Top LDS Church authorities have approved translation of the Book of Mormon and other of the faith’s scriptural works into dozens of additional and often rare languages.
The Utah-based faith’s governing First Presidency spelled out the news in a letter this week to regional and congregational leaders.
Receiving translations of the Book of Mormon, the church’s signature scripture, for the first time will be speakers of Burmese, Georgian, Navajo, the Micronesian language of Pohnpeian, and African tribal dialects including Efik, Sesotho and Tshiluba.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has translated the full Book of Mormon into 90 languages (selections are offered in 21 others) since the work was first printed in 1830, also will offer its “Triple Combination” volume in 34 new languages, including Arabic, Greek, Afrikaans, Farsi, Turkish and numerous African and Asian dialects.
This Triple Combination includes the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price.
The additional translations, once published, will bring to 115 languages in which portions or complete copies of the Book of Mormon are available.
In the Oct. 9 letter, signed by LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson and his counselors, Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf, the First Presidency noted that such projects “typically require several years of careful work with the scripture texts.”
The leaders encouraged the nearly 16 million Mormons worldwide to “use the scriptures in regular, personal and family study” as well as congregational meetings.
As work on the new translations proceeds, completed portions will be released “from time to time” via the LDS.org website and the church’s Gospel Library mobile app.