Since almost the founding of their faith, English-speaking Latter-day Saints have stuck loyally by the side of the King James translation of the Bible, a version known for archaic and lofty language that often leaves modern readers scratching their heads.
“A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible” — to quote the faith’s Book of Mormon — was the general attitude, even as other Christian denominations moved to embrace versions with more modern language.
In the first set of updates to the guidebook for lay leadership under President Dallin H. Oaks, the Utah-based faith is now, finally, doing the same.
Listed among the changes in the “General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” is an expansion to the list of Bible translations approved for use. They include the following, grouped by estimated reading levels:
Ages 8 and above.
• New International Reader’s Version (NIrV).
Ages 11–13.
• New International Version (NIV).
• New Living Translation (NLT).
• New King James Version (NKJV).
Ages 14 and above.
• English Standard Version (ESV).
• New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).
An accompanying news release makes it clear: The King James Version remains “preferred” among the English translations. However, members “can consider” these other versions to better understand the Good Book.
“The Lord said that he speaks to men and women ‘after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding,’” apostle Dale G. Renlund said in the release, citing a verse found in the Latter-day Saint scripture Doctrine and Covenants. “Clearly, God’s children are more inclined to accept and follow his teachings when they can understand them.”
In particular, the release emphasizes the benefit to neurodivergent readers, including one Latter-day Saint, Alysia Burdge, of Washington state.
Burdge, who has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, described the difference switching from the King James Bible to a modern translation made for her.
“Now I feel like I can really understand the word of God,” Burdge is quoted as saying, “and it helps me feel the Spirit more deeply.”
Why the King James Version dominated
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) The King James Version of the Bible remains the "preferred" translation for Latter-day Saints.
It’s not difficult to see why the church embraced the King James Version in its fledgling days as a tiny faith back East. At the time during the 19th century, it was the dominant translation in English. As academics released new translations starting in the 1880s and 1890s, however, church leaders made a conscious decision to stick with it.
“The King James Version was not the official version of the Bible for [faith founder] Joseph Smith and the early church,” said Philip Barlow, a scholar at Brigham Young University’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship who has written about the church’s relationship with the translation. “It was the common version of the Bible to them. It evolved from being the common to the official over time.”
Their reasons for doing so were a mix of practical and aesthetic.
The language of the faith’s other scriptures — the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price — echoes that found in the King James Version, and Latter-day Saints are taught to use “thee” and “thou” in their prayers. In other words, for Latter-day Saints then and now, archaic English is the language they are used to hearing when it comes to speaking to or about God.
There were practical reasons, too, for the church to favor the King James Version. The text is not copyrighted, allowing the faith to adapt it to its purposes, adding footnotes and cross references, and reprinting it in “quads” alongside other books of Latter-day Saint scripture.
Finally, the King James Version has had outspoken and powerful allies among the ranks of Latter-day Saint leaders, most prominently late apostle J. Reuben Clark.
Clark was sympathetic to the arguments made by more conservative Protestants in the United States suspicious of academics during the mid-20th century. He believed the King James Version was not only more beautiful and appropriately formal, but also more accurate, writing as much in his 1956 publication, “Why the King James Version,” still available for purchase at church-owned Deseret Book.
Creating conversation with other Christians
The news release hints at these past arguments.
“There’s a misconception that modern translations of the Bible are less than faithful to the ancient sources — that in modernizing the language, translators have compromised or dumbed down the doctrine,” German general authority Seventy Jörg Klebingat said. “In many cases, that simply isn’t true.”
Klebingat, a member of the church’s Scriptures Committee, explains that modern translators have access to manuscripts their predecessors did not and that “most” modern translations are the work of “faithful scholars and linguists who are utterly convinced that the Bible is the word of God.”
Latter-day Saint Bible scholar Dan McClellan celebrated the changes.
“This will increase comprehension,” McClellan said in an interview, “and biblical literacy among English-speaking Latter-day Saints.”
That literacy, argues Latter-day Saint scholar Matthew Bowman, is likely to put members into conversation with more Christians outside their faith.
“Sticking to the KJV,” he writes on the By Common Consent blog, “has meant that Mormons have been isolated from the course of academic Bible study in the United States. … Now, though, if LDS folk start picking up editions of the New Revised Standard Version or the New International Version from Barnes & Noble, they’ll start to see footnotes and introductions bringing those conversations home to them. ”
Put another way, the move to modern translations represents “a departure from LDS separatism.”
Tamara W. Runia, a leader in the church’s global Young Women program, points to this potential in the news release, stating, “We can all benefit from translations made by our Christian brothers and sisters to enhance our study and faith as disciples of Christ.”
Runia continued: “Our hope is that everyone will feel welcome and respected, no matter the translation they connect with and choose to use. What matters most is how the scriptures speak to our spirits and draw us closer to God as we read every day.”
Senior Managing Editor David Noyce contributed to this story.