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What would the answer be if someone were to ask, “What is the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible about?” We have examined questions regarding what it is and what it contains, but what is the JST about? What is its subject matter? What is its message?

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the apostles and prophets concerning Jesus Christ, that he died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended up into heaven.”[1] From its beginning, indeed from its very first page, the Joseph Smith Translation is a witness of Jesus Christ.[2] It is about Jesus and his mission as Savior of the world. Its subject matter is Christ’s gospel, and its message is that his Atonement is the way to salvation for all of humankind. We have seen that in Genesis it teaches that knowledge of Jesus and his gospel were revealed in the earliest generations of human history. How could it be otherwise if God loves his children and if Jesus Christ is “the only name which shall be given under heaven whereby salvation shall come”?[3] Genesis in the JST teaches that Jesus would be God’s Only Begotten Son, that he would atone for the sins of the world, and that he would rise from the grave. We have also seen that the first principles and ordinances of the gospel were the foundation of true Christian belief since the days of Adam and Eve.

This JST passage, which the Prophet dictated to Sidney Rigdon at the end of Matthew 2, bridges the gap between the account of Jesus’s birth and the accounts of the beginning of his ministry. Courtesy of Community of Christ Archives.

If the New Translation is about Jesus Christ, what does it tell us concerning who he is? Just as the Genesis revelations add much light on this subject, so also does the New Testament. In this chapter we will draw from key passages to see how the Prophet revised them to enhance our understanding of this key topic. We have seen in previous chapters that the JST adds focus and clarity to Jesus’s actions and words. His speech in the New Translation is pointed, direct, and clear, and his works are powerful. Revising existing verses to make these truths clear was certainly something Joseph Smith was inspired to do, but the JST does even more than that. Among the Prophet’s guiding instincts—and perhaps foremost among them—was the firm impulse to bear testimony of Christ’s divinity. As we will see in the following pages, Jesus’s life, teachings, and ministry are not only the fundamental principles of our religion, but they are also a witness that he was the divine Son of God.

As in previous chapters, the text of the King James Bible is in the left column and the corresponding text from the JST is on the right. Bold type highlights selected words of the JST, and underlines mark the corresponding words in the KJV.

Foretold by the Prophets

One of the most striking features of the New Translation with respect to the mission of Jesus is the frequent emphasis in it that his mission was foretold in earlier times. Jesus told his listeners that Abraham saw his day “and was glad,”[4] and he taught that foretelling his earthly ministry was a major part of the calling of all the prophets:

Matthew 11:13

John 3:18

In Jesus’s day, the Hebrew Bible was thought of as consisting of three parts—the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.[5] The Law included Genesis–Deuteronomy, the Prophets included Joshua–2 Kings and Isaiah–Malachi,[6] and the Writings included everything else. The JST tells us that Jesus’s work was foretold in the Law:

Luke 14:34

Luke 16:16

Galatians 3:20

The New Translation especially emphasizes that Jesus’s ministry was foretold in the prophetic books. Notice in its wording how often it revises the text to emphasize that the prophets foretold the Savior’s life in writing. That concept is already in the New Testament,[7] but the JST adds to the message repeatedly.[8]

Matthew 1:16

Matthew 4:19

Matthew 11:3

Matthew 23:39

Mark 7:9

Jesus’s Childhood

The Bible has little to say about Jesus’s youth.[9] In two places, however, the Joseph Smith Translation provides intriguing information. In the Gospel of Matthew it adds text with no biblical counterpart that summarizes Jesus’s childhood and points out his uniqueness.

Matthew 2:23

Luke reports that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph went annually to Jerusalem for the Passover. On the return trip of one such visit, Mary and Joseph realized that twelve-year-old Jesus was not with them in the caravan. They went back to Jerusalem and found him in the temple conversing with the scholars of the law.[10] Luke likely included the account to illustrate how the young Jesus was inquisitive, mature beyond his years, and already engaged in his Father’s business. The JST revision may have more than one purpose.

