The Book of Mormon, Maxwell Institute Study Edition, edited by Grant Hardy. Published by the Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and the Religious Studies Center (both at Brigham Young University), in cooperation with Deseret Book, 2018. $27.68, paperback.

While “study editions” of the Bible have long been available to students of the scriptures, and seem to be being embraced now by Latter-day Saints, and while the Book of Mormon has been distributed with extensive commentary at least since the 1950s with publication of George Reynolds’ and Janne M. Sjodahl’s work from a half century earlier, this is the first edition of the Book of Mormon to be published explicitly as a “study edition.”

Study Bibles generally have extensive notes and essays to help the reader understand and interpret the text: There might be notes on ancient history as a setting for biblical stories; explanations of obscure words and ancient customs; introductions to the various books of the Bible summarizing their organization and content, and giving context for that book within the biblical world; perhaps notes on how given verses influenced the course of biblical history; there may also be extensive cross-referencing to other scriptural texts, especially when the goal of a particular study Bible is to help the reader understand doctrine within a given religious tradition.

In some ways, the LDS editions of the scriptures published a generation ago were intended to be study editions, with helps to interpretation and understanding included as both footnotes to the text itself and as extended material ini appendixes in the form of the Bible dictionary, Topical Guide, and passages from the Joseph Smith translation too lengthy for inclusion as footnotes.

The goal of this new Study Edition of the Book of Mormon, however, seems to be very different from the typical study Bible or even the standard issue of the LDS scriptures. Where those editions surround the text with an array of scholarly and devotional materials to aid – to direct, even dictate – the reader’s understanding of the scriptures, this edition removes all that. Its goal appears to be strip away all that apparatus, helpful as it may have been, and leave a clean and pristine version of the text, creating a barrier-free, best possible text of the Book of Mormon for the reader – the student, the believer – to encounter.

This Study Edition presents that “best possible text” using several techniques:

First and most important is the formatting of the text. Gone is the two-column, chapter-and-verse format which mimicked traditional presentation of the Bible. The old chapter-and-verse format was a great aid to finding specific lines within the text; that aid is still available in this edition, with running titles across the top of each page and with verse numbers reduced to unobtrusive superscripts in the text, but the text is presented now in a more readable format.

That old chapter-and-verse format erected a barrier to understanding the text.

Because each sentence, or even clause, appeared in its own numbered verse.

And we tended to read verses as units separate from what went before or came after.

So readers lost the continuity of the text.

Which was especially evident when scripture was read aloud.

Because we paused after each verse.

And lines were always being taken out of context.

Because they were separated from context by what met the eye.

In this edition, however, the text appears as we are used to reading the kinds of literature we enjoy and find most comprehensible: The stories and sermons and letters of the Book of Mormon appear in “normal” paragraph form, so that lines that used to be read in isolation now flow from one sentence to the next. When passages are poetic, they are printed in the form of poetry. Short titles within the text mark the transition from one story to another, as readers are used to seeing in other kinds of publications.

In the few places where two Book of Mormon characters speak to each other as if in conversation, the text is formatted with quotation marks – which are also used when the speaker/writer quotes a prophecy or a statement by an earlier teacher.

Those may seem like minor points, until you actually read the text in this format. It is a pleasure to read, and your attention is on the content of the scripture, not on how many more verses you have to read before you complete your obligatory two-chapters-a-day reading commitment.

The earliest editions of the Book of Mormon presented the text in much this way – without quotation marks, yes, but in paragraph form. Reading the text this way somewhat reproduces the experience of the first readers, the men and women who sometimes stayed up all night to read when they were first introduced to the book, feeling its spirit, entering its narrative, and having quite a different experience than any of us have had while reading the text verse by plodding verse. ((This brilliant formatting, it should probably be noted, is available in Grant Hardy’s Reader’s Edition, and in some reproductions of the 1830 edition. This new Study Edition, however, contains the same current/corrected/edited text available in the standard LDS edition, whereas, due to copyright restrictions, the Reader’s Edition contains the 1920 text. If you were to read from the Study Edition in a church setting, it would match what others see on their pages.))

