A regular response to hearing about the new Spanish Translation of the Book of Mormon is: “I thought that it had already been translated”. This article will provide the reader with answers and examples of why a new translation is important and establish some history about the current translation(s), why a new translation is needed and how it is being done. In this article, I will give a number of examples of different types that should make it clear, at least initially, why this is being done. First, the copies of the previous printing are completely exhausted except for a few that people may find here and there in their personal libraries and will donate or sell them. There is an ongoing need for more copies, and that will not diminish. Second, if there are corrections that need to be made, it would not be wisdom to make another printing of that same edition. So, now is the time to do so.

A Little History

Brother Neil Simmons and I began talking about the need for an updated translation back in the 1970s when we lived in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. It would be more than 25 years later until we began working toward that end. We began working on translation projects near the end of the 1990s. At first, we had to develop specialized templates that would simplify the process. By that time, Patti and I were living in Oaxaca, Mexico and it was easy to find people who would help in proof reading short articles.

We quickly learned that we needed something more specialized than a word processor. We needed a “page layout” application. That meant money that neither of us had. However, we were blessed with a donation from the Dallas Restoration Branch with enough to make the purchase. By that time (2003) the first video conferencing for the Internet became possible. Both Neil and I began working together to write materials that would be translated into Spanish and other languages. Since that time we have literally spent thousands of hours working together via video conferencing, sharing complex documents over the Internet as well as more recently now, in classwork.

We began the work on the Book of Mormon by getting copies of the text of our editions.
One person that helped with this project was Brother Cliff Herod. He dedicated a lot of
time to this project and we are thankful for what he did.

Now a Couple of Examples

The following is an example that is easy to see. It involves the value of using “cognate” words. A cognate word is one that looks like its counterpart in the source language, and means the same thing. In 2 Nephi 2:27 the first part reads: “For this promise of which I have obtained of the Lord”. The word in question here is “obtained”. It has been variously translated in three different ways by different translations: “alcanzado”, “recebido” and “obtenido.” We chose “obtenido” because it is a cognate and means the same thing. The other two have varying shades of similarity, but obtenido easily fits the meaning with no doubt.

“it came to pass”

This phrase has been criticized for nearly two centuries for being too repetitive. Only
during the past few decades has it been discovered to be a Hebraism. In Hebrew, it is
just one word: “vayahee”. It is one of the words used to begin a sentence in Hebrew
since there is no punctuation in that language. This phrase has been translated into at
least eight different ways in the various Spanish editions:

The repetition in English provides an important and visible link with its Hebrew counterpart. By its translation into so many different ways, the clue to its Hebrew origin is completely lost. Soon we shall add, many more examples of why a new translation is needed.

Frank Frye