THE RETURN OF THE INTREPID MONK, YUANZANG, TO CHINA
As this study continues, it will resume the life and adventures of Yuanzang and the Tang dynasty in China under whose government Yuanzang lived. The appointment of Yuanzang, when he was twelve years old, to be a monk, seriously obligated him to the Tang Emperor. It had nearly cancelled his intended travels west on the Silk Road, but he was pulled by a unique destiny and he went anyway. When he returned 20 years later, it was to honor and respect. The Tang dynasty had its set-backs with rebellions, the An Lushans in 755, the Huang Chao and his peasant army in 880, then insurrections broke out virtually everywhere at the beginning of the tenth century; the dynasty was swallowed up. China was divided again and for the next fifty-three years, the north was ruled by the Five Dynasties (Liang, Tang, Jin, Han and Zhou), and the south was ruled by the Ten Kingdoms. A little known general founded the Song dynasty in 960 AD re-united the empire. Then for three centuries the Chinese shown with an incomparable brightness. But 'Barbarians' who peopled the north and west cast covetous eyes towards the riches in China. On the northern border lands the Khitan had set up their own empire, from the far north came the Mongols under Gengis Khan. They occupied China and imposed their law until 1271 when Koubilai, Gengis Khan's son-in-law, founded the Chinese Yuan dynasty which lasted a hundred years. (Meyer pp. 162-163)
MARCO POLO, AUREL STEIN, YUANZANG AND THE SILK ROAD
It was in 1271 that Marco Polo on his way to China followed the same part of the road that Yuanzang ascended over the upper reaches of the Oxus River and over the Pamirs to Kashgar, on his return to China. Marco followed the same established road over the highlands and mountain areas of the Hindu Kush and Karakoram into western China. (Wriggins pp. 168-169; Watters fold out) The high pass near the Pamir Knot is 16,880 feet. Marco Polo called it "the Roof of the World." (Wriggins p. 170) Yuanzang may have taken another pass when he passed over the Pamirs in mid year of 644 AD, but it would have been no less in altitude. Yuanzang had rested for a month at Tash-kurghan where there was an old monastery associated with the monk Kumarajiva, one of the great translators of Mahayana Buddhism. Yuanzang had made a pilgrimage to Kumarajiva's birth place on his way to India years before. ( Wriggins p. 171) Aurel Stein, the famous Central Asian archaeologist, traveling in the footsteps of Yuanzang in 1900-1903, detailed the Silk Road journey from Tash-kurghan, where there was a very impressive and massive Chinese Fort on top of a butte near the river in the vast valley on the arduous road to Kashgar. (Stein pp 93-97) When he arrived in Kashgar, Yuanzang would rest for a short while. His twenty year and 10,000 mile journey was nearly at its end.
RECENT CHINESE HISTORY
After 1328 AD, secret societies including the Red Turbans and the White Lotus, instituted general uprisings. One of the poorest of the poor took the throne and became the Emperor Hongwu, first of the fabulous Ming dynasty in 1368. Some of the Ming Tombs are spectacular Archaeological sites. But adventures and western exploration was coming to the coasts of China, everything was going to change, and not for the better. China had aroused the admiration of Portuguese and Spanish traders on account of its power and wealth-this was to be China's undoing- and also that of the Italian and French Jesuit missionaries, for their learning and institutions. The corruption of the court motivated rebels that came out of the depths of Sichuan taking over several provinces in 1640 and Peking in 1644, only to have their victory snatched from them by a loyalist general who opened the way to the throne for the Manchu Qing dynasty lasting 266 years. The first emperors, Kangzi, Yongzhen and Qianlong, peaked in glory then fell into a slow decline from 1795 to 1911 when revolution established the republic. The western powers and Japan were instrumental in bringing about the ruin and decadence of the Chinese world. The rest is history. It was not until Mao Tse-tung and the advent of the People's Republic, on October 1, 1949, that China began to find her place in the world once again. All was nearly lost during the 10 year cultural revolution but after 1979 China began its slow emergence into the modern world and today threatens to become the largest, wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth. It has the resources and people to do so, but may lack leadership and internal order and spirituality to really achieve its objectives. But internal changes in China may permit it to emerge as a powerful influence on earth. And the Bible may be the main lever in making this possible. Opposition is terrible and great, but in the long run it cannot and will not win.
