Scripture Reviewed | The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; containing revelations given to Joseph Smith, the Prophet, with some additions by his successors in the presidency of the church

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to be congratulated for its latest edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. My personal copy of this volume—happily, a gift from Dr. Robert J. Matthews of BYU—is in a handsomely crafted combination of three LDS scriptural works: the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. The first aspect of this newly published compilation of the records of some of the revelatory experiences of Joseph Smith, Jr., is its readability. When compared with any previous edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, this present edition is vastly superior in several ways: 

— The large, clear, crisp, bold type is a welcome change from earlier editions. This is true not only for the body of the text but for the footnotes and italicized introductions as well. The much larger type was made possible by reducing the margins all around, by increasing the vertical space used for printing from 6″ to 8V2″ and horizontally from 37/s” to 5J4″, and by increasing the number of pages from 257 to 294. If church members do not study this volume more diligently than ever, such neglect will not be due to any failure by church leaders to give them an eminently legible text. 

— The footnote/cross-reference system at the bottom of the pages is far more usable than in previous editions. An example of this improvement is section 101, which in previous editions contained sixty-six footnote references, arranged sequentially below the text in alphabetical order. The first twenty six carried letter designations, from a to z. The next twenty-six were indicated by numeral/letter symbols from 2a to 2z. The final fourteen were marked 3a-3n. All of those notations were laid out horizontally across the entire page in very tiny print, making meaningful use of them problematic to say the least. That notation system had been used in every printing since the 1921 edition. 

The 1981 edition, by welcome contrast, arranges the notes in three columns beneath the text, uses much larger type, and keys each notation to the verse or paragraph as numbered in the text. For example section 101:25 has four notations—a, b, c, d—with fourteen references in all, to all four scriptural works and to the Topical Guide. The entire section contains 124 notations, most with cross references far exceeding in number those appearing in earlier editions. Clearly, painstaking work has been done on the system of notes and cross references. 

— While former editions featured a large index and concordance its range of entries was much smaller than that of the 1981 edition, and its references were limited to the Doctrine and Covenants itself. In the new three-in-one edition of 1981, the index is comprehensively cross-referenced to each of the three books within its covers. Again type and format refinements make the new index far more usable than in former editions. 

As in previous editions, this volume offers the “chronological order of contents” as a way of explaining why some sections appear out of sequence. The new volume continues to date section 10 as the summer of 1828 although some notable evidence supports a date in May 1829. The new edition also lists section 99 as given in August 1833, in Hiram, rather than Kirtland, Ohio. Section 137 is shown in the chrono logical table bearing the date of 21 January 1983, although its place in the book is following the document from Brigham Young, given some eleven years later at Winter Quarters. In the heading of section 137, there is no indication of its introduction into the publishing editions for the first time—some 140 years later. The new chronological table includes two other documents added in more recent years. First, section 138, which Joseph F. Smith recorded in October 1918, was accepted by the General Authorities a few days later but not added to the canon until the late 1970s. The last one to be added is the “Official Declaration #2 ” dated June 1978 and accepted by the general conference on September 30 of that year as the word and will of God. 

This procedure is somewhat similar to the RLDS practice: each inspired document prepared by the prophet-president is . submitted to the quorums, orders, and councils of the church and also to the delegations sitting in World Conference for their action on it as embodying the word and will of God. 

Many refinements and corrections in the section headings make this edition more accurate and reliable historically at those points of revision. Barbara and Scott Faulring noted many of those revisions in the 24 August 1982 issue of Seventh East Press, which nicely complements the statement in the “Explanatory Introduction” that the revisions reflect information in verified historical documents. 

Four historical maps by the BYU Geography Department, located between the final document and the Pearl of Great Price, are a splendid addition, offering specific help to students wanting to know the locations of various place names in the text. These are “The New England Area,” the “The New York-Ohio Area,” “The Missouri-Illinois Area,” and “The United States in 1847,” showing the Mormon trail from New York (1830) to the Great Basin (1847). 

The relationship between the Book of Commandments (Zion: W. W. Phelps & Co., 1833) —the unfinished, and therefore unpublished first compilation of records of Joseph Smith’s revelations—and the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, is much less satisfactorily set forth in this edition than previously. The earlier work is now treated as published although typesetting had actually stopped at the bottom of page 160 in the middle of 64:36 when a mob destroyed the press on 20 July 1833. The previous editions referred to the unfinished Book of Commandments but made no reference to the substantive editing and revision of many of the documents, including such sections as 1, 5, 7, 8, 10, 20, 27, 42, and 51. This new edition, sadly, makes no reference to these things either. While it is understandable that lack of space precluded extended treatment of the publication back ground, it would have been appropriate to include at least some reference to the matter, if only in an explanatory footnote. 

In the interests of historical considerations, the omission of code names formerly found in section 78—even though the omission is explained in the introduction — is to me a notable loss. In the earliest editions the Church leaders so identified by these symbols were not revealed. Later editions bracketed the modern names after the code names. Present and future generations will not even be aware that those code names were used, or why. The RLDS Church has handled this matter by giving the modern names in the introduction to section 78 (77, RLDS). 

One historical help to the student of the LDS Doctrine and Covenants in future editions would be a table in addition to the chronological table, which would show the relationship of each section to previous editions back to the 1835 edition. Thus, the student could see that some twenty-six documents were added to the 1876 Salt Lake City edition and that several others were omitted. That in itself is an important development of this book of scripture. 

The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; containing revelations given to Joseph Smith, the Prophet, with some additions by his successors in the presidency of the church (Salt Lake City, Utah: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981), 294 pp., $7.85 economy, unindexed, regular print; $11.75 large print; also available in standard and deluxe styles.