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 as we get into it, 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, rearrangements, and textual changes. In today’s 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 seven 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 the 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 decanonized the Lectures on Faith, and finally to the version we use today, which underwent revisions as recently as 2013.

This is the sixth episode of our 10-part podcast series on Joseph Smith's Revelations and Translations. For a full transcript of this episode, as well as show notes and additional resources, visit our website at https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.o...

You can also subscribe to our podcast via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and other platforms, and follow us on popular social media platforms. Visit https://linktr.ee/churchhistorymatters to connect with us.

Originally published September 26, 2023

DISCLAIMER: While we try very hard to be historically and doctrinally accurate in what we say on this podcast, please remember that all views expressed in this and every episode are our views alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Scripture Central or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.