THE JOURNEY OF YUANZANG TO KASHWA (KASHGAR), YOKTAN AND LOULAN
On his return journey to China in 644 AD, Yuanzang followed the road that went across the desolate Chickiklik high plateau, passing the western slopes of the massive dome of Muztaugh-Ata, the second tallest peak in the Pamirs at an elevation of 24,388 feet. He recorded seeing the cloudy vapors soaring up and coming into contact with the rocks, the sheer cliffs and imposing height . On the summit was a magnificent tope or stupa said to have been built in memory of an arhat or devotee, of the Lord Buddha who had lived his life in a trance. From there Yuanzang descended into the far western reaches of China and reached Kashwa (Kashgar) by way of the River Gez. He was back again among the living with abundant fresh produce available. Kashgar was then under Chinese administration of the Tang period. In Kashgar there were hundreds of Buddhist monasteries with more than a thousand monks, most of the realist Hinayana school. He may have visited most of the important sites of which only two remain today. Yuanzang recorded his impressions of the luxuriance of fruit and flowers, variety of produce and goods, which he greatly enjoyed, and the people who have green eyes, suggesting the Sogdian or East Iranian origins of some of the population. DNA varieties were already well dispersed in Chinese peripheral areas with considerable influence from India. Continuing southeast on the Southern Silk Road his next goal was the largest and most beautiful oasis of Khotan, (Yoktan). This large oasis was located at the western end of the great Tarim Basin and the Taklamakan Desert at the base of the Runzun Shan mountains. Hearing of his coming the King went forth to escort the famous traveler into the capital city in September 644. There he stayed at a Hinayana monastery. (Wriggins pp.171-173) In Khotan there were more than 100 hundred monasteries and more than five thousand monks, chiefly Mahayanist, all eager to be taught. Here the weary traveler could rest, learn and teach and recuperate.
The King himself claimed to be a descendant of Vaisravana, a Buddhist deity of northern India. Around Khotan there were many artifacts of various materials and statues including an illustrious Udayana statue commissioned by the king of Kausanbi while the Buddha was still alive. It was said that a pilgrim had brought the statue carrying it by day, but the statute carried the pilgrim by night. A thousand years had intruded on history enveloping it in the mists of time. I had desperately wanted to visit this region, but at the time conditions in China ended my travel plans.
Yuanzang enjoyed nearly eight months at Khotan, a city of great fame. The king had invited him to stay, he accepted the invitation, besides, he was waiting for the arrival of replacement copies of some of the scriptures he had lost in the Indus River and along the way. "This was the third time he had waited for replacements of the lost manuscripts, he stayed two months at Hund waiting, a month at Kunduz waiting, and now many months waiting in Khotan. This sheds light on the high value he attached to bringing a complete library of original sources back to China. " (Wiggins p. 177) Concerned how he might be received by the Emperor when he returned to the capital at Chang du (Xian) he wrote a "memorial" and sent it ahead by a Turfan trader going east to the capital. He wrote of his intense, exhaustive search for Buddhist and other learning, of the sublime words of the scriptures, and the essential philosophies and doctrines he had acquired and was bringing back, and outlined his travels across the vast plains of shifting sands, over precipitous mountains covered with snow and along the tumultuous waves of the lost sea. He had beheld the Ghridrajuta Mountains, worshipped at the Bodhi tree, seen and heard things not seen or heard before, and won for the Emperor high esteem and praise of the people. Locally, he visited the sand buried ruins of earlier grandure of Dandan Oilik, Rawak with its five story high white stupa, and Niya, all three of these, among others, were to be made famous by the explorer and archaeologist Aurel Stein when Stein retraced the route of Husan -tsang (Yuanzang) in the winter of 1900-1901. (Mirsky pp. 154-173; Stein pp 222, 269, Stein was to discover many manuscripts and especially wooden tablets that had already been buried centuries before Yuanzang visited the old and remaining sites). For nearly twenty years Yuanzang had been an avid learner and translator, now he was the teacher. "Over one twenty-four period he lectured to the king and his people on his old favorites including the writings of Vasubandhu, an early realist of the Hinayana school, the compendium of Mahayana philosophy translated by Paramartha in 562 C.E. and the Fourth Commentary the Tuoi-fa (Abidhyarma) which was quite popular. For him, the Upanishads were for kindergarten students. But it was his non-Buddhist documents that he brought back that would be of utmost importance in the future of China because they would confirm a restoration of lost doctrines had occurred and a great prophet, Joseph, had arisen who restored truths of old.
