LDS Church Acquires Printer’s Manuscript of Book of Mormon

“We hold the Book of Mormon to be a sacred text like the Bible”

On September 20, the acquisition of the Printer's Manuscript of the Book of Mormon was finalized.

The Manuscript was being purchased from the Community of Christ which sold it to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at $35 million.

LDS Church Acquires Printer’s Manuscript of Book of Mormon[/tweetthis]

The Church's elder, Steven E. Snow expressed his gratitude to the well-wishers for funding this purchase. The elder was keen to note the importance of the book to the members of the Mormon faith. “We hold the Book of Mormon to be a sacred text like the Bible.” The acquisition of this manuscript, therefore, bears great significance to the Mormons.

The manuscript is the earliest copy of the Book of Mormon text as only a quarter of the original text survived years of storage in Nauvoo, Illinois. The Manuscript had been housed in Missouri by the Community of Christ since 1903. This copy was purchased then for approximately three thousand dollars or sixty-seven thousand dollars according to westegg.com.

The Mormons have a great regard for this book as it tells of the witness of Christ just as Biblical Scripture does. It is therefore seen as an important aspect of their faith. The manuscripts first copy was printed in 1830. It has since informed the beliefs and practices of the Mormon people.

I just found out the LDS Church purchased the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon. That's kind of amazingly awesome.

— Zaukodar (@Zaukodar) September 25, 2017

The Manuscript was printed in 2015 in its entirety through the Joseph Smith Papers Project. It can be found in the third volume of Revelations and Translations. There are plans to make digital copies available to the public on the josephsmithpapers.org website. Meanwhile, the church intends to display the recently acquired text at the Church History Library. These plans will be finalized in the coming months.

This historic event brings about a mood of celebration to the Mormon people. They will continue to uphold their beliefs and practices as they draw from the original Manuscript and relish their heritage.

Resources

• The Church of Latter-day Saints
• KUTV
• Daily Herald
• Joseph Smith Papers

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