LDS Spanish Bible out in September

Wow! “Spanish Bible to Benefit Millions of Mormons.” An official LDS-version of the Reina Valera Spanish Bible will be coming out in September.

The 2009 Latter-day Saint edition of the Spanish Bible is similar to the 1979 English LDS edition of the King James Bible, which, with its cross-references and study helps, made the scriptures much more accessible to English-speaking Latter-day Saints. This Spanish Bible project is one of the most significant scripture projects the Church has ever undertaken. The scriptural text of this new edition is based on the 1909 Reina-Valera Spanish Bible and is comparable in the dignity of its language to the King James Version of the Holy Bible in English.

There had been rumors of this for a few years now but so many poo-pooed the thought that the Church would bother with such an understaking, I didn’t think it was legit (also, see Kent Larsen’s “Why Not an LDS Bible in Spanish?“).

A spiffy preview of the new edition can be seen at SantaBiblia.lds.org.

Interestingly, it mentions that while the Church used the 1909 Reina-Valera edition, “[t]his text underwent a very conservative revision, focusing on modernizing some of the outdated grammar and vocabulary that had shifted in meaning and acceptability.”

Would the Church want to do the same with the English KJV? Plus, I also remember hearing talk of a new edition to the Book of Mormon that was presaged by the 2006 Doubleday publication which included a revised preface. Any idea if/when those will be coming?

(Possibly) Related posts:

1. “As far as it is translated correctly”
2. The English language now has one million words
3. “To Care For the Poor and Needy”