The familiar chapter-and-verse divisions of the standard edition were added to the Book of Mormon in 1879. Those chapter divisions in the standard edition, however, were inserted at points that keep the chapters more or less of the same length, not because the sense of the narrative called for such breaks. Perhaps many Latter-day Saints are unaware that the early editions of the Book of Mormon were also divided into chapters – divisions that were apparently marked on the plates themselves, but which usually do not correspond to the 1879 chapter breaks. Those original chapter breaks reappear in the Study Edition as bracketed roman numerals at the top of each page, and as unobtrusive, bracketed roman numerals within the text itself. This seemingly small feature subtly affects the narrative as the reader’s eye registers the shift, without disturbing the reading – as with all other features in this edition, the goal seems to be to present the best possible text in order to allow the reader to experience the Book of Mormon as it was originally created.

To anyone who enjoys using the typical study Bible with its plethora of notes, explanations, introductions, and other helps, the number and nature of such materials in this Study Edition may at first be a disappointment. The footnotes are few, and fall into these categories:

1. Scriptural sources for quoted material. This is true not only of the Isaiah passages in Nephi, but of passages from the Pentateuch as well.

2. Allusions. Where a passage seems to allude to, rather than directly quote, another passage, you’ll find notes like this one in Helaman13:17: “The curses described in this section echo those at Hel. 12:18-19.”

3. Differences between the standard text and the Original or Printer’s manuscripts. These are not comprehensive, thankfully – not every change from which to who, not every grammatical correction in verbal form, is marked – but where a word or phrase differs due to apparent misreading or miscopying, the difference appears. Information for these notes comes from Royal Skousen’s enormous and detailed study of the manuscripts. Not all of the references to his work are self-contained in the Study Edition, however; some notes direct readers to consult Skousen’s six-volume study (now online). A few other notes refer to sources outside the Book of Mormon text itself which can be frustrating if you don’t have those sources handy; a page in the forematter, however, conveniently provides full citations for all such “outside” sources, giving the reader a start toward tracking them down.

Notice that all of these sorts of notes refer to the text itself, not to the meaning of the text. Such notes reflect the editor’s concern with presenting the best possible text for the reader to study, and do not direct the reader’s understanding or the doctrinal or historical significance of any line. All of that is left to the reader.

4. A small number of notes, however, seem to break this pattern of strict attention to the form of the text. A few notes indicate that such-and-such a prophecy was fulfilled at such-and-such a point. Perhaps, though, such notes are not intended as doctrinal statements but are analogous to notes about quotations – the quotations refer to earlier passages, while the “prophecy was fulfilled” notes refer to later passages making the same statement. Still, I’m not sure how the note – I’ve lost the reference, but will fill it in here later if I can find it – about the earlier capture of a capital city fits the pattern of noting only “best possible text” helps.

These brief and, really, sparse notes, with their limited focus on the text and not the meaning of the text, are supplemented by material both before and after the text itself, and they are a delight. When have you seen Emma Smith’s testimony published alongside those of the Three and Eight Witnesses? You’ll find that here. There’s a timeline for events in the narrative, especially useful because the dates appearing at the foot of most pages of the standard edition have been omitted from the Study Edition. There’s an excellent brief essay on literary parallelism in the scriptures, including but not limited to chiasmus. There’s a map which – praise be – suggests the relative position of cities, rivers, and seas as mentioned in the text but without attempting to pin them to any particular real-world geography (that caution fits very well with the overall pattern of focusing on the text itself, without imposing material from outside the text). The artwork of Brian Kershishnik, created specially for this Study Edition, is pleasing, and is just abstract enough to illuminate the text without directing how it should be seen, as more realistic images might have done.

I confess that when I heard that a study edition was in the works, I expected it to be very much like the study Bibles I enjoy using, filled with editorial explanation and exploratory essays. Frankly, I was disappointed when I first saw how little such material appears here. But the more I looked at what was added to and especially what was taken away from the standard edition, the more pleased I was, and remain. This is a study edition not because Grant Hardy has flooded its pages with editorial content, but precisely because he has not done so. So many of the barriers to actually seeing the text, reading it without the usual overlay of headnotes shaping my expectations of the text and the frustration of footnotes that go nowhere useful, allows me to read the text, to study it as it is. There is still room for the other sort of study Book of Mormon, and I hope someone soon publishes one with the kinds of essays and notes I love to explore – but this Study Edition, one that offers the best possible text for study, has its own definite merits.