What Bible translations are accepted by Mormons?

Question

A comment to another question that I had asked said that the LDS does not accept the NIV as a correct translation.

Based on that comment it seems that they only accept King James Version (KJV) which, according to the Wikipedia article, is also known as King James Bible or Authorized Version.

The questions I would like ask are:

1. Is the KJV from 1611 the only translation accepted by Mormons, or are there other translations they accept, such as perhaps NKJV?
2. What Bible translations do Mormons use in countries where KJV does not exist in local language, such as Sweden?

Answer 1

According to a 1992 statement by the First Presidency of the Church:

Many versions of the Bible are available today. Unfortunately, no original manuscripts of any portion of the Bible are available for comparison to determine the most accurate version. However, the Lord has revealed clearly the doctrines of the gospel in these latter-days. The most reliable way to measure the accuracy of any biblical passage is not by comparing different texts, but by comparison with the Book of Mormon and modern-day revelations.

While other Bible versions may be easier to read than the King James Version, in doctrinal matters latter-day revelation supports the King James Version in preference to other English translations. All of the Presidents of the Church, beginning with the Prophet Joseph Smith, have supported the King James Version by encouraging its continued use in the Church. In light of all the above, it is the English language Bible used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

There are selections of the Bible translated by the prophet Joseph Smith, called the Joseph Smith Translation (JST), but this is not a separate translation of the KJV Bible, only corrections to some of the verses/passages. These are given in footnotes of the LDS edition of the scriptures, rather than as a separate book, because the number of changes is really quite small compared to the length of the full text of the Bible.

More information about the JST:

• https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/joseph-smith-translation
• https://history.lds.org/article/revelations-in-context-doctrine-and-covenants-joseph-smith-translation-bible?lang=eng

Answer 2

To add to Matt's answer,

The LDS Church's Eight Article of Faith states

We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

And also to requote a portion of the 1992 First Presidency statement that Matt quotes,

[I]n doctrinal matters latter-day revelation supports the King James Version in preference to other English translations.

None of these statements say that a single translation of the Bible for a given language is regarded as the "One True Bible" for that language. The comment your question is based on, which states, "LDS don't accept the NIV as a correct translation", is an oversimplification. The LDS Church believes any translation of the Bible as far as it is translated correctly; the English language Bible used by the church is the KJV because it has been found to be the most correctly translated.

In fact, there is a recent example of a top church leader using the NIV in an official church setting. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency (which is the church's top governing body) quoted four passages from the NIV (as well as several from the KJV) in a talk given at the church's October 2016 General Conference, the proceedings of which meeting are intended to be studied by all church members. If you visit the link, make sure to scroll to the bottom and click on "show references" to see which scriptures were used.

As far as which Bible versions are used for other languages, here is a link to the official list on lds.org. Specifically for Swedish, the version used is the Bibeln: Svenska Folkbibelen, 1998 edition published by XT Media.