As most of you know, Herald House is the publishing arm of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now the Communities of Christ). This volume is just one of several interesting and helpful studies from scholars in the Reorganization.

Restoration Scriptures offers a detailed, fascinating account of the development of the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Joseph Smith Translation. Howard documents his findings with photos of facsimiles of the original documents, and comparative, side-by-side columns showing the evolution of these Latter Day scriptures.

The most interesting section to me was the chapters covering the Book of Mormon. Beginning with the "D" manuscript (that dictated directly by Joseph Smith and recorded by his scribes), he shows how the scribes then emended the text (he calls this the "E" manuscript), which was then submitted to the publisher, who made further revisions, mostly in paragraphing and punctuation. Subsequent changes are tracked with some interesting historical notes.

Howard makes his views on inspiration clear at the outset. From the Foreword:

     Jesus Christ himself is the foundation of Christian faith. Christianity is a personal religion before it is anything else. Ancient Hebrews believed in a personal God. New Testament disciples responded to the call of a person in whom they recognized an authority exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees and who came to be known to them as "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:17, I.V.). The ministry of the Holy Spirit is a personal ministry, whatever may be the other functions of divine power.
     In response to this fundamental personal experience in which God confronts man through the Incarnate One, Christians have gathered together the prophetic traditions, historical accounts, and ethical interpretations pertaining to the revelation of God. By common consent and the formal action of certain historical councils, these materials have been canonized as the Holy Scriptures. This is a natural and desirable process. By so doing the accumulative records continually enrich man's growing understanding of his spiritual heritage.
     In the Restoration we participate in this process through the doctrine of "open canon." Without assuming the infallibility either of the documents or of our judgment of them, we nevertheless exercise the best wisdom we can bring to the situation and decide whether or not a certain matter presented to the church by its president is to be regarded as divinely inspired. Formal legislative acceptance and subsequent publication incorporates the document into the scriptural literature of the church.
     It is important to note that we have always distinguished between the experience of revelation and the recording of the experience. The record is not the revelation! But the record does preserve the verbal interpretation of the experience, enriching the understanding of those who study the record and offering guidance to those who share in the spirit of the original experience.
     The founding prophet stated for himself and for us the principle that we believe in the scriptures "insofar as they are correctly translated." It is equally important to qualify this belief with the condition: "insofar as they have adequately recorded the revelatory experience and are accurately preserved.

And in these words Howard lays down the rules for his study. He studies the scriptures from a critical standpoint, rather than from an awe-filled distance. He sees the evolution of the text as the result of the inevitable disconnect between the "experience" of revelation and the "recording" of that revelation.

His discussion of the development of the Inspired Version wasm filled with new information for me. The circumstances of the revision, the focus on certain parts of the Bible and the neglect of others, are interestingly presented. Pages 70-116 deal exclusively with the IV. Once again, parallel columns are used to demonstrate the evolutionary character of Joseph's revision.

Chapter 8 is titled "The Role of Committees in the Development of the Text of the 'Inspired Version'". It recounts an action affirmed at the April 1866 RLDS General Conference, where it was decided that the text of the IV needed revision. In several cases, it is shown where the committee chose a reading that was contrary to Joseph Smith's final choice before his death.

Restoration Scriptures is not pool-side reading. It is a serious and studious study the Restoration's unique contribution to the canon of scripture. Scripture students will find it to be a valuable addition to their libraries.

... Jeff Needle/jeff.needle@general.com