Nauvoo editions

There were two editions of the Book of Mormon that Joseph Smith revised in Nauvoo. Both of them contain the cover page that states:

Translated by Joseph Smith

and

Carefully revised by the translator

_____

These statements refute the claims by SITH sayers (proponents of the "stone-in-the-hat" narrative that was published in Mormonism Unvailed in 1834 and revived in recent years by certain LDS scholars). The SITH sayers insist that Joseph did not really translate the engravings on the plates as he was commanded to do.

"you shall translate the engravings which are on the plates of Nephi..."

(Doctrine and Covenants 10:41)

Yet here Joseph not only identifies himself as the translator, he also explains that he "carefully revised" the text. If the text actually came from the "stone in the hat" instead, Joseph would not have any basis for "revising" the text. 

Nevertheless, prominent LDS scholars continue to claim that Joseph (and Oliver) deliberately misled everyone about the translation process. 

See, e.g., https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2026/04/thank-you-royal-skousen.html

_____

John Hajicek displayed originals of the two editions:

John Hajicek 

Sodonerstp44ht5g13881h543luia1l14al1l5c0882t4h9f7h1c77f13lu7 ·

Two Nauvoo editions of the revised version of the Book of Mormon, 1840 and 1842. One printed by Joseph Smith and one printed by his brother Don Carlos Smith.

_____

Grok explains:

The 1840 and 1842 printings are not fully separate editions but closely related impressions of the same third major American edition of the Book of Mormon.

Background

• The 1840 edition (third edition overall) was printed in Cincinnati, Ohio, by Shepard and Stearns for Ebenezer Robinson and Don Carlos Smith. Joseph Smith personally reviewed and revised the text (building on his 1837 work), making grammatical improvements, restorations from the printer’s manuscript, and some clarifications. Stereotype plates (metal printing plates) were created from this typesetting.
• These plates were shipped to Nauvoo, Illinois, where further impressions (print runs) were made in 1840–1842 using the same plates.

Key Differences

The 1842 printing (sometimes called the fourth impression or Nauvoo 1842 issue) was a small run (around 640 copies) from the same stereotype plates as the 1840 edition, so the core text is virtually identical. The main differences are limited to the title page and minor production details:

• Title page updates:
  • Date changed from 1840 to 1842.
  • "Joseph Smith, Junior" changed to "Joseph Smith" (dropping "Jr.") because Joseph Smith Sr. had died in 1840, and it was no longer necessary to distinguish father from son. (This change was later reversed in subsequent editions for clarity regarding the Eight Witnesses statement.)
• Print quantity and rarity: The 1842 run was much smaller and is considered quite rare today.
• Possible minor corrections: Joseph Smith continued light revisions into early 1842 (e.g., reading and correcting plates for errors that "escaped notice"). Any such changes would appear only in the 1842 impression, but they were limited and not extensive.

Summary Table

Aspect	1840 Edition (Cincinnati/Nauvoo)	1842 Impression (Nauvoo)
Text/Content	Joseph Smith's revisions (e.g., "white" → "pure" in 2 Nephi 30:6)	Same as 1840 (same plates)
Title Page Date	1840	1842
Joseph Smith Attribution	"Joseph Smith, Junior"	"Joseph Smith" (Jr. dropped)
Print Run	Larger (thousands across impressions)	Small (~640 copies)
Significance	Last major revision supervised by Joseph Smith	Final Nauvoo-era printing from 1840 plates

In short, if you compare the interiors side-by-side, they are essentially the same book. The 1842 version is best understood as a reprint/impression with a refreshed title page rather than a new edited edition. Later LDS editions followed other lineages (e.g., the 1841 British edition followed the 1837 text more closely), which is why some 1840 changes were temporarily "lost" until the 1981 edition restored them.

These details come from historical scholarship on Book of Mormon printing (BYU Studies, Joseph Smith Papers project, etc.). Rare original copies are collector items today.

Thank you Royal Skousen

In the ongoing pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding, today we'll look at a post from one of my other blogs regarding the clarity brought by Royal Skousen to the conversation about the origin of the Book of Mormon. Most of this post is adapted from that one.

_____

A priority in our day is the elimination of contention. In the April 2026 General Conference, President Oaks said,

My brothers and sisters, as followers of Christ, let us follow Him by forgoing contention and by using the language and methods of peacemakers.

My blog nomorecontention.com has been discussing this topic since April 2023.

