Wednesday, July 11, 2018

D&C 107 and the longevity of the Patriarchs

One question I have long had relates to D&C 107:41f and the impossibly-long ages of the figures (e.g., Adam; Seth; Enos) that appear to affirm the equally impossibly-long ages of these figures from the genealogies in Genesis.

My own potential response to this question (I am sure others have had this one, too) is that this is reflective of the “loose” nature of revelation, wherein Joseph Smith “expanded” upon the concepts revealed to him (while I don’t think it holds up for the Book of Mormon, I do believe Blake Ostler’s “expansion theory” of the Book of Mormon can be transposed to the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants), and so, Joseph inserted his own patriarchal genealogy into the revelation.

Furthermore, it should be noted that this section in D&C 107 is a later insertion. One can see pp. 122-23 of Revelation Book 1 which lacks this entire section with section 3 of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants (which corresponds to our modern D&C 107), wherein Joseph “expanded” the original text of his revelation, something biblical prophets did to their own revelations and/or the revelations of previous prophets, adding to the potential "pseudepigraphic" than "historical"/"literalistic" nature of the ages of the patriarchs, at least in my opinion.