A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible" (2 Nephi 9:3) Lee Donaldson notes that the Bible's prestige was at an all time high in the United States as the Book of Mormon rolled off Grandin's press in 1830 (See Philip Barlow, Mormons and the Bible, 8). Although there were isolated attacks on its contents, its supreme authority in the United States was generally well-accepted.
The Book of Mormon, however, contained a disturbing insight--that the Bible came forth in purity from the Jews, but its plain and precious parts were taken away by the Gentiles "that they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men" (See 1 Nephi 13:25-29). Indeed, the Prophet Joseph Smith would declare in 1832 that "From sundry revelations which have been received, it was apparent that many important points touching the salvation of man, had been taken from the Bible, or lost before it was compiled" (History of the Church, 1:245). He declared, "I believe the Bible as it read when it came from the pen of the original writers. Ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests have committed many errors" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 327).
So what plain and precious parts were taken away from the Bible? What evidence do we have? How were they taken away? Bart Ehrman, an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, chronicles in his book, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, how the early Christian church changed many of the early texts of the Bible to fit its particular theology. He notes that there are 5,366 copies of the original New Testament texts that have survived over time. "Strikingly, with the exception of the smallest fragments, no two of these copies are exactly alike in all their particulars. No one knows how many differences, or variant readings, occur among the surviving witnesses, but they must number in the hundreds of thousands" (Ehrman, 27). He continues, "Scribes sometimes changed their manuscripts to render them more patently orthodox [i.e. they aligned them with their own theology] (Ehrman, 29).
One example will illustrate the point. Joseph Smith said on April 6, 1844,
I shall comment on the very first Hebrew word in the Bible; I will make a comment on the very first sentence of the history of creation in the Bible--"Berosheit" I want to analyze the word. Baith--in, by, through and everything else. Rosh--the head. Sheit--grammatical termination. When the inspired man wrote it, he did not put the baith there. An old Jew without any authority added the word; he thought it too bad to begin to talk about the head! It read first, 'The head one of the Gods brought forth the Gods.' That is the true meaning of the words. Baurau signifies to bring forth. . . . Thus the head God brought forth the Gods in the grand council. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 348).
If "plain and precious parts" were taken away from the Bible, then where are we to turn for truth after these deliberate corruptions of scripture? The Book of Mormon itself provides the answer--"For, behold, saith the Lamb: I will manifest myself unto thy seed, that they shall write many things which I shall minister unto them, which shall be plain and precious; and after thy seed shall be destroyed, and dwindle in unbelief, and also the seed of thy brethren, behold, these things shall be hid up, to come forth unto the Gentiles, by the gift and power of the Lamb" (1 Nephi 13:35). [Lee Donaldson, "Plain and Precious Parts," Book of Mormon Commentary, [www.ldsworld.com]] [See the commentary on 1 Nephi 13:25-29]