Continued Transparency

Here is a link to the account statement for the royalties paid on the sale of scriptures through Amazon.com:

Account Statement

 As a reminder, we keep the price of the scriptures as low as Amazon will allow, but they insist that a royalty be made/paid on every book. We cannot refuse it. Since the statement doesn't give a total, it is $6,436.72.

No funds have ever been removed from the account. That will change shortly. Some funds will be used to purchase sample scriptures from the finalist publishers being considered for the printing of the leather-bound scriptures. We anticipate only 3-4 samples need to be purchased in total, meaning we anticipate spending less than $400.

Regarding the final specs for the leather-bound sets, here is our list that has been sent out in each Request for Quote:

• 6" x 9" page size
• Rounded corners
• 900-1200 Pages Per Inch biblestock paper (36-45 gsm)
• 100% cotton, archive quality paper
• Archive quality ink
• Guilded page edges
• Smythe-sewn binding with silk thread
• 48-64 page signatures
• 2 bookmark ribbons per volume
• Lambskin or goat skin leather cover
• Tooled lettering on cover spine only

 These specs should result in books that last more than a lifetime. We are consulting with a bookbinder to professionally assess the quality of the samples received.

Scripture References, Kindle, and Progress

As the T&C began to take shape, we realized that there would be challenges with how to reference some of the parts, specifically (1) the Joseph Smith History, (2) the Lectures on Faith, (3) the Book of Abraham, and then (4) the Testimony of St. John. Several discussions resulted in a workable system that needs to be explained as we get close to finalizing the T&C:

• The scriptures are WORKS (OT, NT, Book of Mormon, T&C)
• that are made up of BOOKS (Genesis, Psalms, Luke, Acts, Alma, 3 Nephi)
• which are divided into CHAPTERS and PARAGRAPHS.

• The T&C is a hybrid of both SECTIONS (as the D&C was traditionally was, rather than chapters) and also BOOKS (1-4 above).
• The SECTIONS don't have internal divisions other than paragraphs, but the BOOKS do.
• Also, in the JSH, there are no CHAPTERS, but there are PARTS, which act as chapters, and the LoF has LECTURES instead of CHAPTERS.

To work with several variations, yet maintain a standardized referencing system similar to what is used in most scriptures:

• SECTIONS use a regular # : # approach — T&C 89:4 is SECTION 89: PARAGRAPH 4.
• BOOKS (because there are only 4 to remember) don't reference their T&C Section number. Doing so would result in a # : # : # reference that is so uncommon as to be confusing. Instead, as with any other BOOK, simply use the book name and then the standard chapter : paragraph # : # approach:
• JSH 15:4 (Part 15:paragraph 4)
• LoF 2:2 (Lecture 2:paragraph 2)
• Abr. 6:1 (Chapter 6:paragraph 1)
• TSJ 11:7 (Chapter 11:paragraph 7)

The immediate first question might be: Where is the Book of Abraham or Lectures on Faith? There's a Table of Contents at the front of the work, and after only a few trips to them (there are only 4 to remember — Sections 1, 110, 145, 171), it will be easy to find them all!

We don't reference Alma 12:10 by stating "Book of Mormon, Alma 12:10", so it will be unnecessary to state "T&C 110: Lecture 2:16", but instead "Lectures on Faith 2:16". Use of the scriptures will make us familiar with where to find the books that are in the T&C.

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We've been asked about having the Kindle version of the scriptures. We want that, but must make sure that everything is as good as it will get, because just like the print versions on Amazon, if we update the content within Kindle, existing copies will not be updated. Here is what Kindle says:

• We only send customers updates to serious quality issues. Sending customers updated content may erase notes or highlights they entered, so the improvements must outweigh the disadvantages. We won't accept your request if you:
  • Added, deleted, or changed words, sentences, pages, chapters, or images.
  • Changed a character's name or your eBook's plot.
  • Added, deleted, or changed links or marketing information
  • Made significant changes that warrant a new edition.

That is why we've held off up to now and will wait until the content is ready for the leather-bound sets. In the meantime, once a WORK is completed, we also make a list of all changes that have been made since May 2018 available in a PDF for the work. It can be downloaded from scriptures.info. So far we only have such a PDF for the Book of Mormon and will have the entire NC doc ready shortly.

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The T&C is moving along rapidly and we expect to have it completed by the end of next week. That includes color maps (for scriptures.info and leather-bound versions) and a much larger Glossary of Terms. However, there will be minor updates to the T&C coming, due to punctuation updated in the OC. We need to make sure that quoted scriptures match our updated scriptures when relevant.

Hope this helps.

Good ideas gain momentum

This says a lot about how we've chosen to format our scriptures. Though we aren't incorporating all of the aspects used in Bible mentioned below, the value of reducing structure to how we read a book is recognized as valuable. We hope our scriptures will bring the same value to those who choose to study them.

Android Scriptures App

The Android REScriptures app is now available on the Google Play Store. It includes the ability to read the text of all three volumes of the Restoration Scriptures (last updated in September) entirely offline as well as to do keyword and exact phrase searches in the text. It is still a work in progress and will get updated versions of each work as they are completed (Vol. 2 should be updated by the end of next week).