After eight months a messenger arrived from the Tang Emperor who was now seemed aware of some of Yuanzang's conversations with king Harsha and his contribution to the Tang China's good relations with the king of Middle India. It had been king Harsha who had given Yuanzang an elephant for his journey in the Pamirs. The Tang Emperor wrote that he had ordered the authorities of Kustana (Khotan) and the other regions to escort Yuanzang and make sure he did not lack for carriers and horses. Yuanzang greatly appreciated this, because while at Khotan the lost copies of documents had arrived, it would require twenty horses just for certain Buddha documents let alone those of Christian related sources and other religions. The Emperor also told him that officials at Tunhuang (Dunhuang, the area of the Cave of 1000 Buddhas) and Shanshan (Charkhliik) and Chemo (Cherchen) would receive him well. (Wriggins pp. 182-184) Yuanzang continued his journey on to Loulan and then on to Dunhuang. Abundant help was provided all along the way at nearly every oasis. He was already becoming a legend.
RESTING AT THE DUNUANG OASIS (THE CAVES OF ONE THOUSAND BUDDHAS)
The personal record of Yuanzang's Silk Road journey closes when he reaches Laulan, but he wrote the Emperor a second letter at Dunhuang. He explored many of the grottos, towering Buddhas, some nine stories high, and enjoyed the library of the monks who were there. In Cave 103, some respecting monk painted a scene from Yuanzangs caravan before the elephant given him by King Harsha was drowned on the way down from the Pamirs from Kashmir and portrays the intrepid pilgram giving thanks for a safe journey. (Wriggins p. 183) Little did the pilgrim realize that a vault would be carved from the solid rock behind a three story sitting Buddha that would house a library of 36,000 scrolls, many of them translations and copies of documents he had gathered during his fabulous journey west, some with his signature on them showing he had translated them himself. (Hopkirk p. 1654) Marco Polo would camp at a spring near the same Buddha more than 500 years later, but the scrolls, placed in the vault about 950 AD during wars between Tibet and China would not see the light of day until nearly another 1000 years, in 1907 when Aurel Stein would negotiate with the caretaker of the three story Buddha who had found the vault behind it, for 25,000 of the scrolls. (Klimkeit 1982) The others would disappear for nearly a century in the countries of the far east. I obtained a copy of along scroll of Manichian doctrine which I use in many of my lectures. (Listen on my web site einarerickson.com to my CD'S: THE MANICHAEAN DISCOVERIES and CAVE OF THE 1000 BUDDHAS)
THE GREAT TAKLAMAKAN (LOP NOR) DESERT
The Great Taklamakan desert extends across the southern half of the Ksinkiaing Highur Autonomous Region, between the T'ien-shan and K'un-dun ranges. There are many oases along both the northern and southern routes which borders the desert where wealthy cities and small kingdoms once flourished. Tun-huang, in the northwest corner of Kansu Province, is a desert haven that served as the Chinese entrance and exists for this great cultural artery. The Tun-huang commanderry was established during the reign of Wu Ti of the Former Han. It was there that Buddhism left northwest India and passed across Central Asia. The Northern Wei authority reached the city in 440 AD and by 581-618 the Sui and Tang had established close ties with Central Asia. Tibet wrested control during the Tang weakness of 781 AD, which only lasted seventy years when Chang I-ch'ao regained control for the Tang. He became the Imperial Commissioner in Command of the Loyalist Armies and de facto ruler, a hereditary title until the Highurs and Hsi-hsia overran Tun-huang in1035 AD, when the cultural activity in the region came to a halt. Not until Stein (1907) did the fortunes of the area turn around. The Tun-huang Cultural Research Institute was established in 1944, and was reorganized under the Communists in 1951.
