In 2022, as I was teaching Old Testament in the Gospel Doctrine class I found myself complaining about how easy it was to miss the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) entries in the Latter-day Saint edition of the Old Testament. The following year the New Testament presented me with the same challenges. Through the years I had often thought to myself that someone should create a red-letter edition of the JST similar to the bible that I had as a young man. In those old red-letter volumes of the New Testament, whenever the Savior spoke in the first person, the text would appear in red print. It made it easy to follow when the Savior was speaking. Numerous times the thought came to me that someone needed to create a red- letter edition, highlighting alterations made by the Prophet Joseph to the King James Version (KJV) of the bible. One day while teaching the New Testament in the Come Follow Me curriculum, my mind was forcefully struck with the thought that I could create such a volume. It was as though Dr. Robert J. Matthews was trying to get my attention. I went to work on those volumes and over the following two years produced both books. The New Testament rendition was released in April 2024, and the Old Testament in April 2025.

I have studied the history of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jun., since I was a young man. I have been captivated by his teachings, by his history, by his accomplishments, and by the man himself. I have read and studied every book I could find about him and his ministry in the latter-days. I revere him for what he is, even to this day, a good man, a Prophet, a Seer, a Revelator, and more recently I have come to know him as a Translator.

In his role as Translator, the Prophet Joseph is unique. This article concerns his inspired translation of the King James Version of the Holy Bible, and more specifically, my inspired journey to create two books, The Joseph Smith Translation, Red-Letter Edition, Old Testament, and The Joseph Smith Translation, Red-Letter Edition, New Testament.

After serving two years in the California Mission/California East Mission followed by a second year at Ricks College, marriage, and then three years as a Counter-Intelligence Agent for the US Army during the Vietnam conflict, I managed to get accepted into BYU in October 1974, and enrolled on the block plan. As it turned out, like so many things do, I was right in step with the Church’s final efforts to cross reference the complete canon of Latter-day Saint scripture, The Holy Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price. This was a monumental feat and was later described by Elder Boyd K. Packer as “…the most comprehensive compilation of scripture information on the mission and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ that has ever been assembled in the history of the world.”1

In 1975, I was introduced to Dr. Robert J. Matthews, my instructor for The Pearl of Great Price class. That same semester I was hired as an Undergraduate Assistant to Dr. Robert C. Patch of the Ancient Scripture Department. My responsibility was to assist Dr. Patch in the creation of the Harmony of the Gospels found in the Bible Dictionary of the cross-referenced Latter-day Saint Scriptures. Dr. Matthews and Dr. Patch were both critical contributors to the scripture cross- referencing effort. Dr. Matthews was the individual responsible for the Church gaining access to the manuscripts of the Joseph Smith Translation. His persistence over a period of 14 years resulted in the Church obtaining from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (now the Community of Christ) copies of those documents and permission to include some of the more pertinent verses in the 1979 edition of the Latter-day Saint Scriptures

Upon returning to BYU in 1978, to pursue an MS degree, I reconnected with Dr. Patch and Dr. Matthews. I was then invited to be an Instructor in the Ancient Scripture Department. Dr. Matthews was the Chairman of the department and my direct supervisor. I was provided with an office in the basement of the Joseph Smith Building. Dr. Matthews maintained a hideaway office in the basement, just down the hall from my office. When Dr. Matthews would escape to his hideaway office to do research and to write he would stop by my office giving us a chance to discuss his work and his research on the JST.

For years after leaving BYU, and following the receipt of my first copy of the cross-referenced version of the Latter-day Saint scriptures, I took great delight in the entries of the JST found within those pages. Dr. Matthews had instilled in me a love for the JST. About 1/3 of the JST verses were included in the Latter-day Saint scriptures. Space limitations in the new Latter-day Saint volume of the bible made it impractical to insert more of the Prophet Joseph’s alterations.

After casually mentioning my work on the JST Red-Letter Editions, to a friend and coworker at the Boise Idaho Temple, he was so excited about such an easily read version of the JST that he purchased the first available book. Upon reviewing the book more closely, my friend told me that it was an important book and that it should be in every Latter-day Saint home library. However, the nature of the books requires an almost exclusively Latter-day Saint audience. Getting the books in front of that audience was a challenge.

Now, what makes these red-letter editions of the JST so unique? Most JST publications use a parallel form of comparison between the KJV and the JST. While this is helpful, the reader must move from column to column noting where the exact differences occur while retaining some semblance of flow in thought, as well as keeping track of the JST vs KJV entries. Entries in the Latter-day Saint scriptures are also problematic 2 in that firstly, they were never meant to specifically highlight the JST, and secondly, it is too easy to miss a JST reference since they are only found in footnotes or references to an appendix. The red-letter editions dispel both concerns by showing the JST alterations in red print while retaining the altered KJV text but printed in blue with a strikethrough. For instance, note the ease of reading, identifying, and understanding the KJV because of the JST in the following verses:

The red print highlights the JST alterations. The blue print with the strikethrough immediately following the red print shows how the KJV originally read. The black print is the unchanged text of the KJV. It can be a little awkward to read with the blue text following the red, but once a reader gets accustomed to it the text flows easily and the meaning and intent of the verses are more readily revealed. No more looking from column to column trying to maintain the flow while revealing the meaning of the text to one’s mind. It all reads smoothly, flowing easily while allowing the reader to focus on the concepts instead of trying to find and compare words in the contrasting versions of the text.

Another example, this time one of my favorites from the JST Old Testament, shows the ease of reading and finding understanding through the altered text.

Those verses from JST Amos are a wonderful example of how the text can be easily read while the concept is more clearly seen.

Here are a few more meaningful changes:

The following JST in the book of John significantly alters the concepts which we have become accustomed to for those verses. They are a classic example of how the Prophet Joseph altered text despite how most translators would render them from ancient Greek. It is clear from this example that the Prophet did not follow customary academic methods of translation.

The remarkable thing about so many of the JST changes is that they often require little or no explanation. The concepts generally become evident wherever the Prophet Joseph made his inspired changes.

There are dozens of similar examples throughout the JST. The Red-Letter Editions provide a simple and smooth reading of those verses by easily identifying them while the JST clarifies the biblical text, revealing greater understanding for students, teachers, researchers, and studious members alike.

My hope is that these unique Red-Letter renditions of the JST Old and New Testaments become valuable editions for members of the Latter-day Saint community as they continue striving to learn of Jesus Christ and his marvelous Prophet of this last dispensation, Joseph Smith, Jun., Prophet, Seer, Revelator, and Translator.

Notes 

1 Elder Boyd K. Packer, Scriptures, General Conference Address, October 1982.

2 The JST Red-Letter Editions are not meant to supplant the authorized Latter-day Saint scriptures. It should be noted here that after corresponding with Church leadership, this author was authorized, via the Church Director of the Intellectual Property Division, to provide the JST, Red-Letter Editions to any Church entities desiring to make these books available to the Latter-day Saint audience.

3 Surprisingly, the Prophet made changes to 47 of the 150 Psalms. The Psalms are often thought of as some of the best examples of ancient Hebrew found in the Old Testament. These alterations highlight the Prophet Joseph’s ability to reveal more closely the intent of the ancient writer while making the verses more easily understood by modern readers.