A stray drop of ink and a quirk of nineteenth-century penmanship make the difference between “retain that wrong” and “repair that wrong.” Only scrupulous attention to the earliest written manuscripts of the Book of Mormon can uncover such discrepancies. Professor Royal Skousen has spent more than 30 years meticulously researching the original and printer’s manuscripts of the Book of Mormon, revealing discrepancies and making a case for the type of translation the Book of Mormon is. Every page, every sentence, every word, letter, and mark are accounted for in the landmark Critical Text Project, arguably the most important Book of Mormon research to date.

The Critical Text Project is an invaluable resource for any scholar or student of the Book of Mormon.

Volume I: The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon Critical Text Project Volume 1

By Royal Skousen
Provo, Ut: FARMS, 2001. 553 pages.
ISBN: 0934893047

A stray ink drop and a quirk of nineteenth-century script make the difference between “retain that wrong” and “repair that wrong”. More than a decade of meticulous research revealed such insights as Royal Skousen prepared transcripts of the original and printer’s manuscripts of the Book of Mormon for publication. Now published for the first time ever, the manuscripts help you discover the original phrasing of the Book of Mormon (including Hebrew-like expressions), provide surprising evidence on the process by which Joseph Smith translated, and show how editors and printers have modified the wording to make it conform to the expectations of contemporary English readers.

Volume I is out of print.

 

Volume II: The Printer's Manuscript of the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon Critical Text Project Volume 2 The Printer's Manuscript of the Book of Mormon

By Royal Skousen
Provo, Ut.: FARMS, Brigham Young University, 2001, 501 pages in 2 parts.
ISBN: 0934893063

The original manuscript of the Book of Mormon was copied to a printer’s manuscript in order to prepare it for publication. Only 28 percent of the original manuscript has survived, but the handwritten printer’s manuscript is virtually 100 percent extant. Volume two presents an exact typographic reproduction of the printer’s manuscript is presented in two parts. Volume two also includes color and ultraviolet photographs of select parts of the manuscripts (including what is considered the oldest existing sample of Joseph Smith’s handwriting) and a history and physical description of the manuscripts.

Volume II is out of print.

 

Volume III: The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon

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This volume analyzes the grammar, language, history, and spelling of the Book of Mormon.

Parts 1 and 2: Grammatical Variation

Volume III, Parts 1 and 2 in the The Book of Mormon Critical Text Project analyze every basic type of editorial change or grammatical variation in the Book of Mormon, beginning with the handwritten manuscripts and considering every major printed edition. Each of the sixty-eight grammatical sections in these books describes the usage in the original text and shows how it has been altered, either consciously or accidentally, over time. Each section also compares Book of Mormon usage with biblical usage.

By Royal Skousen

Provo, Ut.: FARMS, 2016.
Part 1, 627 pages.
Part 2, 1281 pages.

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Parts 3 and 4: Nature of the Original Language

In Parts 3 and 4, The Nature of the Original Language, Skousen argues (with the assistance of Carmack) that nearly all of the vocabulary, phrases, expressions, and syntactic constructions in the text derive from Early Modern English. In fact, at least 80 of these language forms disappeared from English one to three centuries before Joseph Smith’s time. Carmack further shows that the Book of Mormon’s particular syntax is not found in the King James Bible, nor in Joseph Smith’s writings or in the pseudobiblical writings common to his time, but it was prevalent in the English of the second half of the 1500s. Finally, Skousen provides evidence that the themes of the Book of Mormon—religious, social, and political—were the prominent issues of the Protestant Reformation and do not date from Joseph Smith’s time—examples like burning people at the stake for heresy, standing before the bar of justice, secret combinations, and the rejection of child baptism.

By Royal Skousen

Provo, Ut.: FARMS, BYU Studies, 2018.

Part 3, 704 pages.
Part 4, 704 pages.

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Part 5: The King James Quotations in the Book of Mormon

Part 5 homes in on a very specific usage of Early Modern English in the Book of Mormon: the use of quotations from the King James Bible.

By Royal Skousen

Provo, Ut.: FARMS, BYU Studies, 2019. Part 5, 431 pages.

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Part 6: Spelling in the Manuscripts and Editions

Part 6 investigates what the misspellings and slips can tell us about the scribal and typesetting processes that the Book of Mormon text has undergone for the nearly 200 years since it was first revealed to Joseph Smith.

By Royal Skousen
Provo, Ut.: FARMS, BYU Studies, 2020.

Part 6, 590 pages.

Parts 7 and 8

Parts 7 and 8 of Volume III are forthcoming

We estimate that they will be complete in 2023.

Part 7 will follow the substantive changes that have occurred in the transmission of the Book of Mormon text, from Joseph Smith’s dictation of the text, to the scribes taking down that dictation (the original manuscript), then copying that text to produce a second copy (the printer’s manuscript). It examines the 1830 typesetter’s setting the type from the printer’s manuscript (and from the original manuscript for one-sixth of the text). And then we follow the transmission through the printed editions, from the 1830 edition up to the 2013 LDS edition. For each edition, we establish the copytext and then analyze the kinds of errors, corrections, and conjectural emendations that each edition has undergone. Also of some importance, we look at the changes in format that the Book of Mormon has undergone, from the manuscripts (and their sentence-long chapters) to the double-column, versified paragraphs now used in the current LDS edition.

