I beleive this to be the closest text to that of the original books of scriptures as originally writen by the Prophets. During the time between the original writings of the prophets and apostles, none of which are left, the bible was copied many times by uninspired men. Some of which, accidently or purposefly (for evil reasons), changed the inspired words of God to that which is not inspired. This version of the Bible contains inspired corrections to that of the scriptures, to bring it back in harmony with what it originally was. Sadly, Joseph Smith Jr. was matryed in cold blood before the entire translation was finished. He did restore many plain and simply truths that were lost. I belive him to be a prohet of God, a prophet who was a tool in restoring, NOT REFORMING, the true Church of Jesus Christ, the one he formed in the New Testament, to the earth. Anyone who likes this translation of the bible should read, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. This book is an ancient book of scripture dealing with this american continent. It was translated by the gift and inspiration of God, This I Know! It starts in Jerusalem around 600 BC. There God command a prophet named Lehi to take his family and flee from Jerusalem becuase it was going to be taken over. They came over to this continent on a ship. They had prohpets here and they wrote what was happening. Then, around 421 AD, the people became wicked and one of the last prophets, Moroni, barried these scriptures. You can know weather it is true or not by reading it and comparing it with the Bible then asking God in faith if it is true(James 1:5-6). This book doesn't contradict the bible, but is in full harmony with it. Some might say it is adding to the Bible and then quote the last chapter of Revealation. That is taking about the book of Revealation only. The bible was compliated much later than it was written. This book is true scripture!

Of the Bibles I have seen and read, this includes NIV, NRSV, KJV, KJV1611, NKJV, etc etc etc, The Inspired Version of the Old Testament contains some truths which are not in any of the others. It resembles a New King James, meaining that it does not contain the Apocrypha, but it includes a lot of more meaningful text, particularly regarding the importance of the agency of man.

This is truly a beautiful and remarkable version of the Old Testament. There is no question in my mind that Joseph Smith was one of the great scriptorians of the last 2 millenia. To truly understand the beauty of this book one must painstakingly research bible history and then carefully study the inhancements made by Joseph Smith in this version of the bible. When this is acomplished the simple conclusion comes to the mind that either this man was a genious or he was as he claimed, inspired. An example of an inhancement that he made is Gen. 6:6 which mentions that "it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it greived him at his heart." The Inspired Version reads that "it greived the Lord that man would not repent." Another example is when the Lord through Moses was persuading Pharaoh to let Israel leave Egypt. Exodus 4:21 of the King James version says "And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go." The Inspired Version reads "When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: and I will prosper thee; but Pharoah will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go." Both of these examples help to roll back the clouds of misunderstanding and show that the characteristics of God are consistent with those taught in the New Testament. God cannot repent for he is perfect and he does not harden peoples hearts but fills them with light and knowledge.

This is one of several books that attempt to get at the root texts of Joseph Smith. We are in an unusual position with Joseph Smith: we have no autograph manuscripts of previous church leaders, such as Buddha, Moses, Mohamed, or Jesus Christ, but whit Joseph Smith, we have a tidal wave of primary documents that can be studied.

This book has the precious 1832 autograph history which has the second earliest version of the First Vision ever recorded, the earliest being D&C 20:5. It also has transcripts from his official journals. It is wonderful to have this book of the real words of Joseph Smith. The most surprising thing is to see that there was no monkey business going on with Joseph Smith's official history.

This edition is by Signature Books, which is a publishing house not friendly to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which makes this book even more interesting. The problem comes with the silent editing (p. xvii) that occurs with the book, especially with the disputed texts, such as the 27 July 1838 entry (see footnote p. 198), or the 26 September 1843 entry associated with the temple endowment, where the silent editing becomes rather loud.

The font is somewhat small, but it is quite readable, and this edition contains the manuscript strikeouts and misspellings, which impede reading a bit. This book has great biographies on people mentioned in the journals, and has a superb index, and a chronological overview of Smith's life. On the down side, there are no illustrations, except for the RLDS portrait of Joseph Smith.

This is a good one-volume alternative to the two-volume "Papers of Joseph Smith" published by Deseret Book, since it covers his entire life, stopping days before his assassination on 27 June 1844.

