As He studied the Bible, Joseph Smith became concerned about the unauthorized additions, incomplete statements and faulty translations he encountered in it. Near the end of 1830, he began an explanation and review of the Bible.

Of his work after moving to the John Johnson home near Hiram on Sept. 12, 1831, he wrote, "From this time until the forepart of October, I did little more than prepare to re-commence the translation of the Bible." (History of the Church, 1:215.)The following is in the Church Educational System's Doctrine and Covenants manual:

"When the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith on 21 September 1823, he quoted passages from the Bible, but he quoted them with significant differences from the King James Version. Later, . . . while translating the Book of Mormon, Joseph learned that many `plain and precious things' had been lost from the Bible. (1 Ne. 13:25-29.) And after his baptism by John the Baptist, Joseph found his mind enlightened, and the `true meaning and intention' of the scriptures was revealed to him. So when the Prophet had finished translating the Book of Mormon, he turned his attention to the Bible.

"Although the word translation brings to mind the use of original texts and ancient languages, Joseph's work was to restore the correctness of the scripture by the power of the Spirit, not by scholarly interpretation. In June 1830 he wrote that `line upon line of knowledge' was revealed as he received the book of Moses (History of the Church, 1:98), which gave a correct account of what Moses had received of the Lord, but had not survived the ages intact.

"As he and Sidney Rigdon were working on the New Testament, the Prophet Joseph Smith recorded: `For while we were doing the work of translation, which the Lord had appointed unto us, we came to the twenth-ninth verse of the fifth chapter of John, which was given unto us. . . . Now this caused us to marvel, for it was given unto us of the Spirit.' (D&C 76:15, emphasis added.)

"Joseph's work of translating the Bible was a spiritual task. Later he studied Hebrew and German, but it was not that knowledge that provided a basis to correct the scriptures.

"Joseph Smith went through all of the Bible, dictating to a scribe changes, deletions, or additions, but he did not complete a revision of the entire Bible. He never considered what he had accomplished as ready for publication, and he probably would have made many more corrections had he lived longer."