With the phase of creating a printers manuscript now being complete, there are two subsequent news items for me to share at present.
PRINTED VERSIONS
First, there is already work underway to contract a printer to create printed volumes. The format being discussed with printers is a single Triple Combination volume, bound on traditional onionskin/Bible paper, 6" X 9" with wide outer and bottom margins, and a font sized between the traditional small and large print scripture fonts. All printers thus far are requiring a minimum order of 1000 volumes for a quote, so discussions and efforts are being engaged to handle funding, ordering, etc. so that the volumes can at least be created. As more news develops on how these volumes will be printed and distributed, I will share what I learn here. Requests for help may be extended.
There is a lot of effort being placed into minimizing/eliminating financial gain from this work. The printed editions will be sold as cheaply as possible, with current estimates coming in around $20 a volume.
ELECTRONIC VERSIONS
Secondly, now that the electronic manuscripts have been created they are being made freely available. You can download the full Triple or any single volume from the linked pages in the sidebar of this blog. Here are also some direct links to those download pages:
EET Triple Combination
Book of Mormon, Earliest Extant Transcripts version
Doctrine and Covenants, Earliest Extant Transcripts version
Pearl of Great Price, Earliest Extant Transcripts version
As of yet there are still a few electronic versions not yet finished for the Book of Mormon and complete Triple, but they are underway.
All these electronic documents are entirely free, and as unrestricted as possible. That means if you don't want or care to wait for the bound onionskin version and are happy to go with a cheap print-on-demand version or some other print service, go for it. The PDF and DOCX versions are professionally formatted for book printers, most if not all should accept them.
If you want to send electronic copies to people, or make them available for download on your own blogs, websites, etc., feel free to do so. Share these around however you see fit.
If you don't like that the misspellings from the Doctrine and Covenants have been preserved, feel free to clean up the spelling in your copy for your own print or electronic versions.
THIS SCRIPTURE PROJECT
Concerning the purpose of this project, it is driven by a desire to get back to the roots of these volumes of scripture, to return as close to the sources as realistically possible, thereby reducing contextual (and other) commentary written into the revelations by later hands, which may not have been guided by the Lord.
Here are some of the things you can expect to find:
THE BOOK OF MORMON EET
- A massive reduction of punctuation, leaving it between the reader and the Lord to determine where and how certain separations, distinctions, etc. are to be understood.
- Footnotes marking all known additions, redactions, and alterations made to the Book of Mormon during the lifetime of Joseph Smith Jr, as well as the versions of the Book of Mormon in which those things are found.
- The text is presented in textual format similar to the 1840 version of the Book of Mormon—the last edition published during Joseph's lifetime—but with modern chaptering and versing noted in red to aid in study.
D&C EET and PEARL OF GREAT PRICE EET
- Most transcribing errors and alterations found within the source documents are reflected within these EET versions. This means that misspellings, capitalization, grammatical errors, etc., are generally left intact. Alterations made to the source transcripts, such as additions or redactions, are also represented. The rules we have used in preparing this publication are as follows:
- Legible redactions are transcribed in a
strikethroughfont, so they may be read while being recognized as a redaction. - Additions inserted into the original documents with carets are placed within <arrow brackets> to notify the reader that this text is not part of the inline transcript, but was added as an alteration.
- Sections are ordered according to modern numbering, but presented in their original paragraph form with modern verse numbers noted in red.
- In addition to those sections of the Doctrine and Covenants with which most readers are familiar, we have included the Lectures on Faith and the original Section 101, both of which have been removed from current editions of the Doctrine and Covenants. These items were prepared as part of the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, published in 1835, and voted unanimously into that canon of scripture by the church. There was no vote held or obtained to authorize their removal.
- A supplement has been added, containing two letters. The first was the epistle written to the church from which Sections 121, 122, and 123 were taken. Including the entire letter gives the reader the opportunity to study those sections in context. The second letter was the epistle written to the church by Hyrum Smith as Assistant President of the Church, Prophet to the Church and Church Patriarch. Because Hyrum held authority equal to any other presiding Church leader, Joseph's complaint about the Saints' lack of regard for Hyrum will not be disregarded.
Two final notes: Not all alterations made to the early text of these revelations had Joseph Smith’s awareness or approval. There is no way to determine when many were made, or by whom. Therefore it rests with the reader to discover which should/not apply. And any text from the modern versions of scripture that is not found in these versions did not exist during Joseph Smith’s lifetime, as far as has been determined.
This is a volunteer effort, reflecting no official organization, institution, or body. Time, effort, and resources have been donated freely by those involved, without compensation. May your scripture study benefit from these efforts.
