Flow,” 53, 57, 61.
- 14. For the complete Joseph Smith Translation in parallel columns with the King James Version, see Kent P. Jackson, ed., Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible: The Joseph Smith Translation and the King James Translation in Parallel Columns (BYU Press; Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2021).
- 15. Matthews, “Some Relationships,” 7; see also Matthews, “Plainer Translation,” 260–261; Matthews, “Primary Source for the Doctrine and Covenants,” 87; Matthews, “Doctrinal Connections,” 40; Matthews, “Some Relationships,” 8; Millet, “Joseph Smith’s Translation,” 140.
- 16. See Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation, 165.
- 17. Jackson, Understanding Joseph Smith’s Translation, 165–66; Matthews, “Doctrinal Connections,” 38. See further John W. Welch, “Modern Revelation and the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares: A Guide to Research About the Apostasy,” in Early Christians in Disarray: Contemporary LDS Perspectives on the Christian Apostasy, ed. Noel B. Reynolds (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2005), 101–32.
- 18. Matthews, “Some Relationships,” 2.
- 19. Muhlestein, “One Continuous Flow,” 40–41; see also Millet, “Joseph Smith’s Translation,” 142.
- 20. Matthews, “Doctrinal Connections,” 28.
- 21. Matthews, “Plainer Translation,” 265; see also Matthews, “Doctrinal Connections,” 40, 42; Thomas E. Sherry, “What If There Were No Joseph Smith Translation of The Bible?,” in Joseph Smith and the Doctrinal Restoration, ed. W. Jeffrey Marsh (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2005), 319.
- 22. See Matthews, “Primary Source for the Doctrine and Covenants,” 90; Scott H. Faulring, Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews, eds., Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2004), 20.