✦Seek This Jesus

Reading guide · the conventions

How to Read this Edition

The reading is the Covenant Christian Edition — the Joseph Smith Translation reading — carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. A few conventions govern every section.

The text, and what is marked

The reading text is the Covenant Christian Edition, but the verse numbering is the traditional one — the chapter and verse you will find in an ordinary King James or standard Bible — so you can follow along in any Bible you have. Each section heads its columns with the traditional reference first; the Covenant Christian Edition numbering is shown beneath it, muted, for those who want it. Only substantive Joseph Smith Translation changes are marked — shown as a green insertion or a struck deletion, with no label. English that is only modernized (“Listen” for “Hearken,” “has” for “hath,” “you” for “thou,” spelling and punctuation) is folded into the reading and not marked.

The marks in the text

JST Green — Joseph Smith Translation
Where the Covenant Christian Edition departs in substance from the King James text and the change is in the JST (confirmed against the parallel-column edition). Modernized English (“has” for “hath”) is not marked.
CCE Burgundy — Covenant Christian Edition
Where the CCE’s reading departs from the King James but the change is not in the Joseph Smith Translation — the CCE’s own editorial reading (for example, “this day I have begotten you” at the baptism).
DS Plum — Testimony of St. John
The TSJ — a separate scripture text — and Denver Snuffer’s later commentary share the plum mark.

The three modes

  • Study — the reading text with the parallel Gospel accounts; changes available on toggle, inline or side-by-side.
  • JST — the text and its attributed changes only; parallels and cross-references hidden.
  • Read — scripture alone, with the change apparatus hidden for distraction-free, read-aloud sittings.

The order of commentary

Below the scripture, commentary always renders in the same order, themed to its author: revelations first (chronological), then Joseph Smith's letters, journals, and publications, then Denver Snuffer's revelations and modern references.

Cross-references

Each section's cross-references lead with the traditional reference and give the Restoration Edition reference in parentheses — Micah 5:2 (CCE 1:11). Where only the CCE reference is known yet, it is prefixed CCE, pending conversion. The Gospel & Messiah Harmonies supply the "Other Works" links, which are added to — never substituted for — a section's own references.