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Have you ever wanted to get more resources for the Book of Mormon? David Hocking has put together an amazing resource, The Annotated Book of Mormon. We’re going to dive deep into his edition. It’s a beautiful book, with not only gold leaf, but he has the words of Jesus in red, similar to those red letter Bibles.
The Book of Mormon is an account of the “former inhabitants of this continent” that contains “the fulness of the everlasting gospel….as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants,” (Joseph Smith-History, 1:34) who were the “other sheep” Jesus spoke of during His ministry in Jerusalem.
The Annotated Book of Mormon has been created to help readers understand the everlasting gospel as explained in the text, together with what the modern prophets and apostles have taught about it. The text has been formatted so readers can identify natural conversations, poetic speech patterns, prophecies, and the words of God.The annotations include prophetic commentaries on quoted scripture and the use of colored text. (See “A Text Formatting Guide,” pp. xxv and xxvi). These elements bear witness to the divinity of this ancient text by drawing upon Hebrew tradition—much different from the nineteenth century rural America known to Joseph Smith.
The Annotated Book of Mormon also focuses on an important part of Moroni’s introduction; i.e., the “former inhabitants of this continent.” Joseph Smith, writing in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1842, explained that “the remnant [of these ancient inhabitants] are the Indians that now inhabit this country.” (See Appendix, “Church History—Wentworth Letter,” pp. 546-549.) Oliver Cowdery mentioned this in his Letter VII (see p. 515).
The Annotated Edition of
The Book of Mormon
COMPILED and EDITED BY
David R. Hocking
MANAGING EDITOR
Rod L. Meldrum
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Order Your Copy Today! Retail $69.95
THE ANNOTATIONS
The Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon is more like a text book for those that want more in-depth understanding of the people, places and events that shape the narrative. There are annotations, research articles, quotes from early apostles and prophets and the diagrams, charts and maps are very helpful to understanding this sacred scripture. It is a testimony building tool.
EASY TO READ
You’ll find it easier (and much faster) to read and understand in its non-verse format. You can immediately tell by colors, indentations, paragraphs and quotations who is speaking vs. who is being summarized (i.e. when Mormon speaks vs. when he quotes someone else, or when he acts as the editor of the Nephite recorded history, etc.). You’ll be able to see what Mormon thinks, what the Savior is thinking, etc.
CHILDREN & TEENAGERS
They will find all the annotations very informative and much more interesting for seminary classes, church talks and lessons.
ENLIGHTENMENT
The annotations, “Insight pages,” and comprehensive Appendix are all enlightening and testimony strengthening.
INTRODUCTION TO FORMATTING STYLE ELEMENTS
THE ANNOTATED EDITION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON has been formatted to enlarge our understanding of and give reverence to this unique and sacred volume of scripture. The reader will immediately note that the text is structured and formatted differently from the versions currently in print.
THE ANNOTATION OF THE TEXT utilizes several style elements:
- Use of quotations when there is speech.
- Use of paragraphs for complete thoughts.
- Use of color for clarity of voice spoken: Red for Deity; Blue for angels; Blue for quoted scripture.
- Use of italics for paraphrased quotes; the voice of the Master (Lord of the vineyard) in Jacob 5
- Use of capitalized references to Deity, i.e. Thee, Thou, Thine, Me, Mine, Spirit, etc.
- Use of style elements for emphasis, i.e. prophecies are indented with a smaller type font.
- Use of capitalized nouns. (i.e. Plates of Brass, Valley of Lemuel, House of Israel, etc.)
- Use of bold text for I, Nephi; I, Lehi; I, Jacob; I, Mormon, etc. to highlight personal records.
John H. Gilbert typeset the original 1830 edition for the publisher, Mr. Egbert B. Grandin, printer of the Wayne Sentinel. His recollections of the events are instructive: “After working a few days, I said to [Hyrum] Smith on his handing me the manuscript in the morning, ‘Mr. [Hyrum] Smith, if you would leave this manuscript with me, I would take it home with me at night and read and punctuate it, and I could get along faster in the daytime, for now I have frequently to stop and read half a page to find how to punctuate it.’ [For an example see Background, p. xxvi.] His reply was, ‘We are commanded not to leave it.’ A few mornings after this, when [Hyrum] Smith 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.’ I assured Smith that it should be returned all right when I got through with it. For two or three nights I took it home with me and read it, and punctuated it with a lead pencil. This will account for the punctuation marks in pencil, which is referred to in the Mormon Report, an extract from which will be found below. “Names of persons and places were generally capitalized, but sentences had no end.
The familiar text has been addressed in three specific dimensions:
- In the first dimension, a literary treatment of the full text of The Book of Mormon.
- In the second dimension, the addition of insight pages.
- In the third dimension, the inclusion of vast amounts of color in many forms.
First Dimension (Literary Treatment)
The original content of The Book of Mormon has not been altered, reduced or revised; Only the formatting of the text and its literary representation has been revised, altered and enhanced quite extensively.
The literary treatment combines verses into coherent paragraph structures then adds descriptive headers within chapters. Verse numbers are superscripted; poetical stanzas are shown in their Hebraic forms; quotation marks and indentation identify voices of speakers; Ancient Hebraic writing forms such as chiasmus and word-patterns are shown in-context along with font colors which are used to establish textual hierarchy (importance).
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