Luke 2:46–47

This JST revision may be intended to show Jesus’s superiority over the scholars: he is the speaker, and they are the listeners. As we learn in the Matthew passage above, he was not like others and did not need anyone to teach him. But in addition, the revision corrects the Bible’s conflicted narrative of the event. Verse 46, with the doctors speaking and Jesus asking questions, is inconsistent with verse 47, in which the doctors are hearing and Jesus is answering questions. The JST change corrects verse 46 to match the content of verse 47. Well attested in later Jewish tradition is the custom of instructors teaching by asking questions to test the knowledge of their students. Whether that is reflected in the JST change in unclear, but in either case it shows that the doctors were listening to what Jesus had to tell them.

The story is remarkable in any translation, with an out-of-town stranger boy walking in off the street to engage some learned academics in discussion, apparently for three days with no parents around. The story illustrates the attention that this unique group paid to the words of a precocious young man whose answers were far from ordinary.

These two JST passages about Jesus’s youth are not historical space fillers. They are substantive additions to the text that highlight the extraordinary character of him who would become the Savior of the world.

Sent by the Father

That Jesus was sent by the Father is clear in the New Testament, but the Joseph Smith Translation repeatedly emphasizes that fact by adding words at key locations. These additions are not simply narrative statements, they are pronouncements of heavenly authorization for Jesus’s works and teachings.

Matthew 12:50

Matthew 23:10

Luke 16:17

John 1:15

Not only did the Father send his Son, but he also bears witness of his Son and commands us to receive him.

John 1:18

John 6:44

At the time of Jesus’s baptism, God’s voice was heard in heaven, acknowledging Jesus as his beloved Son. The New Translation adds to Matthew’s account the command that we hear him:

Matthew 3:17

Jesus’s Divine Identity

In the New Testament, Jesus is called the Christ.[11] The word Christ, from the Greek christos, means “anointed one.” It is a translation from the Hebrew word ��ǝšî��ḥ (Aramaic ��ǝšîḥâ), which is rendered in English as Messiah (Messias in the KJV New Testament). Thus, the words Messiah and Christ are synonymous. Even though priests and rulers in ancient Israel were both set apart by anointing, the term ��ǝšî��ḥ is used in the Bible primarily with reference to Israel’s kings. In the context of the people’s hopes for divine deliverance, the title the Messiah took on connotations that went beyond the role of ordinary kingship. Many Jews in Jesus’s day were looking forward to the Messiah as a political deliverer, but those with an inspired perspective were anticipating one who would be even more than that. The Book of Mormon makes his identity clear. Nephi, speaking of what his father learned in vision, wrote of the Messiah in the context of “the redemption of the world,”[12] and he wrote of “a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the world.”[13] This emphasis on the Messiah as more than a king but as a Redeemer and Savior from sin is also in evidence in the Joseph Smith Translation:

Matthew 2:2

Matthew 2:6

Notice how in Matthew 2:6, which quotes from Micah 5:2, “a governor”—a temporal ruler—is changed to “the Messiah,” and “rule” is changed “save.” The following examples from Matthew and Mark strengthen the words in Jesus’s response to Pilate, and the Matthew example reminds us that Christ’s mission was foretold in more ancient times, as we have already seen.

Matthew 27:11

Mark 15:2

In the following examples from the Gospel of John, the JST inserts both the Hebrew and the Greek forms of the word.

John 4:26

John 13:19

The Greek text of the Gospel of John includes several verses in which Jesus uses the phrase egṓ eimi, which means “I am,” or “I am he.” Sometimes those words are followed by predicate nouns, such as “I am the bread of life”[14] or “I am the good shepherd.”[15] The text in John 4:26, above, includes words that identify the speaker: literally, “I am he [egṓ eimi], the one speaking to you.”

Not apparent in the English translation is the fact that the phrase egṓ eimi has divine connotations. At the time of Moses’s experience at the burning bush, he asked God what he should say to the Israelites when they would ask him what God’s name is. In the King James translation the response was “I AM THAT I AM.”[16] In the Greek Septuagint translation, which was the Bible used by the writers of the New Testament, the first “I AM” in God’s response is egṓ eimi. The Hebrew that underlies it, ’e�����, is a variant of the divine name Yahweh (English Jehovah), and thus in many of the passages in which John has Jesus saying egṓ eimi, John is signaling to his readers that Jesus is Jehovah, the very one who spoke with Moses at the burning bush.[17] This divine connection is particularly apparent in the passages in which the words stand alone, as in John 13:19, above. The message of that verse is this: “that when it is come to pass ye may believe that I am Jehovah.” An example in John 8 is especially dramatic. Jesus told one group of people that Abraham had rejoiced to see his day, and “then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am [egṓ eimi��.”[18] The meaning was not lost on Jesus’s opponents, who responded by picking up stones to execute him for the apparent blasphemy of identifying himself as Israel’s God.

