The Book of Moses

An Extract from the Translation of the Bible

Soon after the Church was organized on April 6, 1830, the Lord commanded the Prophet Joseph Smith to begin an inspired translation, or revision, of the King James Version of the Bible. Today this inspired translation, which the Prophet worked on until the time of his death, is known as the Joseph Smith Translation. The Prophet Joseph Smith restored to the Bible “many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord [which were] taken away” (1 Nephi 13:26; see also 1 Nephi 13:39–40). Between the summer of 1830 and February 1831, the Prophet completed Genesis 1:1 through 6:13, which is now contained in the Pearl of Great Price as Moses 1–8.

The book of Moses may be divided into two major sections: Moses 1, which relates experiences from Moses’s life that are not found in the book of Genesis, and Moses 2–8, which contains the inspired and restored account of events described in the Bible, including the Creation of the earth; the Fall of Adam and Eve; the story of Cain and Abel; the ministry, teachings, and visions of Enoch; and the story of Noah up to the time the Lord decreed the destruction of all flesh by the Flood. At this point, one must return to Genesis 6:14 for a continuation of the scriptural record.

In an introduction to Moses 1, the Prophet Joseph Smith (1805–44) wrote: “The Lord, who well knew our infantile, and delicate situation, vouchsafed for us a supply [of strength], and granted us ‘line upon line, here a little and there a little,’ of which the following was a precious morsel” (Manuscript History of the Church, vol. A-1, p. 48, note 64, josephsmithpapers.org).