Posted by:
Fetal Deity
(
)
Date: August 30, 2013 02:05AM
The printer was doing a favor for the BoM author(s), who failed almost entirely to punctuate the manuscript that was given to the printer. The Mormon church finally admitted that.
From BYU.edu:
"As far as we can determine, the original text of the Book of Mormon had no punctuation. The original manuscript had some dashes in the summaries that are typically found at the beginning of books or sections of books, but elsewhere in the original manuscript the scribes provided no punctuation. For the printer's manuscript, Oliver Cowdery and scribe 2 added some punctuation as they copied the original manuscript. The 1830 typesetter, John Gilbert, ignored the scribes' suggested punctuation and provided his own as he set the type. In most instances, Gilbert's punctuation (or its equivalent) has been retained in the text."
http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=104&chapid=1169From lds.org:
"'After working a few days, I [the BoM printer] said to [Hyrum] on his handing me the manuscript in the morning; "Mr. Smith, if you would leave this manuscript with me, I would take it home with me at night and read and punctuate it." His reply was, "We are commanded not to leave it." A few mornings after this, when [Hyrum] handed me the manuscript, he said to me: "if you will give your word that this manuscript shall be returned to us when you get through with it, I will leave it with you." … for two or three nights I took it home with me and read it, and punctuated it with a lead pencil.' (In Wilford C. Wood, Joseph Smith Begins His Work, vol. 1, Salt Lake City: Wilford C. Wood, 1959.)
"His effort resulted in somewhere between 30,000–35,000 additional punctuation marks."
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1983/12/understanding-textual-changes-in-the-book-of-mormon?lang=engBeyond these punctuational edits, the printer introduced very few substantive changes.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2013 04:30AM by Fetal Deity.