You can find it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.scriptures.rescriptures&rdid=info.scriptures.rescriptures.

Great thanks for the ongoing efforts to bring us such tools

UPDATES: When updated scriptures are made available to the REScriptures app, the app needs to be updated on your phone in order for you to receive them. To make that happen automatically:

To automatically update apps on your Android device:

1. Open the Google Play Store app .
2. Tap Menu Settings.
3. Tap Auto-update apps.
4. Select an option: Auto update apps at any time to update apps using either Wi-Fi or mobile data. Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only to update apps only when connected to Wi-Fi.

 FUTURE FEATURES: The developer explained: I also intend to continue adding improvements to the app. For the next version, I would like to add some basic settings for adjusting the font, font size, color scheme, etc. I also want to improve the search to allow filtering by volume and book like you can do at scriptures.info.

Happy Holidays to All

Folks, we're getting closer to completing the project! Volume 2 has been completed and the PDF has been updated on this site. Amazon's text has been updated and scriptures.info will be updated as quickly as possible. Please note that we have a software issue that is causing a spacing problem in the new running headers numbering. We will be looking into tweaking it so that the fancy scriptures are consistent.

Volume 3, Teachings and Commandments, is well under way and we hope to have the JSH updated on scriptures.info soon so that we can ensure that the coding behind the site is working properly. It won't take us long after that to update the whole volume. But it will be a few weeks for us to edit and reference check the new Glossary. (The size of the Glossary has tripled, for those interested.) We thank Denver for his help with reviewing all of the material therein.

There are a few things we want to make you aware of concerning the T&C. We want the T&C to be as close to "raw" Joseph Smith as possible, but getting a perfect rendering is impossible, mainly because there are usually multiple manuscripts for any given section and it isn't possible to guarantee which manuscript is the most correct. Some of the text decision-making required hours of prayerful work and discussion by those assigned to review the work during the past year. We thank them for their contributions and we are committed to honoring their decisions whenever possible as we proof the text and discover any remaining errors. We have also determined that updating all of the archaic language in the T&C could have the unintended effect of washing away some of the flavor introduced by Joseph Smith. To counter that, we've determined to use those sections in the T&C that were not revelations but that were written by Joseph (1, 116, 117, 138, 139, 140, 146, 147), to indicate which archaic (to us) terms he used in his regular communications. Using his non-revelatory writings helps establish a more objective guide for archaic language updates. For example, in the Bible the term "tarry" has been updated to "stay, remain, wait", but Joseph appears to have used the term in his everyday speech, so "tarry" won't be updated in the T&C.

Once Volume 3 is completed in January, it will be updated on Amazon, scriptures.info, and this blog. We will also make sure to publish PDFs for each volume that show all of the updates and corrections made since May. And we will have an updated stand-alone PDF of the Glossary made available. Several folks have asked if we can publish a stand-alone Glossary on Amazon. We'll look into that.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

Who's interested in leather-bound scriptures?

We are taking a poll of how many sets of leather-bound scriptures we would likely need to order in the first printing. If you plan on purchasing a set as soon as possible, please take the poll:

Scriptures Purchase Poll

This pool will run through Christmas.

Please spread the word.

 

Why the scriptures still aren't ready.

It's been noted that the scriptures project is taking a long time. We couldn't agree more. And we even assumed it would have been done long before now. But when we started our final proofing, we unexpectedly found discrepancies that had to be addressed. We're still at it, but getting closer to finishing.

As posted last week, the Book of Mormon has been completed, the New Testament is well on it's way to completion, the T&C had far fewer hands involved and shows to still be faithful to the manuscripts (meaning the proofing will move far more quickly), all of which will hopefully be done by the end of December. That leaves the OC to tackle. With the momentum and unity we've developed, we hope to complete that work by the next general conference in late April.

Know that we are striving to do only what is needed to make sure the texts faithfully honor Joseph Smith's work and are properly proofed before we all invest resources in printing up the high-quality scriptures. There is way too much that could be "fixed" in the scriptures, but we have neither the permission nor the time to do more than what we are doing.

Meanwhile, preparations are underway for the fancy set of scriptures. We already have a bid from a US printer and are awaiting a bid from the largest Bible printer in India. Arrangements for pre-ordering sets of scriptures is being researched. A poll will be taken soon to get a feel for the initial quantity of sets to order (it won't be binding - you won't be committing to an order, just giving us a realistic perspective on how many sets to consider ordering initially). The criteria for the fancy scriptures:

• Leather-bound
• Archive quality, 100% cotton biblestock (onion skin paper), approx. 900 pages per inch
• Smythe-sewn binding with silk thread
• Archive quality ink
• guilded edges, rounded corners
• 2 bookmark ribbons per volume

We anticipate a 3 volume set of scriptures to cost less than $100. The scriptures will not be sold by individual volume, only in complete sets.

We appreciate your patience - and especially the patience of our families. We want this done more than you do.