Episode 5: History of the Scriptures

**Brian Buchanan** (0:02)
It had been a pretty normal day at the bookstore. I was across the hall eating lunch. When I came back, there was a guy at the counter, and he started pulling clam shells out of his briefcase. So these are boxes that are made to hold rare books.
And what was fun is that they had the titles of the books on the spine. So he's pulled them out, and I'm like, oh, this is fun. It was mostly stuff I'd seen before, you know, a first edition of the Book of Mormon, first edition of the Pearl of Great Price, but then he pulls the next one out, and I see on the spine, Book of Commandments.
And I thought, there's no way this guy walks into the store for the first time and pulls out a Book of Commandments out of his briefcase.
So I said, did I read that right? Yep, can I see it? Yep, can I hold it? Yep, it was pretty wild. I was holding something that was the most valuable thing I had ever seen. What was it worth? Well, you know, more than a million dollars.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:58)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Brian Buchanan** (1:00)
And this is Brian Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:01)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Brian Buchanan** (1:29)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:34)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Brian Buchanan** (1:42)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:02)
Mormonism has been tough to define all through its history.
Many, most have just brushed it off as a cult or something weird. More recently though, scholars of religion have taken Mormonism a little bit more seriously, and some have gone so far as to classify it as a new world religion. Aren't we fancy?
Others in a less grandiose mood see it as a homegrown American religion, which I like because I like homegrown. At the core of this puzzlement is the concept of scripture.
Unlike many new religions, Mormonism is insistent on the idea of continuing revelation. To understand Mormonism, you have to understand that we're really big on continuing revelation, meaning that this isn't just pronouncements from prophets coming from a pulpit. It's printed, bound, canonized scripture. It's at the same time, the element of Mormonism that both captivates followers and alienates onlookers. For Christians particularly, this screams of hubris. How could you possibly have something that is on the same plane as the Bible? Mormons do, we claim our Book of Mormon is scripture. In this episode, we're gonna trace the history of the three scriptures that Mormons are really big on, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. We'll also talk about the other items that have approached the level of scripture. You know, things that we like to give to people, you know, like the Pope.

**Brian Buchanan** (3:31)
So think back to the episode we did on Joseph Smith's early vision.
And remember that in the early tellings of it, he experienced something on a personal level. He was forgiven of his sins and he experienced God personally. Within a few years, something much bigger comes along. A few years after that, clarified most commonly as 1823, Joseph Smith tells of a visit from an angel.
Who was it? If you ask any LDS kid in primary, they're like, oh, it's Moroni, duh. However, numerous early sources say that it was Nephi that visited Joseph Smith, including Joseph Smith's official history published in the church periodical at the time, The Times and Seasons.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:10)
Wait a minute, I've never heard this before, so Nephi, who is a character in the scripture, he's supposed to be the guy that comes first?

**Brian Buchanan** (4:17)
We have to change the lyrics of some primary songs and hymns and change some statues and we're nice kind of a big deal.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:24)
All right, you're kind of blowing my mind right now because like in my Mormonism, Nephi is painted in this sort of like muscle-y, like he's like this hot chiseled good guy. He's like the guy everyone wants to be. If he appears in my bedroom at night, I'm going to listen to what this man is selling.

**Brian Buchanan** (4:41)
Yeah, Moroni is this old guy kneeling on the ground next to the hole, so not quite as entertaining.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:53)