Part 8 will consider the principles of textual criti­cism and how they have been followed (or not followed) in the transmission of the Book of Mormon text. There will be a history of previous attempts at doing critical text work on the Book of Mormon as well as, of course, a detailed history of this critical text project (which began in 1988). Finally, we will turn to various issues that have continually beset those attempting to do critical text work on the Book of Mormon, including the question of conjectural emendations and the degree to which they have been allowed in the text.

Book of Mormon Critical Text Project Volume III: History of the text of the Book of Mormon Grammatical Variation

This volume analyzes the grammar, language, history, and spelling of the Book of Mormon.

Parts 1 and 2: Grammatical Variation

Volume III, Parts 1 and 2 in the The Book of Mormon Critical Text Project analyze every basic type of editorial change or grammatical variation in the Book of Mormon, beginning with the handwritten manuscripts and considering every major printed edition. Each of the sixty-eight grammatical sections in these books describes the usage in the original text and shows how it has been altered, either consciously or accidentally, over time. Each section also compares Book of Mormon usage with biblical usage.

By Royal Skousen

Provo, Ut.: FARMS, 2016.
Part 1, 627 pages.
Part 2, 1281 pages.

Parts 3 and 4: Nature of the Original Language

In Parts 3 and 4, The Nature of the Original Language, Skousen argues (with the assistance of Carmack) that nearly all of the vocabulary, phrases, expressions, and syntactic constructions in the text derive from Early Modern English. In fact, at least 80 of these language forms disappeared from English one to three centuries before Joseph Smith’s time. Carmack further shows that the Book of Mormon’s particular syntax is not found in the King James Bible, nor in Joseph Smith’s writings or in the pseudobiblical writings common to his time, but it was prevalent in the English of the second half of the 1500s. Finally, Skousen provides evidence that the themes of the Book of Mormon—religious, social, and political—were the prominent issues of the Protestant Reformation and do not date from Joseph Smith’s time—examples like burning people at the stake for heresy, standing before the bar of justice, secret combinations, and the rejection of child baptism.

By Royal Skousen

Provo, Ut.: FARMS, BYU Studies, 2018.

Part 3, 704 pages.
Part 4, 704 pages.

Part 5: The King James Quotations in the Book of Mormon

Part 5 homes in on a very specific usage of Early Modern English in the Book of Mormon: the use of quotations from the King James Bible.

By Royal Skousen

Provo, Ut.: FARMS, BYU Studies, 2019. Part 5, 431 pages.

Part 6: Spelling in the Manuscripts and Editions

Part 6 investigates what the misspellings and slips can tell us about the scribal and typesetting processes that the Book of Mormon text has undergone for the nearly 200 years since it was first revealed to Joseph Smith.

By Royal Skousen
Provo, Ut.: FARMS, BYU Studies, 2020.

Part 6, 590 pages.

Parts 7 and 8

Parts 7 and 8 of Volume III are forthcoming

We estimate that they will be complete in 2023.

Part 7 will follow the substantive changes that have occurred in the transmission of the Book of Mormon text, from Joseph Smith’s dictation of the text, to the scribes taking down that dictation (the original manuscript), then copying that text to produce a second copy (the printer’s manuscript). It examines the 1830 typesetter’s setting the type from the printer’s manuscript (and from the original manuscript for one-sixth of the text). And then we follow the transmission through the printed editions, from the 1830 edition up to the 2013 LDS edition. For each edition, we establish the copytext and then analyze the kinds of errors, corrections, and conjectural emendations that each edition has undergone. Also of some importance, we look at the changes in format that the Book of Mormon has undergone, from the manuscripts (and their sentence-long chapters) to the double-column, versified paragraphs now used in the current LDS edition.

Part 8 will consider the principles of textual criti­cism and how they have been followed (or not followed) in the transmission of the Book of Mormon text. There will be a history of previous attempts at doing critical text work on the Book of Mormon as well as, of course, a detailed history of this critical text project (which began in 1988). Finally, we will turn to various issues that have continually beset those attempting to do critical text work on the Book of Mormon, including the question of conjectural emendations and the degree to which they have been allowed in the text.

Volume IV: Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon Critical Text Project Volume IV: Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon

This six-book set, titled Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, fulfills the central task of the critical text project, to restore the original text of the Book of Mormon to the extent possible using scholarly means.

The six books discuss every substantive change to words or phrases in the text as well as changes in the spelling for several dozen Book of Mormon names. Volume IV also includes a brief discussion of every type of grammatical change that the text has undergone over the years.

By Royal Skousen

Provo, Ut.: FARMS, BYU Studies, 2017

Volume V: A Complete Electronic Collation of the Book of Mormon

Forthcoming Book of Mormon Critical Text Project Volume V: A Complete Electronic Collation of the Book of Mormon

Volume V is forthcoming. It will be a digital collation of the work of the critical text project.

Portrait of Royal Skousen

Royal Skousen

Royal Skousen was Professor of Linguistics and English Language at Brigham Young University until his retirement in 2020. Skousen began working on the critical text of the Book of Mormon in 1988. He published the first two volumes of the Critical Text Project, namely, typographical facsimiles for the original and printer’s manuscripts of the Book of Mormon in 2001.