Joseph Smith’s insertion of “the Messias” and “the Christ” in the two egṓ eimi passages above takes nothing away from the identification of Jesus with Jehovah. Instead, the insertions close the circle by revealing the true identity of the Messiah. The awaited Messiah would not be simply an heir of the royal lineage, but he would be God himself, who would come down and be Israel’s Messianic Deliverer. This JST message is consistent with the teachings of the Book of Mormon, in which we learn that the anticipated Messiah would be none other than “the great Creator,”[19] “the Lord Omnipotent,”[20] “the Father of heaven and earth.”[21]

In keeping with these identifications, the New Translation contains passages in which Jesus makes claims to powers that his listeners and later readers of the Gospels would know to be exclusive to God. In the following two examples, Jesus identifies himself as the giver of the law and the creator of the Sabbath day:

Matthew 9:16

Mark 2:28

The New Translation teaches that Jesus is the Son of God and was sinless. The words of his critics quoted in the following verse show that he had identified himself as God’s son.

Mark 3:28

1 Timothy 2:4–5

Hebrews 7:27

And to Jesus belongs the divine prerogative to judge the just and the unjust:

John 5:29

Jesus and His Commandments

In conjunction with the revelation of Jesus’s divine identity, in the JST the Lord claims the commandments as his own. In the New Testament Jesus is depicted as giving instructions to his disciples and others, and the King James translation often uses the verb command in that context.[22] In the New Testament in general, the word commandment(s) has reference to God’s directives to Israel in the Old Testament. Jesus uses the phrase “my commandments” only in the Gospel of John, and only in his conversation with the Twelve at the Last Supper.[23] But the Joseph Smith Translation has several revisions that add the phrase “my commandments,” as we see in the examples below. Those revisions are consistent with the Book of Mormon, in which Jesus teaches his disciples, “I am he that gave the law.”[24] That doctrine is expressed in identical words in the JST at Matthew 9:16, as we saw above. The JST shows, again, that Jesus was ancient Israel’s God and the giver of the commandments.

Matthew 6:26

Matthew 9:30

Matthew 16:24-25

Luke 11:41

Luke 21:36

Savior of the World

Several passages in the New Translation add special emphasis to Jesus’s work as the Savior of all humankind.

Matthew 23:10

John 1:15

Hebrews 8:4

The following two JST insertions highlight Jesus as fulfilling the law and contrast the law of Moses with the gospel.

Luke 16:17

John 1:17

Other passages highlight the fact that there is no salvation except through Jesus.

John 1:18

Romans 3:24

Returning in Glory

The Joseph Smith Translation is an additional witness of Jesus’s glorious Second Coming, as we see in the Prophet’s revision of Matthew 24. Further examples strengthen the message:

Matthew 13:41

Matthew 23:39

Revisions in Luke and Revelation add to the Second Coming scene the phrase “in/with the glory of his Father,” which otherwise is found in the Bible only at Matthew 16:27 and Mark 8:38:

Luke 21:36

Revelation 1:7

In both these examples, the word clothed precedes the phrase, yielding an expression found elsewhere only in Genesis of the JST and in revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants: “clothed upon with glory,”[25] “clothed with robes of righteousness, with crowns upon their heads, in glory,”[26] “clothed with power and great glory,”[27] “clothed in the brightness of his glory,”[28] and “clothed with the glory of her God.”[29] Each of those revelations was received during the time in which Joseph Smith was working on the New Translation.

Who Is Jesus Christ?

