Preserving the Book of Commandments

Because of our location in time and good record keeping, we are privileged to have an up close and personal view of the production of modern scriptural canon. And it’s a bit of a rollercoaster! From its first publication in 1835 to its current version today the Doctrine and Covenants has undergone major additions, deletions, rearrangement, and textual changes to its contents. 

In this episode of Church History Matters we’ll take a ride through the history of this iterative production of the Doctrine and Covenants from its earliest 1833 version known as the Book of Commandments, to its 1835 version which added new revelations and 7 major theological lectures known as The Lectures on Faith, to the 1844 version which added a few crucial revelations and was the last version most of branches of the Restoration agreed upon after Joseph’s death, to the 1876 version which contained MASSIVE additions and rearranging, to the 1921 version which de-canonized the Lectures on Faith, and finally to the version we use today which underwent revisions as recently as 2013. So please keep your arms and legs inside at all times as we as we now embark on our tour of the ongoing story of the Doctrine and Covenants!

For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/