Elder Bruce R. McConkie has written concerning the problems of translation and transmission as follows:
“As long as inspired men are the keepers of holy writ; as long as prophets and apostles are present to identify and perfect the scriptures by revelation; as long as scriptural translations (as in the instance of the Book of Mormon) are made by the gift and power of God-all will be well with the written word. But when the gospel sun sets and apostate darkness shrouds the minds of men, the scriptural word is in jeopardy.
From Adam to Malachi, the ancient biblical word was in prophetic hands.
For the next three or four centuries, uninspired men kept the records, adding and deleting as they chose and for their own purposes.
During these dark days, apocryphal and pseudepigraphic writings-intermingling as they do the truths of heaven with the heresies from beneath-arose in great numbers.
And there were no prophetic voices either to condemn or to canonize them.”