Hi, Wyr religion friends, welcome to another great episode of the Wyr religion podcast, Professor Anthony Sway here.

Joseph Smith famously said that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth.

Because Latter-day Saints believe the Book of Mormon translation was a divine miracle,

we can sometimes make the assumption that what Joseph Smith meant by that was that the Book of Mormon text was in a perfected state,

without any grammatical or English errors in it.

But that isn't what Joseph seemed to mean by that statement.

His very next line after discussing how the Book of Mormon was the most correct,

had to do with readers abiding by the precepts taught in the book.

He didn't seem to be saying the grammatical or English expressions were perfect.

Indeed, even Mormon seemed to warn us against such a position,

telling us, quote, now if there are faults, they are the mistakes of men,

wherefore condemn not the things of God and of quote.

Some may not know that there have been thousands of textual variants to the English text of the Book of Mormon.

Most of them are very minor and grammatical,

but some are expressions and words that significantly impact the reading and understanding of the text.

When comparing the existing original manuscript with the printers manuscript,

with the first published 1830 text,

and then the 1837 and 1840 editions of the Book of Mormon, overseen by Joseph Smith,

these changes become more evident.

One person, perhaps more than any other who has dedicated his scholarly life to finding, comparing,

and understanding these changes to the Book of Mormon text is royal scouson,

who has spent more than 25 years,

...