Contention arises from the compulsion people feel to have others agree with them, whether by persuasion, coercion, compulsion, or any other means. An antidote is to pursue instead these three values: clarity, charity and understanding.

Forgoing contention through apathy does not make peace. It does not foster unity. Instead, it represses resentments and misunderstandings, enabling them to accumulate.

Clarity is the predicate or foundation for unity. And, because so much contention arises from our LDS academics, their theories, and their efforts to obtain acceptance of their theories, we should all thank Royal Skousen for stating the obvious about the implications of SITH (the stone-in-the-hat narrative about the origin of the Book of Mormon).

The unity I refer to is not a unity of belief, but 

(i) unity in knowledge (clarity), 

(ii) unity in charity (love and good faith), and 

(iii) unity in understanding (acceptance and appreciation for differences without a compulsion to have everyone think the same).

Unity among Latter-day Saints on the questions of the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon will naturally follow once everyone recognizes that their opinions are based on their respective assumptions about whether Joseph and Oliver told the truth. 

We can all be faithful, productive, harmonious Latter-day Saints when we accept the reality that some of us accept what Joseph and Oliver taught, while others reject what they taught, without insisting everyone must do one or the other.

IOW, unity through diversity.

But for that to happen, we must all be crystal clear about the facts and their implications. And we must fully own our respective beliefs without trying to enforce our own through censorship, obfuscation, and sophistry.

In Part Seven of his series The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, Brother Skousen makes plain this reality: everyone who teaches SITH is also teaching that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery deliberately misled everyone about the origin of the Book of Mormon.

Skousen writes, 

"Joseph Smith’s claim that he used the Urim and Thummim is only partially true; and Oliver Cowdery’s statements that Joseph used the original instrument while he, Oliver, was the scribe appear to be intentionally misleading."

(click to enlarge)

While this point has been obvious to those of us who still believe what Joseph and Oliver taught about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon, the various scholars who promote SITH have managed to skirt the issue by simply not telling their followers what Joseph and Oliver taught.

For example, the LDS scholars who wrote Saints (vol. 1), the Gospel Topics Essay on Book of Mormon Translation, innumerable articles, commentaries, videos, podcasts, etc., have carefully avoided Brother Skousen's point by simply omitting what Joseph and Oliver taught about the origin of the Book of Mormon.

But Brother Skousen has "unvailed" the truth about SITH.

To be clear, I completely disagree with Brother Skousen's conclusion, which is based not on facts per se, but instead on a series assumptions and inferences he makes. 

To his credit, he does explain some of his assumptions and inferences. But unfortunately he leaves others unstated. 

We've discussed some examples on this blog, such as here 

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2025/03/royal-skousens-excerpt-technique.html

and here

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2024/12/creating-narrative-with-selective.html.

The key point is that every Latter-day Saint should recognize that Brother Skousen's conclusion about Joseph and Oliver intentionally misleading everyone necessarily follows from the SITH narrative.

That's why E.D. Howe spelled it out in his 1834 anti-Mormon book titled Mormonism Unvailed in the first place. Howe sought to discredit Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery by making the same argument Skousen and other SITH scholars are making today.

_____

On this blog we have several articles that explain the SITH problem.

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/the-sith-problem-1829-2024.html

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/joseph-smith-papers-awesome-except-for.html

https://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/p/joseph-smith-papers-sources-no-sith-or.html

We all agree that people can have different views. Multiple working hypotheses are part of life and should be easy to accept and understand in the spirit of charity, but this only works in a climate of clarity and openness.

Let's all work together to identify facts and separate them from assumptions, inferences and theories, so that each of the multiple working hypotheses can be fairly and accurately evaluated as people make their own informed decisions.

This is the FAITH model of analysis.

Reading

 

G. K. Chesterton explains that reading gives a man more lives than he was born with:

“A man who has read a thousand books is armed for life; a man who has read none is easy prey. 

The man who has read a thousand books has lived a thousand lives. He has seen cities he has never visited, spoken to men who died centuries ago, and walked in worlds that no longer exist. 

Reading does not merely inform him; it enlarges him. It stretches the boundaries of his own experience until he becomes something more than himself.”

Writing, then and now

Dumbing down of language: compare Oliver Cowdery's Letter VII to modern writing.

