Community of Christ Museum, Church Headquarters, Independence, Missouri, 31 March 1997
Exhibit
Inspired Version/New Translation Manuscript Conservation
A year long archival conservation project providing needed conservation of the Inspired Version manuscript materials has recently been completed. With years of normal use, and because of the natural acid content in paper, the original manuscript materials were becoming soiled and fragile to the point of threatening future usefulness. Community of Christ Archivist Ron Romig and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Archivist Steven Sorensen arranged a cooperative agreement providing needed conservation services in1996. Through this cooperative effort, the original manuscript materials and the Phinney Bible were repaired, cleaned, deacidified, and encapsulated to better ensure their continuing preservation for use by future generations. The conservation work, completed by late fall 1996, was provided courtesy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Famiuly and Church Historical Department Archives.
LDS Conservator Dale Heaps examining the manuscript materials at the Community of Christ Archives, 1996.
Upon the return of the manuscript materials to Independence, Missouri, in 1997, the Community of Christ Museum, in the Temple in Independence, Missouri, mounted an exhibit entitled ". . . there is a sacredness attached. . . ." This title drew from Emma
Smith Bidamon's own description of the manuscript materials. The exhibit told the
story of the Inspired Version/New Translation and recent conservation activity.
Joseph Smith, Jr.'s work of revising the Holy Scriptures began while the first edition of the Book of Mormon was being printed. On 8 October 1829, Oliver Cowdery purchased an 1826 Phinney Edition of the King James Bible at the E.B. Grandin Bookstore,
Palmyra, Wayne County, New York. Joseph Smith, Jr. and various scribes depended
heavily upon this book in their review of the scriptures. Preparation of a
manuscript covering the Old Testament began in earnest during Sidney Rigdon's
visit to Joseph and Emma Smith in New York State in 1830. Following the church's
removal to northern Ohio in 1831, the magnitude of this effort expanded. Joseph
and Sidney completed much of the manuscript while residing at the John Johnson
Farm at Hiram, Portage County, Ohio, in 1832. The resulting Old and New
Testament manuscripts are in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon,
Emma Smith, John Whitmer, and possibly others. The envisioned publication of
these scriptural revisions was prevented because of the destruction of
The Evening and the Morning Star printing office in Independence, Jackson
County, Missouri, in 1833. Joseph retained the manuscripts and continued revising his "New Translation" of the Holy Scriptures throughout the remainder of his life.
Emma Smith Bidamon is credited with preserving the manuscript materials
through the tribulation surrounding the church's expulsion from Missouri in the
winter of 1838-39. Following Joseph's death in 1844, Emma again carefully cared
for the materials. They remained in her possession until the RLDS Church, under
the leadership of her son Joseph Smith III, began preparation for the
publication of the materials as the 1867 "New Translation" of the Holy
Scriptures. The April 1866 the RLDS Conference authorized the publication of the
manuscript materials and appointed W.W. Blair, William Marks, and Israel L.
Rogers to confer with "Sister Emma Bidamon" to obtain the manuscripts for the
purpose of publication. The Publication Committee was chaired by Joseph Smith
III and included Bishop Israel L. Rogers and Ebenezer Robinson, an experienced
printer.
With the manuscripts and the Phinney Bible before them a draft of the entire text was prepared by Marietta (Hodges) Faulconer (later known as Marietta Walker) and Mark H. Forscutt. This draft is composed of continually written manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments, 206 pages and 244 pages respectively.
After the 1867 committee manuscript was reviewed and edited by the
Publication Committee, Ebenezer Robinson supervised the printing arrangements.
The printing was done by Westcott & Thompson, Stereotypers, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. Five hundred bound volumes of the newly completed "Holy
Scriptures" arrived at Plano, Kendall County, Illinois, on 7 December 1867, for
distribution to subscribers. This work has since come to be know as the
"Inspired Version" by RLDS, and is commonly referred to as the "Joseph Smith New
Translation" by LDS.
Following the completion of the Inspired Version, Joseph III published a tribute in the pages of The True Latter Day Saints' Herald to his mother's devoted care instrumental in preserving the manuscripts. Upon seeing this tribute, Emma wrote to Joseph saying, [original spelling retained]
Dear Joseph . . . I looked in the Herald and found there the balance of your
note, it is too good for me. I feel very unworthy of so many good and pressious
tokens of respect, and allmost veneration, from you, my son, and your faithful
and much respected brethren in the work of preparing the New Translation, God
bless you and them, with the light of his holy spirit. Those lines in the Heral
caused me to retrospect those years of mine portrayed in them and I find not one
thing in them that I done which was not just simply my duty to do, and that too
without stoping to anticipate any future rewards, so that the happines I now am
enjoying is all new and unexpected I am indeed truely thankfull that the
translation is what the good and cincerely honest have looked for but there are
some that are so blinded with their own self conceit that they will cavil tho
the word may be so plain that a fool can understand. -Emma Smith Bidamon, letter
to Joseph Smith III, Nauvoo, Illinois, February 2, 1866 [sic 1867], Emma Smith
Papers, P4, f36, Community of Christ Archives.
Following the publication of the 1867 edition, original and 1867 manuscript materials were retained. Writing to her son, Joseph Smith III, Emma Smith Bidamon said,
My own dear Joseph . . . Now as it regards the M of the new translation if you wish to keep them you may do so, but if not I would like to have them. I have often thought the reason why our house did not burn down when it has been so often on fire was because of them, and I still feel there is a sacredness attached to them.
-Emma Smith Bidamon, letter to Joseph Smith III, Nauvoo, Illinois, December
2, 1867, Emma Smith Papers, P4, f39, Community of Christ Archives.
Through years of normal use, and because of the natural acid content in
paper, the materials were became soiled and fragile. In 1966 RLDS Archivist Ron
Romig and LDS Archivist Steven Sorensen arranged the details of a cooperative
agreement providing needed conservation services. The resulting conservation
work, completed by late fall 1996, was provided courtesy of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints Historical Department Archives.
LDS Archives Conservator Dale Heaps personally attended to the delicate
treatment of the materials, including cleaning, washing, deacidification,
stabilization, and encapsulation. Dale also prepared elegant display boxes for
future protection. Photographic images of the conserved materials were filmed by
LDS Photo Archivist William Slaughter. These conservation and media substitution
measures serve to insure the preservation of these materials and their content
for the benefit of future generations.
As evidenced by the appearance of an increasing number of scholarly
publications in recent years, there is a growing interest in the Inspired
Version/Joseph Smith Translation within the Restoration and especially among LDS
scholars and members.
LDS researchers Scott Faulring and Robert Matthews working with Inspired Version Manuscript materials at theCommunity of Christ Archives, 1995.
Following the completion of the conservation work, manuscript materials and
the Phinney Bible were returned to the Community of Christ Archives by LDS Senior Archivist,
Ronald Barney in November 1996. Copies of the conserved manuscript materials
will now be available at the LDS Church Historical Department and at Brigham
Young University for scholarly access under archival conditions. Manuscript
materials were also recently electronically scanned. Transcriptions of original
wordings are being prepared by LDS Scholar Scott Faulring. This collaborative
effort, involving the Community of Christ Archives and Church Historian's Office, BYU Religious
Studies, FARMS, and the LDS Archives, will produce both a facsimile edition of
the manuscripts and a CD-ROM information base of scanned images from the
manuscripts and Phinney Bible, with searchable full text transcriptions.
Such ongoing activities are a reflection of the Community of Christ Archives' continuing interest in scripture and commitment to the long term stewardship and preservation of significant movement related historical materials.
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