Royal Skousen will be doing a presentation on the current status of the Book of Mormon critical text project at Utah Valley University [UVU] on Saturday, November 12, 2022, from 7 to 9 p.m. The location is the Sorenson Center Center Stage. The entire campus is open for parking except the parking garage, which costs $1 an hour.
Royal sent the following comment on the presentation:
I would like to present on my current work . . . because of the important results I am coming up with as I write parts 7 and 8 of volume 3, the last two printed books in the critical text series. . . .
The title of my presentation will be “Textual Criticism and the Book of Mormon”. . . . I will speak for about an hour and a half, then we’ll have half an hour for questions. . . .
The first part of my presentation will deal with the early transmission of the text and will include what we know about how Joseph Smith translated and how the scribes wrote down his dictation, with evidence not only from witnesses of the translation, but also supporting evidence from the original manuscript itself. Then I will turn to how the text was copied from the original manuscript to the printer’s manuscript (and for one-sixth of it directly to the 1830 edition). My work on this transmission completely overthrows the traditional view of textual critics that a text becomes easier and longer when it is copied. To the contrary, the original manuscript text, when copied, became more difficult and shorter. This finding has huge implications for the theory of textual criticism. Even more important, the Book of Mormon is a long, repetitious text, and this allows us to objectively define what are difficult and easier readings.
In the second part of the presentation, I will discuss conjectural emendations. Textual critics have claimed that their goal is to avoid conjectures, but in actual fact texts have many conjectural emendations, mostly hidden since we do not know the transmission history of most texts. But for the Book of Mormon, we do. And I will be discussing the fact that there are hundreds of conjectural emendations in the current text of the Book of Mormon. Even more surprising is the large number of conjectural emendations in foreign language translations of the Book of Mormon, even when these translations are supervised, so to speak.
And finally, I will be discussing volume 5 of the critical text, which will be released in January. Volume 5 is the computerized collation of the text and it includes every change, not only in words and phrases, but in typos, scribal slips, punctuation, capitalization, versification systems. Only I have had access to this computerized collation, but in January it will become publicly available. And more important, it will be linked to volume 4 of the critical text, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, so that when users view a particular variant of some significance in the text, they will be able to read what ATV has to say about how the Book of Mormon text should read for that variant. The collation will be presented in a WordCruncher format, thus conveniently allowing users to find all the variants of any given type.
It’s going to be an enlightening evening. I can guarantee that there will be substance in this presentation, not fluff.
I’m going to have the Interpreter post my 21-page write-up of my UVU presentation, plus the PowerPoint. This is going to happen very soon.
will you write a link to it when you post it?
Jerry Grover and I have discussed the possibility of doing a future presentation after the computerized collation becomes actually available and I could demonstrate its actual use. We would have this videotaped (crossing our fingers) and available. I am as disappointed as many of you that the presentation on November 12 was not videotaped.
Unfortunately, the person who was supposed to videotape my presentation never showed. However, I have written a 21-page write-up of my remarks and I will be posting it shortly on the Interpreter Blog, with Dan Peterson’s permission. At least there you will be able to read what I spoke on. It covers all the PowerPoint slides that I based my remarks on.
Where can I find the recorded video?
I am trying to find this lecture on YouTube — could someone please provide it — if possible.
Brother Skousen’s lectures are incredibly insightful.
I’m sorry to say that no recording was made of the lecture, apparently as the result of a misunderstanding. (I certainly don’t understand what happened!)
I had been out of the country until the night before, and without WiFi during the last of that absence, and had assumed that all was under control. Plainly, it wasn’t.
Whether or not we can do something to remedy the defect is still unclear.
In the absence of a recording of this lecture, I look forward to seeing Dr. Skousen’s Powerpoint.
If you haven’t already watched Dr. Skousen’s earlier presentations on this project, you can find early ones at his website here https://criticaltext.byustudies.byu.edu/video-lectures
And 14 videos in the playlist here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yckz3lVkw8&list=PLXbAVRWvW61asfctSqnwWtje9dr9qyTax
(Go to YouTube, search for BYU Studies, find the Book of Mormon Critical Text lectures playlist)
So glad to know that it will be available on YouTube. I live on the East coast and can’t travel to Utah for this, but would love to hear it and benefit from Dr. Skousen’s peerless scholarship!
Where did you find the YouTube link? I too would enjoy this. Thanks in advance.
Regarding emendations, I have created a 584-lined excel sheet, one line for each 1830 BofM pages. Then I’ve tabulated Jerald Tanner’s 3,9,13 Book of Mormon Changes into four columns according to whether the changes were single-word, two-word, three-word, or 4 to13 words in length. I’d like to ask Dr. Skousen if he has compiled that same dated (undoubtedly with more accuracy) anywhere in his publications or if he might be discussing this type of data on November 12?
The Tanners’ work, as you are aware, is not reliable, especially since its goal is to undermine the text. In part 8 of volume 3 of the critical text, I will be listing over 1,500 conjectural emendations that have either occurred in the history of the text or have been proposed over the years or recently. Nearly all of these are discussed in the updated version of Analysis of Textual Variants, second edition. Most importantly, I indicate for each conjecture whether it appears in the standard LDS text and whether it appears in the Yale text, The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (2022, second edition). Part 8, which deals with textual criticism of the Book of Mormon, will also have a detailed section evaluating the Tanners’ work and why we need to move beyond them.
The late William F. Albright always said that losses were more common than glosses– in textual transmission. So will be interesting to see you confirm that view for Book of Mormon manuscripts.
Your lectures never disappoint, Royal.
PLEASE find a way to make this available online (even if an informal recording put online after the event. I think that is very important in this digital age for the current followers of this important Project, and as a historical record of Royal Skousen’s presentations.
Thank you for whatever can be done to make it available.
Will this be available online ?
I know that we are going to videotape it and put it up on YouTube for subsequent viewing. My understanding is that it will not be shown live online. Royal Skousen