In the 1842-43 journals, it's written "I wish you had my soul long enough to know how good it feels." I suppose that I came to this book trying, in a sense, to borrow a little bit of Joseph Smith's soul long enough to see how good it felt-- or at least trying to understand a little bit of the person behind the history.

It's more opaque than that. Although there are flashes of personal insight-- particularly religious insight-- these journals are more the record of Mormonism and the issues about it that concerned Smith as he moved across the country. From lists of payments and donations, to intra-faith quarrels, to visions of Nauvoo, to complaints about lawsuits, it gives a clear day-to-day picture of the man and his movement.

The diaries and journals were written by a mix of Joseph Smith and various secretaries acting in his name. In the introduction, the editor comments that he was trying for ease of reading rather than faithful photostatic reproduction-- and I have to say that I would have hated to see what happened if he'd tried for faithful, because the major problem I had with the book was that I found it very difficult to read-- all shorthand, omitted words, crossed out words, and misspellings were noted as they occurred in the text and while I'm sure that it's more valuable as a scholarly text because of the inclusion, it was very distracting. Also, some annotations about historical events wouldn't be amiss rather than the reader always being forced to refer to the (very sketchy) timeline at the beginning. I suppose that most people who will read this would be scholars of Mormon history rather than people with a more casual interest, but it would have illuminated parts of this book much more clearly for readers like myself.

This is an excellent collection of the personal writings of the founder of the largest pseudo-Christian cult in America--the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly known as the "Mormons"). It is a valuable resource for any cult apologist or theologian desiring to better understand the Mormon cult founder

This book is a disturbing look into a deeply troubled mind. Unfortunately that is all I can say about William Morain. The fact that a man with a Phd has the nerve to wright what is clearly an attempt at psychological slander is amazing. If you truely want to find out FACTS about Joseph Smith and the Mormon religion, then check out some books that wouldn't be displayed at the local Moromon linching. However, if you just want a good "Bash The Mormons" book then you have a winner.

I give the book two stars because the work does demonstrate some portion of creativity.

But about Joseph Smith and his remarkable work, I expected much more analysis. Smith, with no formal education, wrote a book in his early 20s that millions two centuries later revere as others do the Bible or the Koran. He singlehandedly conceived, designed, initiated, recruited leadership for, and wrote policies and standards for a whole new religion with few subsequent changes that has florished for two centuries and seems destined in this century to become the third largest Christian religion in North America(after Catholics and Baptists). Great leaders such as Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon, and intellectuals like Eliza R. Snow and John Taylor looked up to him and revered him. He may yet be widely regarded as the most influential man of his time.

To write Smith and the Book of Mormon off as shallow and simply a result of an excrutiating childhood trauma seems itself shallow and may reveal Morian's own psychological expession of self hatred. Marian's roots trace back to Smith, at least indirectly, as a multigenerational decendent of a splinter group founded by Joseph Smith's wife and son.

Smith's childhood trauma was important and no doubt did influence his subsequent psyche and behavior to some extent but it seems downright goofy to suppose that it defined his whole life or explained his extraordinary capability. Smith is one of the few young people in history to create a whole new philosophy, let alone one that has moved millions for centuries. Marian does little or nothing to explain the psycholgical underpinnings of how the man was able to do that. Rather he says the Book of Mormon is shallow and that Smith's work was driven by the horror from a sharp blade and his resonses and family relationships associated with that experience.

Marian may have a valid point about the trauma, but, like the people who think birth order explains everything, this is WAY overblown! Its worth a page, not a book!

This is a quick and easy read, perfect for after dinner reading. The argument intriguing, but one shouldn't take it so seriously. It's best to read this book with the same healthy skepticism one would bring to a "JFK assassination conspiracy" book. The author is simply connecting dots in Joseph Smith's life to construct his theory that Smith had a personality disorder, and that this disorder was the essence of his religious genius. The book's critical flaw is methodological: Morain never really compares Smith with other case studies from the literature on dissociative disorders, rendering his conclusions pure speculation. Still, Morain scores a few interesting points, and made me say "hmmmmmmmm" more than once. Five stars for readability. Three stars for scholarship. That's an average of 4.