All the topics noted in this chapter are biblical topics, and in none of them does the New Translation reveal doctrines not found already in the Bible. In addition, Joseph Smith had encountered all these concepts during the translation of the Book of Mormon, often expressed there in terms unparalleled in the Bible. Thus what the Prophet’s translation provides in examples like these is not unique doctrine but greater insights added to existing words. With those enhanced insights, the biblical passages are given new life and new emphasis, and the Bible’s text is strengthened. Perhaps this is one of the ways through which the Restoration brings into the world what the scriptures call “the fullness of the gospel.”[30]

In one of the New Translation’s most unique passages, John the Baptist foretells the ministry of him for whom he had been sent as forerunner. In a profound new text inserted into the middle of John’s quotation of Isaiah 40:3–5, the JST provides a prophetic outline of Jesus’s mission.

Luke 3:4–5

John, the messenger preparing the way before the Savior, teaches us the following: Jesus would come, as prophets foretold, to take away the sins of the world, to gather Israel, to bring salvation to the Gentiles, to be a light to all people everywhere, to bring about the resurrection of the dead, to ascend to the Father, to administer justice to all, and to return in judgment to the earth in the day of his power. It is a summary of the Christian message.

John presents his message by means of a fundamental New Translation pattern: he takes an existing passage of scripture and brings into it new revelation to build on its teachings. Isaiah likely did not anticipate that his words would later be used in this manner—whether in the days of John the Baptist or in the days of Joseph Smith—but part of the prophetic mission in all ages has been to build on the words of previous prophets to reveal God’s word for one’s own time.

The added words are a necessary link between verses 4 and 5 of Luke 3. The New Testament context for the first of these verses is John announcing that he was the Lord’s promised messenger, preparing his way. The context of the second verse is far removed from that, clearly referring to the Second Coming. The insertion in the JST provides a transition that bridges the gap between the two verses and thus also between the first and second comings of Jesus. It is a brilliant revelation.

So who is Jesus Christ according to Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible? He was Jehovah incarnate, the great I AM, the giver and fulfiller of the law, the Messiah-Christ sent by the Father whose coming was promised by the prophets. Already in his youth he showed evidence of his divinity, and he lived his life and fulfilled his mission without sin. Witnesses recorded his deeds and words and preserved them for us in the scriptures. He was the Savior of the world who one day will return again in glory.

Careful readers will undoubtedly continue to make discoveries in Joseph Smith’s Bible revision. It is a goldmine of historical information and a wellspring of gospel treasures that likely never will be exhausted—worthy of our best study and exploration. But on the topic of what the Joseph Smith Translation is about, there can be no question: Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible, like all other products of his prophetic ministry, is a testament of Jesus Christ.

Notes

[1] Elders’ Journal, July 1838, 44, The Joseph Smith Papers.

[2] OT2, page 1, lines 14–15.

[3] OT2, page 17 (Moses 6:52).

[4] John 8:56.

[5] Mentions of the Law and the Prophets are found in Matthew 7:12; 11:13; 22:40; Acts 13:15. Jesus mentions the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms as testifying of him in Luke 24:25–27, 44.

[6] Minus Lamentations, which belongs to the Writings but appears in many modern translations after Jeremiah.

[7] For example, Luke 24:25–27.

[8] See also the JST of Matthew 2:4–5; 27:11; Luke 3:5; 12:38; 16:17; 22:16. The JST also shows how John the Baptist’s mission was foreknown: Matthew 17:11–13.

[9] Luke 2:40–52.

[10] Luke 2:41–50.

[11] For example, Matthew 16:16.

[12] 1 Nephi 1:19.

[13] 1 Nephi 10:4.

[14] John 6:35.

[15] John 10:11; see also John 8:12; 9:5; 10:7, 11, 14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1.

[16] Exodus 3:14.

[17] The names are grammatically equivalent: ��ֳ���� is the first-person form, what God calls himself in Exodus 3:14, and Yahweh is the third-person form, what we call God.

[18] John 8:57–58.

[19] 2 Nephi 9:5.

[20] Mosiah 3:5.

[21] Mosiah 3:8.

[22] For example, Mark 6:39.

[23] John 14:15, 21; 15:10; see also 13:34; 15:12.

[24] 3 Nephi 15:5.

[25] OT2, page 19 (Moses 7:3).

[26] Doctrine and Covenants 29:12.

[27] Doctrine and Covenants 45:44.

[28] Doctrine and Covenants 65:5.

[29] Doctrine and Covenants 84:101.

[30] 1 Nephi 15:13; Doctrine and Covenants 14:10; 76:14.