Customer Reviews

The Joseph Smith Revelations: Text and Commentary

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This volume is a record of the revelations received by Joseph Smith which were included in the original "Book of Commandments". It compares the original published revelations with what we have today in the LDS and RLDS "Doctrine and Covenants". Marquardt details what changes were made, when they were made, and where appropriate, adds his own commentary on the changes.

Each revelation has cross-references to the appropriate Section number in today's version for ease of comparison.


To correct the previous reviewer's comments, this is not about the Book of Mormon.

Retired civil servant and independent historian H. Michael Marquardt presents The Joseph Smith Revelations Text & Commentary, a thoughtful and insightful examination of how canonical Mormon text - indeed, the revelations of Joseph Smith himself - have allegedly been revised and altered in significant ways, an issue visibly noted as early as within Oliver Cowdery's 1835 letter to Bishop Newel K. Whitney, which complained that "the original copy of... The Law of the Church" had substantial alterations from its 1831 rendition. Marquardt advances to the viewpoint that when studying church documents, one should be avoid assumptions of absolute infallibility, but instead explore a dynamic model of revelation, and scrutinize how the text is transformed over time. An in-depth, scholarly, and thought-provoking analysis of doctrine, policy, and history, The Joseph Smith Revelations Text & Commentary is an absolute "must-have" resource for college libraries and private collections featuring extensive studies of Mormon religious belief and history.

This book is yet another fascinating study between Joseph Smith's words versus those finally printed in the Book of Mormon. A very interesting read.