Sunday, July 23, 2023

Excerpts from Melvin J. Petersen's MA Thesis on Changes between the Book of Commandments and Doctrine and Covenants

  

WHY WERE CHANGES MADE?

 

The next part of this thesis will present available evidence to determine why the changes were made.

 

It should be noted that those who criticize changes in Latter-day Saint revelations base their views upon a fixed concept of how revelation comes. To them revelation must be dictated from God to man in such a manner that there should be no corrections, revisions, additions or omissions; all revelation is absolute, in the sense that once received the final word has been said; revelation is not the language of man but the language of God; hence man speaks the words God puts into his mouth. The words of God therefore are given to each prophet who in turn records them for the people to whom they were directed.

 

. . .

 

The question we need to answer is: what does God do in giving revelation and what contribution does man make in seeing that those instructions are given to the party concerned?

 

Brigham H. Roberts wrote an account of a senatorial committee investigating certain doctrines and teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The subject of revelation came up in connection with a discussion of the Manifesto. In referring to this he said:

 

When the subject of the Manifesto (the instrument of 1890 through which plural marriages were discontinued) was under discussion, one of the brethren chanced to remark that he assisted in framing the document for publication, correcting the grammar, without changing the sense or meaning. Then another senator put the question: “”You mean to say that in an inspired communication from the Almighty, the grammar was bad, was it? You corrected the grammar of the Almighty, did you?” (Brigham H. Roberts, “Relation of Inspiration and Revelation to Church Government,” The Improvement Era, VIII [1905], 358-359)

 

The Senator’s questions reflect the point of view that God reveals His words unto a prophet, and therefore any changes or corrections would be a reflection upon God.

 

. . .

 

Joseph Smith’s statement that Oliver Cowdery was assisting with the punctuation and spelling bears out that Joseph Smith’s grammar needed revision and was not that of God’s.

 

Brigham H. Roberts presented this same idea when he wrote:

 

. . . Where the Almighty uses a man as an instrument, the manner in which that revelation is imparted to men may receive a certain human coloring from the prophet through whom it comes. We know this to be true, because the message delivered to Israel through Jeremiah, differs in style of phraseology from that delivered by Isaiah, Amos, or Ezekiel. The inspiration of the Lord need not destroy the personality o the man through whom it is made. . . .And so there is nothing of weight in the phrase “correcting the grammar of the Almighty.” We do not correct his grammar. Perhaps the brethren made slight corrections in the grammar of Wilford Woodruff. The grammar may be the prophet’s, the idea, the truth, is God’s. (Brigham H. Roberts, “Relation of Inspiration and Revelation to Church Government,” The Improvement Era, VIII [1905], 364-365)

 

These ideas place the responsibility of clothing the revelations with language upon the prophet who speaks. The individual differences of each prophet would b recognized in his writings.

 

. . .

 

Truths from God often come in regard to circumstances of a particular time or period, and God speaks to men pertaining to those circumstances, revealing His aid unto them. As time passes people of later generations may not be familiar with the conditions of this particular period and fail to catch the meaning of the revelation. Brigham Young wrote:

 

When revelations are given through an individual appointed to receive them, they are given to the understandings of the people. These revelations, after a lapse of years, become mystified to those who were not personally acquainted with the circumstances at the time. (Brigham Young, “Remarks on a Revelation Given in August 1831,” Journal of Discourses, III, [1855-1856], 333)

 

Having developed the idea that Joseph Smith had the responsibility of furnishing words, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc., to the commandments accredited to him, it will now be feasible to determine what problems he faced when putting those impressions down in writing.

 

Joseph Smith’s formal education was very meager, and he was not a qualified grammarian. To write or dictate would necessitate assistance from some source with regards to spelling, punctuation, etc. Oliver Cowdery was one source of such help (Letter from Joseph Smith to Edward Partridge, Frederick G. Williams and others) and William W. Phelps was another. (Joseph Smith, “History of Joseph Smith,” The Latter-day SaintsMillennial Star, XX, [1891], 550)

 

It appears that Joseph Smith studied the revelations he produced, with the intention of making any corrections he felt were needed. At a special conference in November 1831, permission was given to Joseph Smith to correct the errors found in the Revelations, as directed by the Spirit. In the Conference minutes we find:

 

Remarks by Brother Sidney Rigdon on the errors or mistakes which are in the commandments and revelations, made either by the translation in consequence of the slow way of the scribe at the time of receiving or by the scribes themselves. Resolved, by this conference that Brother Joseph Smith, Jr. correct those errors or mistakes which he may discover by the Holy Spirit while reviewing the revelations and commandments and also the fulness of the scriptures. (“Far West Record”)

 

In the private journal of Joseph Smith, he recorded the following, December 1, 1832, “Wrote and corrected revelations.” (“Private Journal of Joseph Smith”) (Melvin J. Petersen, “A Study of the Nature of and the Significance of the Changes in the Revelations As Found in A Comparison of the Book of Commandments and Subsequent Editions of the Doctrine and Covenants,” [MA thesis; BYU, 1955], 128, 129-30, 131, 133-34)

 

Further Reading:


Biblical Prophets Changing their Words and the Words of Previous Prophets