Translation efforts for the first Portuguese Book of Mormon began in 1937. Concerns that the resulting volume incorporated Catholic doctrine were largely overblown, but the book nonetheless suffered from many translation errors and doctrinal simplifications. As a result, the First Presidency created the Church’s Translation Department and catalyzed the retranslation of the Book of Mormon into several other languages to serve Mormonism around the world. In this interview, Jeremy Talmage discusses the history of translating the Book of Mormon into Portuguese.
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Read more about the Portuguese translation of the Book of Mormon in “‘Injected Some Catholic Doctrine’: The Portuguese Book of Mormon and the Standardization of Scripture Translation”.
Why did you study the Portuguese translation of the Book of Mormon?
I served a mission in southern Brazil as a young man and have had a love for the history of the Church in that country ever since. I also work for the Church History Department documenting Church history throughout Latin America. Back in 2017, I first became aware of correspondence between William Seegmiller and Church headquarters regarding issues with the translation of the Book of Mormon into Portuguese and began at that time to investigate the subject in earnest.
Who was William Seegmiller?
William West Seegmiller was the president of the Brazilian Mission from 1942 to 1945. As a young man, he served in the German Mission and later as the president of the Western States Mission. He was a trusted ecclesiastical leader sent to Brazil to see the Church through the Second World War.
Why was Seegmiller concerned about the Portuguese Book of Mormon in 1943?
Seegmiller’s instructions were to safely evacuate the remaining North American missionaries from Brazil when their service ended and close the mission down. Shortly before the last missionaries departed, they reported discovering “a great many very flagrant errors in doctrine” in the Portuguese Book of Mormon.
Seegmiller also heard rumors that the translation was done by a female Catholic scholar and an apostate who intentionally “injected some Catholic doctrine” into the Book of Mormon.
Why was the Brazilian mission originally a German language mission?
The South American Mission started in Argentina after a handful of German immigrants petitioned for missionaries to be sent to teach their friends. Looking for other lost members and new areas to expand the mission, German-speaking missionaries crossed the border into Brazil in 1928.
At the time, nearly two hundred and fifty thousand Germans called Brazil home, most having moved there due to the intense economic inflation that followed the First World War. Clustered in tight-knit communities, Germans were able to preserve their language and culture.
With very few members or missionaries who spoke Portuguese, the Church struggled to expand. For over a decade, German remained the official mission language.
What led to greater use of Portuguese in the Brazilian mission?
Following a failed coup attempt in 1938, Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas issued a series of edicts aimed at punishing German immigrants whom he blamed for supporting efforts to oust him from office. Included were prohibitions against teaching or publishing in any language other than Portuguese.
That same month the mission assigned the first Portuguese-speaking Elders, though, for the most part, the Church continued as it had until 1942 when the Brazilian government issued a definitive decree outlawing the use of German in public places after a series of Axis U-boat attacks along the Brazilian coast.
At this point, the mission began to only proselyte in Portuguese.
When was the Book of Mormon translated into Portuguese?
The translation of the Book of Mormon into Portuguese started in the fall of 1937 and was completed in December 1939. Due to a paper shortage created by the war, the first copies were not available until March 1940. Even after publication, the translation was not widely used until after the Church ceased missionary work in German.
How was the original Portuguese translation of the Book of Mormon created?
The Portuguese translation of the Book of Mormon was a combination of two independent translations. The first was led by Daniel Shupe, a member of the Church who had moved to Rio de Janeiro to work for the U.S. State Department. He was assisted by his wife “Guida” Agda Viera Shupe and her mother, Maria Viera, both elementary school teachers. Shupe did the bulk of translating with his wife and mother-in-law assisting with Portuguese grammar.
Most of the errors were simple translation mistakes.
A second independent translation was completed by Williams Lane, a contracted professional translator affiliated with Mackenzie College in São Paulo, a Presbyterian school founded by Lane’s grandfather. Mário Pedroso, a student of Lane’s, served as the editor charged with combining the two translations.
What Portuguese translation errors worried Seegmiller?
