Friday, November 30, 2018

REPOST: If you think you've found a typo, do some research first.

Several emails have come in recently to point out typos. The good news is that every one of them has not been a typo, but has been text that has been restored to Joseph's original. The bad news is that these folks haven't bothered to research the issue on their own and are simply handing us some busy work that takes us away from getting this project done. and when you add up the time it takes to go and look and verify, those small pauses become significant. So we're reposting this from last April when we first invited you to look before you leap:


We get emails for potential typos almost daily. Yet the majority of them are not typos or errors, but are simply unusual text. Remember that the Lord rescinded permission to update the archaic language in the Book of Mormon. Also remember that Middle English was in use during Joseph Smith's day. And realize that the LDS scriptures are not a valid source of reference. The scripture project was undertaken to correct the errors introduced not only by scholars, but also by the LDS church.

If you discover something that you think is an error, please research it on your own first to confirm that it is an error. Yes, it might be faster for us to look into it since we've been doing this for a couple of years, but if it takes perhaps 5 minutes to resolve one submission, and you multiply that to include all of the emails we get, it puts an unfair burden on our time. We're still working on cleaning up the damage that software inflicts on text. And we've already sacrificed many thousands of hours on this project. We need to get to know our families again.

Here are the resources you might need to verify that you've found a problem. Obviously some typos are self-evident and don't need research, but most are not. Many are unusual, but not blatant. Anyway, here's where you can go to do your research:

VOLUME 1 - THE OLD COVENANTS
Joseph Smith's personal bible
Old Testament Manuscript 1
Old Testament Manuscript 2

VOLUME 2 - THE NEW COVENANTS (New Testament, Book of Mormon)
New Testament Manuscript 1
New Testament Manuscript 2

Printer's Manuscript
Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, 1st Edition
(We used the 2nd Edition, but it is not available online)

VOLUME 3 - TEACHINGS AND COMMANDMENTS
Revelation Book 1
Revelation Book 2
Book of Abraham
1835 Doctrine and Covenants
D&C correlation to earliest documents