Before 1981, the Book of Mormon was simply the Book of Mormon; since then, however, it has borne the subtitle “Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” I suspect that this addition had several purposes. First almost certainly was to draw attention to Christ in a church that many consider non-Christian.[1] Second would be to clarify the relationship of the book to the Bible: not a replacement, but An Other Testament like the Old and New ones.
Growing up, I always read “testament” as “testimony”: in Mormonsprach, a declaration of faith in Jesus Christ or some aspect of His Gospel. Just as I or any other Mormon might testify of Christ’s atoning power, the prophets in writing scripture did the same thing. This, I believe, is how most Mormons read the Book of Mormon subtitle and the subdivisions of the Christian Bible: the Old Testimony, the New Testimony, and the Other Testimony.
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