THE CAVES OF 1000 THOUSAND BUDDHAS (TUN-HUANG)
Along one stretch of 120 foot high cliffs stretching for nearly a mile there are more than 600 remnants of 1000 caves with tier after tier of rock-cut shrines, paintings and sculptures that cover more than twenty five kilometers, with a total of 3,378 sculptured figures of which 1313 are in nearly pristine condition. The first cave seemed to have been dug into shortly after 300 AD. Lo-ts'un may have been the first monk that started the whole thing. The varieties of art represented in the vast array of caves and massive Buddhas provides the basis of serious studies in the evolution of Buddhism and Art in the entire region. (Akiyama pp. 9-10) In a trip to Japan and China in 1981, to research the missing scrolls and other sources, I had visited a book store that has been recommended to me as a possible source of Tun-huang and early Buddha histories, but went away empty! But the impression was so strong that I should return, that I did go back and looked carefully at shelves of books that were not on display or easily available, and found a huge tome by Akiyama, lying flat with a sun bleached cover, it had been in a window display for a very long time and was bleached out by sunlight and never been purchased. Waiting for me to come by? Exactly what I was looking for, and that same hour I found another book I needed concerning the history of Buddhism in the first years after the death of the Buddha. (See my CD's on China) While in China my wife and I had visited another great cave temple complex, the Lung-men Caves, these were quite spectacular. (Akiyama pp. 141-153) These caves were just beginning to be carved about the time Yuanzang returned to the Capital city of Changdu (Xian) "on the seventh day of the first month in 645 AD." (Wiggins p. 186) The work done in many of the colossal caves of China was made possible by the tremendous creative power of the newly-risen To-pa race. Over the life span of the caves it was clear that the cave style changed from a Western expression to a Chinese one, reflecting the changes in Buddhism. (Aikyama p. 22) "West Central Asia (Sogdiana and Bactria) , present day Afghanistan, and, to the east of the Pamirs at the foot of the Tien Shan Mountains, East Central Asia (the Tarim Basin, in the Chinese province of Sinkiang) all became centers of Buddhism during the first thousand years of our time. From the seventh century AD onwards however, Islam started to advance eastwards and progressively conquered these territories. Their inhabitants were converted and their monasteries and stupas fell into ruins or were buried by the sands." (Gaulier p. l) Today there are one billion Islamic people, with fifty- five nations dominantly Islamic. The extremist among them are shaking the world, one of the great oppositions to the restoration.
ANCIENT SOGDIANA, TASHKENT AND SAMARKAND
At the beginning of the first millennium AD the creation of an empire united by the Kusanas led to an unprecedented increase in commercial activity largely because the caravans were at last provided with safe routes. For centuries the presence of the Kusana empire in North Western India and its dominion over the neighbouring territories created conditions favorable to the arts, culture, the propagation of ideas, and extensive trade. (Gaulier p. l) In 1984 I had accepted an offer from the Soviet Government to visit Samarkand, Tashkent, and Sogdiana. Sogdiana had been destroyed by the Islam conquests of the seventh century, eastward and northward but was never rebuilt, so a pristine ruin was available for excavation. "the first missionary translators in China were mainly Sogdians and some Yuehchih and Parthians, who arrived from the Western Countries in 148 AD." (Gaulier p. 2) Among the first documents from the massive scroll collection found at Tun-huang that were translated were Sogdian scrolls. They had interesting parallels to the restored doctrines. (See my CD's on China and Russia) Russian archaeologists excavating at Sogdiana had found leather bundles filled with manuscripts that could still be read by those of Sogdian origin, published in Russian they have not yet become available in English.
The account of the life and contribution of Yuanzang will continue in PART 5, and an outline of the importance to China and confirmation of the restoration many in the documents he brought back with him will be provided. But now, the little known account of the preparation and publication of the unique LDS edition of the King James Bible will help lay the foundation for details to come in PARTS 5 and 6 of this series of the importance of the new editions of all the standard works and scriptures.