Culture Explorer

@CultureExploreX

·

11h

For most of history, language was trained through books, sermons, letters, and long conversation. People grew up hearing scripture, poetry, speeches, and literature. Their vocabulary expanded because their mental diet demanded it. Now language is trained by algorithms that reward speed and reaction. Short posts have replaced letters. Memes have replaced arguments. People will point to your origin rather than debate your point. Nor can they tolerate a dissenting view. All of it is done on purpose because our leaders want followers and loyalists not those who would ask or challenge. So the language shrinks. And when language shrinks, something deeper shrinks with it. Because a civilization can only think as clearly as the words it still remembers how to use.

One thing you notice when you read pretty much anything written more than 100 years ago is just how impoverished and bland and limited our language has become. People spoke and wrote in a kind of effortlessly rich and descriptive way that almost no one does today. On this site a lot of people write almost exclusively in cliches and internet lingo. A lot of people speak like that too. The language contracts, our conversational vocabulary shrinks more and more over time. And the more limited we become in our language, the more limited we are in our thinking.

It’s not just the classic authors. I mean read any random letter from any random Civil War soldier writing to his mother or wife back home. Even if the spelling was bad, the writing is just kind of evocative and interesting in a way that nobody communicates today. I read one in a book that was like “As I write this I’m sitting on a narrow dusty road in the cool shade of a magnolia tree which blossoms in vibrant hues of pink and white,” or something along those lines. Paraphrasing but the point is that you read it and immediately know it must have been written 150 years ago because nobody would casually write in such a descriptive way today. We don’t paint pictures with words anymore. And I find that really sad.

https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/2028938020414484504?s=20

_____

Excerpt from Letter VII:

You have, no doubt, as well as myself, frequently heard those who do not pretend to an “experimental” belief in the Lord Jesus, say, with those who do, that, (to use a familiar phrase,) “any tune can be played upon the bible:”—What is here meant to be conveyed, I suppose, is, that proof can be adduced from that volume, to support as many different systems as men please to choose: one saying this is the way, and the other, this is the way, while the third says, that it is all false, and that he can “play this tune upon it.” If this is so, alas for our condition: admit this to be the case, and either wicked and designing men have taken from it those plain and easy items, or it never came from Deity, if that Being is perfect and consistent in his ways.

But although I am ready to admit that men, in previous generations, have, with polluted hands and corrupt hearts, taken from the sacred oracles many precious items which were plain of comprehension, for the main purpose of building themselves up in the trifling things of this world, yet, when it is carefully examined, a straight forward consistency will be found, sufficient to check the vicious heart of man and teach him to revere a word so precious, handed down to us from our fathers, teaching us that by faith we can approach the same benevolent Being, and receive for ourselves a sure word of prophecy, which will serve as a light in a dark place, to lead to those   things within the vail, where peace, righteousness and harmony, in one uninterrupted round, feast the inhabitants of those blissful regions in endless day.

Scarce can the reflecting mind be brought to contemplate these scenes, without asking, for whom are they held in reserve, and by whom are they to be enjoyed? Have we an interest there? Do our fathers, who have waded through affliction and adversity, who have been cast out from the society of this world, whose tears have, times without number, watered their furrowed face, while mourning over the corruption of their fellowmen, an inheritance in those mansions? If so, can they without us be made perfect? Will their joy be full till we rest with them? And is their efficacy and virtue sufficient, in the blood of a Savior, who groaned upon Calvary’s summit, to expiate our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness? I trust, that as individuals acquainted with the gospel, through repentance, baptism and keeping the commandments of that same Lord, we shall eventually, be brought to partake in the fulness of that which we now only participate—the full enjoyment of the presence of our Lord. Happy indeed, will be that hour to all the saints, and above all to be desired, (for it never ends) when men will again mingle praise with those who do always behold the face of our Father who is in heaven.

(Messenger and Advocate I.10:155 ¶6–156 ¶2)

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/84

Narratives in red and blue circles

Demonstration of how narratives are created and perpetuated.

For many Latter-day Saints, it is perplexing how our scholars have managed to replace what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery taught about the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon with their own theories (SITH and M2C).

This demonstration shows how it is done.

https://x.com/DefiantLs/status/2020905540587544990?s=20

Transcript:

Despite what you might be thinking, these two circles are not equal. I repeat: these two circles are NOT EQUAL! One of them is in fact larger than the other one. What I need you to do is to determine which one that is. So, please raise your hand if you believe the blue circle is larger than the red?

Alright. Please raise your hands if you believe the red circle is larger than the blue?

Alright, very good. Now, before I said anything about these two circles, what was your first instinct? Equal, right? Because they look equal.

The reason why they look equal is 'cause in fact they are equal. These two circles are identical. Yet I got just about everyone of you to raise your hand and say that they're not.

