The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints, Revised Edition

Thomas A. Wayment

Nov 2022 · Greg Kofford Books

About this ebook

The language of the King James Bible will always be part of the Latter-day Saint cultural fabric in English. It is woven into our hymns, our ordinances, and our scriptural canon, and it has been one of the primary vehicles through which we encounter the word of God. However, when the language of translation becomes too foreign, too distant from the present age, it is time to consider the possibility of another translation. The four-hundred-year-old King James Bible in use by English speaking Latter-day Saints is an artifact of the seventeenth century and is no longer a living and breathing text. The New Testament was written by the marginalized and impoverished; its language is that of common people and not the educated elites.

The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints is an invitation to engage again the meaning of the text for a new and more diverse English readership by rendering the New Testament into modern language in a way that will help a reader more fully understand the teachings of Jesus, his disciples, and his followers.

This new revised edition is an effort to correct the first edition—in nearly two hundred instances—both in the notes and less frequently in the text. In addition, the introductory material has been expanded to include discussions of the Joseph Smith Translation and on reading scripture, and appendices have been added detailing the many instances in which the language of the New Testament appears in other Latter-day Saint scripture.

Ratings and reviews

Unimpressed. I recommend readers stick to the Authorised Version of Holy Scripture (a.k.a. King James Version).

About the author

Thomas A. Wayment is a professor of classical studies at Brigham Young University, where he previously worked as a professor of ancient scripture and as publications director of the Religious Studies Center. He received his BA in Classics from the University of California at Riverside and his MA and PhD in New Testament studies from the Claremont Graduate School. Dr. Wayment’s research interests include the historical life of Jesus, New Testament manuscript traditions, papyrology, the life of Paul, and the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. He has published an important study that was published in Novum Testamentum that examines evidence culled from a third-century papyrus fragment, P. Oxy. 2383 (P69), which raises some important questions about the text of Luke 22. This study has made a significant contribution to the wider academic conversation regarding the events germane to the suffering of the Savior in Gethsemane. The tripartite series The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ: From Bethlehem through the Triumphal Entry, which Dr. Wayment edited with BYU colleague Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, includes essays examining historical and doctrinal aspects surrounding the Savior’s mortal ministry. His collaboration with BYU faculty has also produced Jesus Christ and the World of the New Testament, in which he, along with Dr. Holzapfel and Dr. Eric Huntsman, addresses the historical context in which the events related in the New Testament took place. He has also published From Persecutor to Apostle: A Biography of Paul. His work with textual analysis and the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible led him to edit The Complete Joseph Smith Translation of the New Testament and The Complete Joseph Smith Translation of the Old Testament.