THE LATTER DAY SAINT EDITI ON OF THE KING JAMES BIBLE
To prepare China for the gospel more had to be accomplished. After the restoration had been in progress for more than 140 years some extremely important changes were in the making that would alter the status of the standard works forever. A great step forward had been the 1920 Editions of the scripture. In 1917 Cambridge University Press published an edition of the King James Bible prepared for LDS Church members which had the notation on the title page: "Specially Bound for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...Ready References ... Designed especially for the use of Missionaries and the use of other students of the Scriptures," establishing an early relationship with that honored press. The collection of ready references contained 103 pages of material related to the Articles of Faith and various gospel topics by subject. (Woods p. 279)
Elder James E. Talmage, during his preparation of his masterpieces on Jesus the Christ and the Articles of Faith, had compiled many biblical references, he had further developed this effort into a sort of Ready Reference compendium that were included in the issuance of the 1920-1921 revisions and republishing of the church standard works. Under the encouragement of President Heber J. Grant, with an on-going relationship with Cambridge University Press, Talmage had arranged for the publication of a missionary bible that contained the references which "supported a number of Latter- day -Saint doctrines...This was about the only thing available for maybe ...upwards of fifty years that tied LDS doctrine to the KJV...Desert Book published this version of the Bible and referred to it as the missionary edition during this period of a half century." (Woods pp. 270-271) In the early 1970's, George A. Horton director of curriculum production and distribution for the Church Educational System and Grant E. Barton, a member of the newly formed Meetinghouse Library Committee, began discussions about the need for one Bible to replace three different bibles in use at the time; one for adults, one for seminary students and one for Primary children. This was neither efficient nor cost effective. Clearly, with the prompting of the Spirit they undertook a survey to develop ideas about an ideal bible and all that it ought to include. They took their survey results to Daniel Ludlow, then director of Church correlation. Ludlow had been thinking along the same lines, so he "made a proposal to the Brethren that maybe the time had come when the Church ought to produce its own Later-day Saint edition of the King James Bible. ..it went to the Missionary Department, and Elder McConkie...and onto the Missionary Committee ...chaired by Spencer W. Kimball." (Woods pp. 260-261) The wheels had been put in motion. About this time, the Brethren had determined that the standard works would become the textbooks for the adult curriculum of the Church, which they hoped would lead to better gospel study and more devout dedicated Saints. A lot of minds and circumstances were being divinely guided to the same great objective.
THE COMMITTEES
A Bible Aids Committee was formed with Elder Thomas S. Monson as Chair, Elders Boyd K. Packer and Marvin J. Ashton as members. Ashton was soon replaced by new Apostle, Elder Bruce R. McConkie. Then three Brigham Young University professors were called to assist: Ellis T. Rasmussen, Robert C. Patch and Robert J. Matthews. These three were tasked by Elder Monson "to help people understand the Bible." To prepare a Bible which would include a standardized concordance, a dictionary, an atlas, and an index and would have footnotes and cross-references related to the others LDS scriptures. Elder Packer admonished. "I can reduce your assignment to one word, simplify." (Woods pp. 261-262) The new version was to be printed in such a way that the ordinary man could afford them and handle them. (Woods p. 263) But it was a daunting assignment.
Elders Monson was an expert in printing, Elder Packer was a teacher and well versed in scripture, Elder McConkie was extremely familiar with scripture and doctrine and all possessed marvelous judgment. These three supervised the entire project. They set up a committee that included responsibility for page layout, format, style of type and everything related under President Monson. A committee of three men worked under Elder Packer on the Topical Guide. Elder McConkie directed chapter headings, the use of the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) and the Bible Dictionary. All of the chapter headings prepared were taken to the temple meetings for the Brethren to approve. Everything, before it was set in type, was officially approved by the Brethren. They had the insight, inspiration and the revelation to do what needed to be done, and they worked efficiently and effectively. (Woods p. 263)
The work was well underway in 1971 and 1972, they developed the program for collecting data for cross-references, subject index systems and concordance systems. Eldon Ricks, a BYU religion professor from 1949 to 1981, had been working on a project to get all of the standard works on punch cards, racks and racks and racks and racks of punch cards. Computer science was in its infancy, but Rasmussen contacted the Language Research Center as well as the BYU translation Services Department, where Daryl Gibb arranged for their computer specialist Steve Howes to work with the unique project. He reduced all racks of punch cards to single disk! (Woods pp. 264-265) From then on it was full speed ahead. Howes used the large BYU computer, an IBM 360 that cost millions of dollars. It occupied a full room inside the administration building, The Memory bank was a whole megabyte and as big as a car. Today you could put all that was done on something you can barely even see! Howes worked most of the time from l a.m. to five or 10 a.m., saving 90 % of the cost, but permitting constant access to the computer. Howes came to recognize there was "a divine timetable for the LDS Bible project. ..the hand of the Lord was in everything that we did..." (Woods p. 166-167) The Lord had prepared all of the technology for the project to happen and he [Howes] more than just 'happened'' to be available. Eventually more than 110 students and members of seven university stakes would also be involved.