Seegmiller suspected that “Catholic doctrine” had found a way into the Portuguese Book of Mormon text and that the book taught “the wrong conception of Deity and the Godhead.”
He identified four specific examples and predicted that “a great many more mistakes” would be discovered.
These included:
- Omitting a verse about the great and abominable church
- Using a common Catholic expression
- Denying the doctrine of baptism by immersion
- Teaching that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were a single being.
How serious were the errors?
Most of the errors were simple translation mistakes that had only a minor impact on the interpretation of the Portuguese Book of Mormon text. For example:
- The missing verse was an unintentional typesetting error.
- The supposed Catholic expression had been imagined.
- The denial of the doctrine of baptism by immersion was overstated.
However, the Portuguese translation did add the word “being” to some verses about the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being “one,” though it did not do so consistently.
How did the First Presidency react to Seegmiller’s concerns?
Church officials were greatly alarmed and deemed it “unwise to distribute books containing such flagrant errors,” given “the translation regarding the Godhead and the ordinance of baptism.” Seegmiller suggested destroying every available copy of the Book of Mormon in Portuguese, but the First Presidency urged caution and instead suggested including notes in the margins to clarify mistranslations.
In their reply, they promised to take steps to retranslate the book.
How successful were efforts to retranslate the Book of Mormon into Portuguese?
Despite the desire to have the retranslation done by a committee in Salt Lake, the lack of capable bilingual speakers eventually necessitated moving the effort back to Brazil.
The responsibility fell to two American missionaries, brothers Harry and Raymond Maxwell. They found the task more difficult than they imagined and struggled to teach correct Latter-day Saint doctrine without altering the text.
Translators now receive specific instructions on how to “preserve the doctrine” of the English text.
Ultimately, they concluded the problem was not the translation but the theological simplicity of the Book of Mormon itself. A revised edition appeared seven years after their translation, only to be replaced five years after that with another completely new Portuguese translation.
Why did the Seegmiller letter spark retranslations in other languages?
Up until this time, Church leadership had only been minimally involved in the translation of the Book of Mormon. Seegmiller’s letter raised the real possibility that doctrinal errors might exist in other translations as well.
Almost immediately, apostolic advisers were assigned to translations then in progress, and shortly thereafter, new retranslations were started in German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, and French. The translators hired at this time would later become the Church’s Translation Department.
How did creating the Translation Department expedite the Book of Mormon translation process?
The Translation Department has created lexicons, guides, and computer programs to streamline the once laborious process of translating the Book of Mormon. This systematization has greatly improved speed and accuracy. Additionally, translators now receive specific instructions on how to “preserve the doctrine” of the English text.
Today, the reach of the Book of Mormon is greater than ever before, in no small part due to the reforms this incident produced.
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About the Interview Participant
Jeremy Talmage is one of the foremost experts about the translation of the Book of Mormon into Portuguese, and has published ““Injected Some Catholic Doctrine”: The Portuguese Book of Mormon and the Standardization of Scripture Translation” in the Journal of Mormon History. Talmage serves as the Latin America and Caribbean Global Group Manager in the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also holds a BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Utah in International Affairs and History, along with a graduate degree in Religion from Yale University.
Further Reading
- Global Mormonism: Latter-day Saints Around the World
- What Have Scholars Learned About the Book of Mormon?
- How Did the Church in Brazil Shape the 1978 Priesthood Revelation?
- What Stories About Brazil Does Saints 3 Share?
- What Was Joseph Smith’s Translation Process for the Book of Mormon?
Brazil and Portuguese Book of Mormon Resources
- “Injected Some Catholic Doctrine”: The Portuguese Book of Mormon and the Standardization of Scripture Translation (Journal of Mormon History)
- Brazil: Facts and Statistics (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
- The Maturing of the Oak: The Dynamics of Latter-day Saint Growth in Latin America (Dialogue)
- The Church in Brazil: The Future Has Finally Arrived (Ensign)
- Translation Division Relies on Spirit, Training to Capture Meaning in Work (Liahona)
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