Prior to 1979 there was not an official Bible translation for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A grassroots movement led to a desire to have a “Bible of [their] own,” and, in 1972, a committee was formed by the approval of Joseph Fielding Smith, then president of the church. The committee’s task was “to prepare a King James Bible which would include a standardized concordance, dictionary, atlas, and index and . . . have footnotes, ready references, and cross references related to other LDS scriptures.” The committee operated with the purpose of “assist[ing] in improving doctrinal scholarship throughout the Church.”