Scripture Difficultiesdoctrine-and-covenantstextual-historyrevelationbook-of-commandments

Changes in the Doctrine and Covenants

If revelations are from God, why were early revelations edited, expanded, and arranged as the Doctrine and Covenants grew?

Bible

The Bible answers

Bible · Jeremiah 36:32

KJV + NRSVUE

There were added besides unto them many like words.

King James Version
Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.

NRSVUE
Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the secretary Baruch son of Neriah, who wrote on it at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words of the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned in the fire, and many similar words were added to them.

Bible · Proverbs 4:18

KJV + NRSVUE

The path of the just shineth more and more.

King James Version
But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

NRSVUE
The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

Book of Mormon

Also restored

Doctrine and Covenants 1:24–28
Given in their weakness, after the manner of their language.
Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding. And inasmuch as they erred it might be made known; … and inasmuch as they sought wisdom they might be instructed.

Articles of Faith 1:9
He will yet reveal. A living book will show edits.
We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

Ancient witnesses

Dead Sea Scrolls and related extra-biblical texts that illuminate the same pattern the Restoration restores.

Biblical textual growth (Jeremiah MT and LXX)

The Masoretic Jeremiah is substantially longer than the Greek Jeremiah; both were received as scripture by communities of faith.

If a prophet’s book can exist in a shorter and a longer edition in the Bible itself, then the move from the Book of Commandments to the Doctrine and Covenants is not a uniquely Latter-day Saint scandal. It is how revealed texts live in a people. The Lord’s preface already said the commandments were given in weakness, in their language, so they could be instructed further.

Faithful answers

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Doctrine and Covenants as a growing canon

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Revelations were recorded, copied, and later prepared for print. Names were sometimes replaced with titles. Items about Church government were expanded as offices actually existed. Some oracles were combined. The 1835 edition included the Lectures on Faith in the same volume (later removed as not being revelations). None of this is hidden from anyone who reads a facsimile of the Book of Commandments beside a current D&C. A true and living church edits the minutes of heaven as it is taught. A dead church pretends its first draft was already a stereotype plate.

These commandments were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding.

Section 1 already theorizes revision: weakness, language, further instruction.
Expansion of priesthood-organization texts tracks the actual Restoration of offices.
Jeremiah’s ‘many like words’ added is the biblical permission slip critics deny only to Joseph.

Read the original

The Interpreter Foundation

Textual history of the revelations

The Interpreter Foundation

The Joseph Smith Papers have made the development of the revelations more public than most nineteenth-century churches ever were about their minutes. Using that transparency as an accusation is a genre of argument, not a discovery. What changed is often specification; what did not change is the voice that says ‘Hearken, O ye people of my church.’

A growing canon is the ninth article of faith in documentary form.

Critics quote the Book of Commandments as if Joseph had sworn it was the last word. He had not.
Light that shines more and more is a proverb, not a scandal.

Read the original

Keep going

Rate this answer

Be the first to tell us if this case is strong.