LDS Edition of the Scriptures

·  Publication of New LDS Scriptures (1979, 1981)

“The Latter-day Saint publication of the King James Version of the Bible and the new triple combination will all their helps are of monumental importance to all members of the Church. Everything that could be done has been done to help open the scriptures to members so that they might know the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“We hope to open a door and introduce to you a library of revelation and inspiration and light. One day, on your own, as an individual, you must enter there and study by yourself. Today we can but set the door ajar.

“Now we hope that you have a great desire to enter into this library alone and in quiet study and prayer receive the kind of revelation that comes when you earn it, when you’re reading the scriptures” (Elder Boyd K. Packer, “New Publications of the Standard Works,” Church Educational System).

·  “Holy Writ Published Anew” by Elder Bruce R. McConkie

We are grateful beyond any measure of expression for the excellence of our new editions of the scriptures. We feel that the three things that have happened in our lifetime which will do more for the spread of the gospel, for the perfecting of the Saints, and for the salvation of men are:

1.  The receipt of the revelation which makes the priesthood and the blessings of the temple available to all men without reference to race or ancestry;

2.  The organization of the First Quorum of the Seventy as the third great council of the Church; and

3.  The publication of the standard works in their new format and with the new teaching aids that accompany them.

We are somewhat saddened, however, that the generality of the Saints have not yet caught the vision of what our new scriptural publications contain and are not using them as they should. I hope and pray that all of us may have the spiritual maturity, and can attune our souls to the Spirit, so as to both understand and act upon the things I shall say relative to the holy scriptures.

Our tendency—it is an almost universal practice among most Church members—is to get so involved with the operation of the institutional Church that we never gain faith life the ancients, simply because we do not involve ourselves in the basic gospel matters that were the center of their lives.

We are so wound up in the programs and statistics and trends, in properties, lands, and mammon, and in achieving goals that will highlight the excellence of our work, that we “have omitted the weightier matters of the law.” . . .

Never since the day of Joseph Smith; never since the translation of the Book of Mormon; never since the receipt of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants and the inspired writings in the Pearl of Great Price—never has there been such an opportunity to increase gospel scholarship as has now come to us.

This opportunity arises for two reasons: One is the new teaching aids that have been made a part of each one of the standard works. The other is the imperative need, because of textual and other changes, for all members of the Church to reread and re-mark for reference all of our four volumes of scripture as they are now constituted and in their new format. . . .

Without question our latter-day scriptures are in a more nearly perfect form now than they have ever been since the beginning. . .

I feel very strongly, and have rejoiced individually, in the testimony that has been borne of the productiveness, of the spirit, the wonder and the glory that has attended this near-ten-year project [i.e. the work of issuing the new LDS scriptures] that involves all of the standard works of the Church. I have no language which indicates how strongly I feel and how much I am assured that the work that has been done will benefit the members of the Church and the host of people who yet will hear the message of the Restoration. . . . The Lord’s hand has been in it. . . .

More has been done in the last ten years to make all the standard works available for intelligent use by us and by our fellow laborers, than at any time since their original publication. The new footnotes, the new chapter and section headings, the other concordance-type indexes are all better than any like material ever before published by us or by anyone else. . . .

I own an 1879 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. It is the copy of Julina Lambson Smith, who is my wife’s grandmother; she was the wife of President Joseph F. Smith. I also have, in the same edition, the copy used by President Joseph F. Smith himself. From a standpoint of sentiment and of feeling, I could make a good case in my mind for using these books, because of the heritage, as it were, that they have. But the revelations in these editions do not have one single footnote; there is not a single cross-reference. There are no teaching aids. There are some brief, single sentences at the head of the sections which simply say, “Revelation given through Joseph the Seer at Kirtland, Ohio, June 1831.” I also have the copy my wife gave men when I went on my mission; it has been rebound and recovered three times. It has been in every state of the union, and in many of the nations of the earth. I could make a good case for using that book—but again, the improvement in the teaching aids that are a part of the new LDS editions of the scriptures are so great that by using them I can increase the rate with which I learn about the gospel.

We have in these new editions the best teaching aids that have ever been devised to include in any set of scriptures. And we have them because we have as much, or more, of the scholarship of the world than is found anywhere else. Far more important than that, however, we have them because we are members of the Lord’s Church, and we are his agents and his representatives and we are in his business, and he has given us the spirit of inspiration so that right things can be done.

I am grateful to have been a part of the work that has made these standard works available. I just paraphrase Brother Packer’s language when I say I don’t think there will be anything in my ministry among men that I will do that will have a more far-reaching effect than what is involved in preparing and disseminating these new LDS editions of the standard works. And I would like to offer a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord for the inspiration that he has given and that has attended this work. It was commissioned in the days of President Harold B. Lee; it has come into fruition under the guiding hand and with the approval and encouragement of President Kimball. It will rank supreme, in a sense, and superlative above almost anything else as the periods of time roll on. (Address, Regional Representatives Seminar, 2 April 1982 as found in “Sermons and Writings of Bruce R. McConkie, Bookcraft 1989, 236-46).