So what do we learn? That you can be manipulated like that... that goes against your natural instincts. Just imagine, just imagine as a child you're taught that the blue circle is larger than the red. If you say it enough times, you convince yourself that's the truth. And if enough people were taught that lie, that the blue circle is larger than the red, well now it becomes part of the culture.

And if that culture then passes that misinformation along to the next generation...

(Note: The video cuts off slightly at the end, but based on the context and post caption, it aligns with the idea that repeated lies become cultural "truths.")

"If you're told the lie enough times, it becomes a part of your reality. And if enough people are taught that lie...now it becomes part of the culture."

 

How to correct biased narratives

On this blog we propose adjustments and improvements to historical narratives to make them (i) more accurate, (ii) more transparent, and (iii) less biased. 

This is all in the pursuit of clarity, charity and understanding.

The most obvious examples involve content regarding the origin and setting of the Book of Mormon, including the Gospel Topics Essays, the notes in the Joseph Smith Papers, and the Saints book, volume 1.

All these and other content should be easy to correct, particularly where the errors and bias are obvious, such as the omission of references to Cumorah and the Urim and Thummim. 

Instead of seeking to accommodate (if not promote) SITH* and M2C**, the authors of these materials could simply include the actual historical sources and enable readers to make informed decisions. 

Instead of omitting what Joseph and Oliver taught by emphasizing what their critics said, the materials should focus on and emphasize what Joseph and Oliver taught. 

While it is not feasible to recall printed material, changes to electronic versions is easy and should be done promptly. Most Latter-day Saints, especially non-English speakers, rely on the electronic versions already.

This type of adjustment is common in the secular world.

The Church History Department should follow this example, described in an article in the Wall St. Journal that points out how a scientific manual for judges recently removed inaccurate and biased material regarding climate change.

In December [2025] the Federal Judicial Center, the research and education agency for the federal courts, published its latest edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. A joint product with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the manual is billed as a resource for judges deciding complex scientific cases.

...

The guide advises judges on how to handle a case of disagreement between scientific experts. Judges should consider, “Is this a case of truly unsettled science?” the guide poses, “Or is it a case of relatively settled science, in which one party has recruited experts who interpret the evidence differently than most of the community?”

In case judges didn’t get the hint, the paragraph concludes this “sometimes occurs as a result of strategic manipulation from stakeholders who stand to be harmed if the public were to understand the true state of scientific consensus” such as in the cases of “tobacco, ozone depletion, and climate change.”

That trio gives the game away: Anyone who disagrees on climate is akin to those who deny that cigarettes cause cancer, A footnote to the section refers readers to “Michael E. Mann, The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back our Planet” and “Naomi Oreskes, The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change.” These are polemical texts.

The manual’s Reference Guide on Climate Science was written by Jessica Wentz and Radley Horton of Columbia University. Ms. Wentz is at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, whose “core mission” is to “develop and promulgate legal techniques to combat the climate crisis and advance climate justice.” She also works with the Environmental Law Institute’s Climate Judiciary Project, which says it helps judges “understand the scientific and technical evidence before them.”

The good news is that this one-sided advocacy caught the attention of House Judiciary Committee members Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) and Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), who wrote to the Judicial Conference of the United States. The “scientific” contributions to the manual “appear to have the underlying goal of predisposing federal judges in favor of plaintiffs alleging injuries from the manufacturing, marketing, use or sale of fossil fuel products,” they wrote. Why are taxpayers funding an exercise in judicial indoctrination?

Twenty-seven state Attorneys General—including from West Virginia, Florida, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, Texas and Wyoming—also objected to the manual’s bias and asked that the chapter be withdrawn. Article III of the Constitution “guarantees every litigant . . . the right to an independent and impartial tribunal,” the AGs write.

And, what do you know, on Friday Judge Robin Rosenberg, director of the Federal Judicial Center, wrote to West Virginia Attorney General John McCoskey saying “the climate science chapter” has been omitted from the revised Reference Manual. The letter offered no explanation, but you can guess.

This might be a case of all’s well that ends well, except that someone on the Judicial Center was either asleep or tried to slip ideology into what should be “a dispassionate guide,” to borrow Justice Kagan’s words. A public accounting of how that happened would be useful.

_____

* SITH = stone-in-the-hat narrative that contradicts what Joseph and Oliver taught about translating the plates by means of the Urim and Thummim that came with the plates

**M2C = the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory that contradicts what Joseph and Oliver taught about the hill Cumorah/Ramah in western New York.