A LEGALLY BINDING CONTRACT
At the first meeting of the Bible Aids Committee, held on January 3, 1973, Rasumussen entered notes and continued to do so for each of the meetings for the next three years. Nine days after the meeting, Roy W. Doxey, dean of Religious Instruction at BYU, told the full-time faculty about the project and invited them to support Rasmussen and Patch, jump starting the programs for collecting data. Robert Matthews was soon after invited to join the Bible Aids Committee. Under the direction of Elder McConkie Matthews used his broad gospel knowledge to create and develop the Bible Dictionary. "Shortly after the Church announced the publication in late August 1979, it was noted that 'the Bible Dictionary, all 296 page and l,285 entries, was mainly the responsibility of Brother Matthews.'" (Woods p. 267) The church had received permission from the Cambridge University Press to use its excellent dictionary. There were many things that had to be changed, but they were willing, and they gave permission to use their Bible dictionary and make whatever amendments needed to be made; a great concession on their part. Any part that needed to be preserved could be used or cut out and they could modify everything that according to LDS revelation was incorrect and incorporate whatever Latter-day revelations ought to be included. Mathews also had a leading role in incorporating the JST into the project. All excerpts from the JST were approved by the Brethren. Included was anything that was doctrinal, anything that was necessary in the Old Testament to help understand the New Testament, anything that bore witness of Christ and the Restoration, or clarified the role of the tribe of Joseph and the work of the Lord in the Last Days, and anything that was clarified in the JST which no other scripture could clarify. (Woods pp. 264-269) Matthews had been researching the JST since 1967 and had a very good relationship with the RLDS scholars, the John Whitmer Historical Association and the Mormon History Association, and had obtained permission to publish selections of the JST. When granting the permission they said, "The good news is that the First Presidency of our [RLDS] Church has give [n] permission for you to use this material...The bad news is that there is a fee attached...[of] one dollar, which made it a legally binding contract." (Woods p. 270)
"The same kind of congeniality shown by the RLDS Church was exhibited by the Cambridge University Press staff in their association with the LDS church over several decades. ..They didn't want to lose the business and so they were very anxious to continue to work with us, because it meant a pretty good-size volume of business for them" (Woods p. 270) So said Rodger Coleman, publishing director for Cambridge, and he noted that "Cambridge rarely set a new bible for a completely new version and that this was probably the first time we have ever set and produced a Bible in collaboration with and under the primary direction of an outside publisher." (Woods p. 271) This arrangement of an experienced Bible publisher and a church with ultimate authority over its own scripture is particularly fruitful because the combination of the two qualities means a better result than either could achieve alone. (Woods p. 271)
Few Latter Day Saints are aware of just how comprehensive the new LDS Bible version is. It was a huge project, gathering talent wherever they could. Rasmussen was an expert in Hebrew, Patch the same in Greek, they left their editorial fingerprints on many page of the LDS Bible. Cambridge owed much of their success to the skill in typesetting, editing, and printing of Derek Bowen, an injured WWII veteran who was an expert in the King James Bible. He proof-read and edited the new bible. Bowen was the detail man right from the word go, and Geoff Green of Cambridge was the ultimate designer. For the LDS, the chief editor and proof reader was Eleanor Knowles, executive editor at Deseret Book, one of the very finestof editors, who also worked on the Topical Guide and the Triple Combination for most of 1978 and 1979 in liaison with Cambridge. Cambridge had set a limit of five hundred pages for the Topical Guide, but just when it came time to print they found a thinner paper so the Guide could be expanded to six hundred pages. This was needed because George J. Horton assigned to the topic of Jesus Christ required eighteen pages with 58 categories for that topic alone. The Topical Guide reflects the central message of the Standard Works, the atonement and mission of Jesus Christ. The Mormon are the ultimate Christians. Even the experienced editorial eye of Elder Monson, prompted, he said in a grateful prayer, caught an error as he walked along the press line, which was corrected on the spot. (Woods pp. 274-275)
