027 Did Joseph Smith Plagiarize Part of the JST?

Church History Matters

Scripture Central

Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.9 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2023

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In his Bible translation project did Joseph Smith plagiarize the work of a prominent British scholar named Adam Clarke? Or, if you don’t want to call it plagiarism, did Joseph Smith “borrow” or appropriate phrases and ideas from Adam Clarke’s Bible commentary (without attribution) which are found in our JST footnotes today? This is the question at the heart of the biggest modern controversy surrounding Joseph Smith’s Bible Translation. In this episode of Church History Matters, we trace the origins of this controversy back to a series of interviews and articles by BYU Professor Thomas Wayment and his research assistant Hailey Wilson-Lemmon beginning in 2017 and culminating in a book chapter published in 2020. And as we are inclined to do with all things related to Joseph Smith’s Bible translation, we’ll look to expert Kent Jackson for his take on the claims of Wayment and Wilson-Lemmon in an article he published as a critique and refutation of their research. For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Scott from Church History Matters.
0:03.0	Because we're at a point in this series where we're about to move away from the topic of
0:06.4	Joseph's Bible translation, we thought it might be helpful to pause mid-series and spend our next
0:11.5	episode taking any questions you might have about
0:13.8	Joseph's Bible Translation Project. We will be pleased to have as our special guest
0:18.1	Dr Kent Jackson to help us respond to your questions. He's an author and scholar on all things related to
0:24.0	Joseph's Bible translation and Casey and I have drawn heavily from Dr Jackson's
0:28.2	excellent research throughout this series so far. So please submit your
0:32.1	thoughtful questions any time before September 6th
0:35.0	23 to podcasts at scripturecentral.org. Let us know your name, where you're from
0:41.0	and try to keep each question as concise as possible when you email them in.
0:45.1	That helps out a lot.
0:46.1	Okay, now on to the episode.
0:49.1	In his Bible translation project, did Joseph Smith plagiarize the work of a prominent British scholar named Adam Clark?
1:01.0	Or if you don't want to call it plagiarism, did Joseph Smith borrow or appropriate
1:05.4	phrases and ideas from Adam Clark's Bible commentary without attribution, which are
1:10.4	found in our JST footnotes today.
1:13.0	This is the question at the heart of the biggest modern controversy surrounding Joseph Smith's Bible translation.
1:19.0	In today's episode of Church History Matters, we trace the origins of this controversy back to a series of
1:24.8	interviews and articles by BYU Professor Thomas Weymand and his research assistant
1:29.6	Haley Wilson Lemon beginning in 2017 and culminating in a book chapter published in 2020.
1:36.5	And as we are inclined to do with all things related to Joseph Smith's Bible translation,
	...

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