A collection of essential passages from the Book of Mormon made available by the LDS Church until the final version of a new translation is published.
While I have always known that the Book of Mormon is filled with great truths, I’ve only recently discovered what its publisher considers to be some of its most important teachings. Whenever the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints begins the lengthy process of translating this additional testimony of Jesus Christ into a new language, they first create a collection of essential passages, called a “Selection”, which they make available until the final version is published. Boyd Waite, an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, owns one of these books and introduced these concepts to my wife at a weekly off-campus religion class.
According to Waite, these passages “were approved by the First Presidency with something in mind… perhaps mostly to give new members with little other exposure to the Gospel the best chance of appreciating the origin and purpose of the Book of Mormon. I’m sure you’d come up with another set of selections if the purpose were different, e.g., the most essential parts relating to teachings about the atonement. It’s a very interesting exercise to think about the most meaningful selections as measured against whatever criterion you choose.”
I’ve listed the preface and table of contents from one of those volumes below. Waite translated them from the Romanian using Google Translate. The Romanian Selections was published in 1981, with the full translation available in 1998 and 2004.
My wife and I are reading these passages to experience the power of the book in a condensed way. What are your experiences with them?
FROM THE PREFACE:
“This volume contains selections from the Book of Mormon. They are published for temporary use until the Book of Mormon will be translated in full and published in Romanian. At that time the present volume will be discontinued.
“The Book of Mormon contains the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. These selections include some of the most important teachings of this holy scripture for missionary use and for the use of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and others who are interested in the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
THE PASSAGES:
1 Nephi, chapters 1-7, 16-18
2 Nephi, chapters 1-5, 9, 29, 31-33
Enos
Mosiah, chapters 2-5, 17, 18
Alma, chapters 5, 11, 12, 32, 34, 39-42
Helaman, chapters 13-16
3 Nephi, chapters 1, 8, 11-30
4 Nephi
Mormon, chapters 1, 4, 6-9
Moroni
The entire book is available here: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm. For more translation information, see “Translations of the Book of Mormon” at http://ldsmediatalk.com/2010/07/30/translations-of-the-book-of-mormon/. The entire collection of LDS scriptures is here: https://www.lds.org/scriptures. A historical summary of the book is available here: http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/book-of-mormon.
#condensedbookofmormon #bookofmormon #mormon #lds #truth #jesus