Elder Packer, in the fall of 1982 speaking of the coming forth of the new editions of the scriptures, including the Quad where the stick of Joseph was finally bound with the stick of Judah, in 1981, noted: "These references form the four volumes of scripture constitute the most comprehensive compilation of scriptural information on the mission and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ in the history of the world. The work affirms an acceptance of, a reverence for, and a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ." (Woods p. 275) Two Seminary teachers, Kelly Ogden, who spent several years checking the cross references, even recruiting his wife to help him, and Tom Sederberg, who worked for six years on the project, got married and with his wife to help him, worked for thousands of hours to finish the work. (Woods p. 275)
Elder Monson predicted. "History will ultimately record the details, the triumphs, and the struggles of this publishing saga, but for the present, may I simply say that through great personal effort on the part of many individuals over a long period of time , coupled with modern technology and, especially divine guidance, the church now has new editions of the scared scriptures available." (Woods p. 276) The Church then Published the First LDS Edition of the Bible. (see Levina F. Anderson, Ensign, October 1979, 9) See also The Promised Day, in the book by Heidi S. Swinton: to The Rescue: The Biography of Thomas S. Monson, Deseret Book, 2010. ( Turley pp. 107-108) "With the completion of the1981 edition of the Book of Mormon as a companion to the 1979 Latter- Day Saint edition of the Bible, the new Bible and triple combination (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price,) fit together internally...and the four books of scripture [the Quad] could be "one in the...hand" in a way they had never been before." (Turley p. 113)
"On October 2, 2010, the documentary That Promised Day: The Coming Forth of the LDS Scriptures was shown between LDS general conference sessions on BYU Television. This production of BYU Broadcasting and Martin Anderson Productions reveals more of the inspiring story of the coming forth of the LDS edition of the King James Bible, and it is available on the Internet at http://www.byutv.org/watch/2039-100." (Woods p. 280)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AIKMAN, David, Jesus in Beijing, Regenery, Inc., Washington DC, 2003
AKIYAMA, Tereukazu, & Saburo Matsubara, Arts of China, Buddhist Cave Temples, New Researches, Kodansha International, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, 1972
GAULIER, Simone, Robert Jera-Bezard, & Monique Maillard, Part One, Buddhism in Afghanistan and Central, Asia, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1976
HOPKIRK, Peter, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road, University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 1980
IKEDA, Daisaku, Buddhism the First Millennium, Kodansha International Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, 1977
JACKSON, Kent P., Ed., The King James Bible and the Restoration, RSC Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 2011
KLIMKEIT, Hans Joachim, Manichaean Art and Caligraphy, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1982
MEYER, Charles, China Observed, Gallery Books, New York,1986
MIRSKY, Jeannette, Sir Aurel Stein, Archeological Explorer, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998
SKINNER, Andrew C., A Bible fit for the Restoration, CFI, Springville, Utah 2011
STEIN, M. Aurel, Ruins of Desert Cathay, 2 Vols. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1987
WATTERS, Thomas, On Yuan Chang's (Yuanzang) Travels in India, Royal Asiatic Society, London, by Munshi Ram Manohar, LAL NAI, Sarak, Delhi, India, 1961
TURLEY Jr., Richard E. & William W. Slaughter, How we got the Book of Mormon, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2011
WOODS, Fred E., The Latter-day Saint Edition of the King James Bible, in JACKSON, Kent P., Ed. , The King James Bible and the Restoration, RSC Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 2011
WRIGGINS, Sally H., The Silk Road Journey with Xuanzang, Westview Press, Persus Books Group, Boulder, Colorado, 1996